Traveler - The Price (Book 3)

Life has a bad habit to make you surprises when you expect them less. Some of them are blessings, they thrill you, help you, make you happy, but what happens when you realize that nightmares are dreams too?

I opened my eyes when the car was shaken by a pit.

“We’re close” says Ivy.

“How can you tell?” asks Andy.

“I memorized the map, remember? I took some landmarks. The building where we’re supposed to do the spell is here somewhere, near this lake. In our right are cliffs, in front, I see a forest, on the left is the lake…”

“So, we’re walking from here?” asks Deby.

“It seems so” I said.

We got down and took our guns. I hesitated for a second.

“What is it?” asks Aaron.

“It was too easy. I think something bad is waiting for us” I add.

I took his hand, and I told the others to stop.

“I want to say something, and I believe Deby will agree too. We are the main characters in this. We are supposed to do this spell, and I don’t see the point of you putting yourselves in danger. Something bad is waiting for us there, I can feel it.”

“I agree” says Deby.

“No way!” yells Aaron.

“We all walked this road together, and if something happens we will be there with you!” exclaims Andy.

“I promised I will always be by your side, and there’s no way you can make me stay here this time!” says Aaron. “Whatever happens next, I want to be there.”

After that overwhelming speech, he kissed me. It felt like a goodbye kiss, a thing that was making me go crazy.

“I just have this feeling, like something is about to happen” I say.

“Of course! We’re going home! We will make things right!” says Ivy.

I was sure I didn’t have that feeling just for the sake of having it, but I didn’t say anything more. I followed Ivy on the path. There was a ruined building in the center of a meadow. That was the place showed on the map, according to Ivy’s memory. I approached Deby, and I whispered in her ear a thing that made her nod her head as an approval.

I had taken a little bottle from the car, and I took it out from my pocket. I cut my palm, and I let some blood flow inside it. I closed the bottle, and I tore a piece from my shirt. I was struggling to bandage my hand when Aaron took the bottle away from me.

“What are you doing here?” he asks me.

“I’m taking precautions” I say.

“You don’t need this. It’s going to be okay.”

“I hope so too, but if something happens, Deby will have the blood and will be able to do the spell even without me.”

He looked at me seriously and took my piece of shirt, and then he tied it around my hand. I took him by his cold hands, and I smiled at him.

“We’re so close. It’s a little bit left until everything is going to be over and I can’t believe it’s true.”

“We will end it soon, and the world will be as it was supposed to be, and then what?” he asks sadly.

“What do you mean?”

“Meaning, we got this far, but no one ever thought about what will happen next. What does mean coming back to normal? We will just land where we were before? How is it going to be?”

“Whatever is next, we will make it right!”

“I will find my way back to you if we’re going to be separated!” he says.

“You better do that…” I whisper.

I felt fear in his voice, and I saw it in his eyes too. I had a feeling that Aaron didn’t want that badly to make things as they used to be for he was afraid not to be sent separately where we belonged.

“Let’s finish this!” says Deby.

I ran after her. She made a face when she saw me with that bottle, but she understood the purpose I had it there. That building looked more like a warehouse for it was made of concrete and it was ruined inside and empty. The others were behind us, but when they got closer, something blocked their way to us. Deby and I were sitting where it was supposed to be the door.

“That was the only way I could keep you guys away from us” she says.

“What have you done?” shouts Andy.

“Why can’t we get further?” asks Aaron.

“I did a protection spell. You will be away from this place until it’s all over” she explains.

“I can’t believe this!” yells Ivy.

“Quiet! You can’t change anything now, so try not to expose us!” says Deby angrily.

“You’re shouting at us after what you did?!” says Aaron between his teeth.

Deby walked inside, and I wanted to follow her. I heard a noise behind the warehouse, and I turned around.

“What are you doing? Come on!” says Deby.

“I thought I heard something” I whispered.

I looked around one more time, but I didn’t see anything. I made a step, but I blocked in front of the entrance. I wanted to walk inside, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t get in there.

“What the hell?” says Deby.

She rushed to get out, but she couldn’t do that. Then I realized I didn’t give her the bottle with my blood. I tried to throw it to her, but nothing was passing through that entrance.

“What the hell is happening?” she shouted.

Her voice alerted the others, who started screaming at us. Deby didn’t do that spell, and something was telling me that I was about to find out who was the author of that spell. I heard again that noise, which kept me out from that warehouse earlier. I turned around.

“Well, this is what I call luck!” says Aura getting close.

Deby looked at her stupefied.

“I wanted to catch all of you inside, but you made it so easy when you kept the others there and left Josephine out!” she laughs to Deby.

I threw the bottle near the entrance. Aura noticed it, and with a wave of her finger, she threw it and smashed it on the wall. The blood spilled.

“Run, Jo!” shouts Deby.

