Chapter 119 — Diving within
Elara fumed with rage as she walked towards the camp, leaving behind a trail of blaze that withered all the plants and stream.
She flipped the tent, uprooting it, tossing it to the side.
Ester and Aria hurriedly sat up, utterly confused. They had been resting.
She flung her hand blasting the place as debris scattered everywhere.
Aria ducked, instinctively clutching onto her baby bump.
"What the actual hell, Elara?" Ester shouted, scrambling to her feet amidst the chaos.
Elara marched straight towards Aria, her eyes blazing.
"You conniving bitch!" she yelled, grabbing Aria by the collar and shoving her against the remains of the bed.
Aria winced in pain, trying to push Elara off. "Have you lost your damn mind, Elara? Get off me!”
Ester pulled Elara away from Aria but she had her pinned with her eyes.
“Shut up!" Elara screamed, her voice shaking with fury. "This is all your fault! It's because of you!”
“ What's my fault? ” Aria asked, trying to stand up.
“David's been taken… He has been taken to the dark dimensions! ”
Aria's eyes widened in shock. “David? What are you talking about?"
Ester turned Elara around to face her, forcibly.
“ What did you say? ”
“ They trapped David using the Ritual of the Maidens with all those lost women from your kingdom. I have absolutely no access to him. They shoved him to the dark dimensions! ”
Aria walked towards them and turned Elara around again to face her.
“ What do you mean? ” She repeated as if nothing was penetrating her senses.
"You know exactly what I mean!" Elara spat, pushing Aria harder.
Ester tried to grab her but Elara shrugged off Ester's hands, her glare fixed on Aria. "You brought this on us! The Darkness followed you, and now David's paying the price. ”
Aria's face finally crumpled with tears. “ No! This can't be! They cannot capture David… ”
The image that she had seen in her vision was playing itself on repeat.
“Don't play dumb!" Elara roared, shaking Aria violently. "You were always trouble, always.
Since the day you were born.
You brought misery to your family and now David.
David's gone because of you, and you have the nerve to act innocent?”
Ester finally pulled Elara off Aria and shouted, "That's enough, Elara! Blaming Aria won't bring David back. We need to figure out a plan, not tear each other apart.”
Elara's eyes flicked between Ester and Aria, filled with fury and despair.
"And what if he is being killed as we speak, huh? Because of her? Have you ever heard of anybody escaping the dark dimensions? No! ”
Aria fell to the ground and started sobbing, holding her head with both hands.
Elara scoffed at the sight, “ Just look at this bitch! Still trying to garner sympathy…David's gone…You get me? ”
"Elara, please…!”
Ester stood between them, her voice steady but firm. "We cannot live on probability. Nothing is lost until it really is lost. Pull yourself together. I need the whole picture."
Elara's anger gave way to exhaustion, her shoulders slumped. She whispered, tears streaming down her face as she broke down.
"I just... I can't lose him all over again. I just found him after so many years and now…"
Ester put a hand on Elara's shoulder. "We won't. But we have to do this together.”
***
The battle was abandoned by the werewolves the moment David was captured.
The lycans retreated with a much greater wound than their physical one.
They dragged themselves in as the gates around the kingdom closed. The entire lycan nation went into mourning and it seemed like true darkness had engulfed the entire land.
Sebastian and Ester sat with Elara late through the night.
It was difficult to keep Aria away but they waited till she was asleep.
They mixed a sleeping pearl with her milk and forced her to fall asleep. She had been paranoid all day, weeping and crying relentlessly. She kept begging Elara to tell her what she knew about her and her past but Elara dismissed her stating that it was just an angry outburst.
“ You are saying, Aria has a part of the darkness inside her and you had warned David against it? ” Ester asked as she fidgeted with the paperweight.
“ True but destiny caught up real quick! Faster than I had anticipated. The Darkness will not stop unless it reclaims what belongs to it. Our focus must be on saving David and not her! ”
“ What was it that you were saying about her past? ”
Ester asked, completely ignoring her last remark.
“ I don't know much but she had a twin who died and now she is back… the only way it is possible is if she died at the hands of the darkness… which would be a terrible end. The border between our world and the netherworld is very sensitive. It's not possible for everyone to randomly cross over. It has its price that needs to be paid. ”
There was heavy silence in the room broken by the creaking of the chair as Sebastian pushed himself back. He still walked with the help of clutches but his self-healing mechanism was kicking off.
He leaned back, staring at the ceiling.
“ Now that you mention this, I do remember Arabella talking about that fateful night when their father was almost ready to murder Aria while she was still a baby. He was scared by the prophecy of the Witches and taunting and threats from his own people. ”
Ester turned around listening to him with attention and did Elara as well.
“ But then they discovered their other sister dead. They had no explanation for the sudden death and in that room, only the two babies were present. Arabella had noticed that their cribs were interchanged and there was no way they could have changed that themselves.
Arabella had been forbidden by their mother to talk about it. Now that I think about it, it does feel like she knew something about it.
She didn't mourn the death of the other daughter. Her focus had always been Aria. And only Aria alone!”
“ What are the ways to get to the dark dimensions? Maybe we should focus to tracking this Ava and capturing Lucas or whatever is inside his body and torture them into spilling some beans. That's it! ”
She smacked the table as everything on it jumped a little before settling down.
Elara scoffed, “ Do you think I would have flipped if it was that simple? ”
She turned towards Sebastian and added,
“ But we can try… ”
“ Can? No! We must… ”
***
Little did the trio know, a pair of eyes had been constantly watching them, listening to each word.
l
Aria listened to everything they said. She strained her ears to listen to their voice, her heart almost stopping with each revelation.
She turned away from the door and began to make her way back to her room, each step heavier than the last.
The effect of the potion that she was fed was finally taking over.
The hallway stretched before her, a dim tunnel that seemed to grow longer with every faltering step. Her vision blurred, edges of reality fraying at the seams.
She could hear the distant murmurs of the three of them, oblivious to her struggle. With nothing but sheer willpower, she managed to reach her room. She fumbled with the door handle, her fingers numb and uncooperative.
Finally, the door swung open, and she stumbled inside. The familiar surroundings of her sanctuary felt alien and cold. She staggered to her bed, collapsing onto the soft mattress.
Her breathing was ragged, the potion’s grip tightening around her consciousness. Aria’s eyes fluttered as she fought to stay awake, her determination a flickering flame against the encroaching darkness.
“I have to… remember…” she muttered, her voice slurred and weak.
But the magic was too strong. It pulled her under, a relentless tide dragging her into the depths of sleep. Her eyelids grew heavy, her limbs were like lead.
She tried to reach out, to grasp at the threads of her thoughts, but they slipped through her fingers.
Finally, she could fight no longer. Her body went limp, and she collapsed fully onto the bed, the world around her dissolving into nothing but utter blackness.
In the void of her unconsciousness, shadows began to rise and stir. Whispers echoed in the dark corners of her mind as they pulled her in their midst.
The voices she didn’t recognize yet felt intimately familiar. Images flickered in the gloom…glimpses of a past she had forgotten, or perhaps never truly known.
As she lay there, lost in the abyss of sleep, a new awareness began to bloom within her.
The darkness was no longer just a distant threat. It was a part of her, woven into her very being. And in the depths of her dreams, it began to awaken.
Perhaps ready to reclaim what it had lost.
Unbeknownst to the others, Aria’s journey into the heart of the darkness had already begun.