Aura started laughing. She had me exactly where she wanted me. I took my gun, and I shot at her, without second thoughts. The problem was that she had her powers fully charged and she deviated the bullet at me. I threw aside to save myself, and it hit the wall. I remained there with the gun in my hand, but I didn’t know what to do with it. That problem was solved in a short time because I felt how it was pulled out from me and I saw it in Aura’s hands. She threw me a fake smile and started shooting after me. I began running in all directions, hoping she wouldn’t hit me. At one point, the shooting stopped. She ran out of bullets, and she started running after me.

“I will try to break the protection to get me out of here! I can’t stop my spell if I’m in here! It doesn’t work!” shouts Deby.

“Hold on!” screams Ivy at me.

Aura was laughing hard, and I couldn’t understand why. I felt lifted off. So, I knew she had been playing me all along, and I was under the impression the game wasn’t finished yet. With a wave of her hand, she threw me back to the warehouse, hitting me on the wall.

“I wanted to wait and surprise you. I found out the spell can be done only with your blood, so the fact that you’re here helpless and all alone makes it so much easier! I will get rid of you, and then I will make the spell. Is that simple!” she says.

“Why haven’t you killed me back then? Why so many games?!”

“Because if I would have killed you then, there was a chance for your friends to find me and stop me. But now, everything is beyond perfect!”

Deby was struggling so hard to break the protection over the warehouse, but I couldn’t see any results. Aaron was screaming to Aura, hoping that he would make her angry enough to make a wrong move.

“If you touch her you will never know the spell! I burned it, and I am the only one who knows it!” yells Deby.

“We’ll see about that, dear. I will get that spell from you one way or another! And I will kill Josephine, no matter what!”

“Die!” screams Deby.

“Do you have any idea what do I have here?” asks Aura getting near me.

I wanted to get up, but all my body was hurting. The hit had shaken me up pretty bad. I looked at her, and I saw her pulling out the weapon she had stolen that night.

“I see despair in your eyes, Jo. What’s wrong? Where’s that insane courage I keep hearing about? I have made some improvements, see? I have sharpened it on the edges, to make sure it goes right at the point! I couldn’t risk back then, and it appears that it was worth it!”

“Go to Hell!” I screamed.

“You will arrive there first!” she laughs.

She ran to me, and I pulled the knife from my waist. When she threw on me with the weapon, I managed to put that knife into her shoulder. I had aimed for the heart, but she had avoided me in the last minute. I couldn’t get the knife back, but I managed to run away. I didn’t know what was I doing, but I kept running.

In front of me, I saw a group of nymphs standing still. I changed my running direction, but I saw some griffins sitting in the trees. I turned around, and I saw a group of Cerberuses.

“What are you waiting for? Tore her apart!” she shouts.

They weren’t moving. Then I realized they were waiting to see who was going to win that fight. Maybe one of them had helped her, but it wasn’t their fight anymore. Aura had to fight alone. They didn’t want to get into our battle. Aura was running with the weapon to me. She wasn’t using her powers anymore or she couldn’t because she was injured. I realized I had a chance.

I turned to her, and I gathered all my anger on her. It wasn’t that crazy rage that it used to be, that made me go mad, even though I was hoping for it this time. As usual, my luck was leaving me when I needed it the most, so I had to run towards Aura with my strengths.

I hit her with my leg, and the weapon fell from her hands. I had an advantage. I continued hitting her until I put her down. The others, who were watching the whole fight from a distance, were shouting at me to kill her. Obviously, that was the plan, but Aura didn’t give up so easily, and she caught my legs with her hands, making me lose my balance. I fell, and she climbed on me and started hitting me. It was a body to body fight, and she was bigger than me. I wasn’t giving up either. My hands were hurting so badly, and I felt the blood flowing every time I was hitting Aura.

I saw the knife on the ground, next to me. I hit Aura hard, and I ran to grab it. I heard the others screaming, so I turned around. Aura had managed to crawl to get the only weapon that could have killed me. She got up and ran to me. I avoided her, but she kept attacking me. I hit her with the knife, and I managed to scratch her on the arm, but she didn’t drop the weapon. In a moment of distraction, she managed to unbalance me. She hit my hands with her legs, and I dropped my knife. I crawled to get it back, but I felt beaten again. I was trying to get further, but Aura wasn’t stopping. A hit on the head made me fall with my face in the dust. I felt how she was pulling me up with her hand in my hair. She looked at me from up there, and then she bent down near me.

“You thought you were going to win, didn’t you?” she laughs in my ear.

I tried to answer that, but I couldn’t because of the blood in my mouth. The image was spinning around, but I saw how she put the weapon in front of me. She put her head on my shoulder and laughed again, and she plunged the sharp weapon into my chest, but she didn’t push it hard enough, so she stabbed me again into my belly. The other’s screams seemed so far away. They had assisted terrified to this horrible scenery, but they couldn’t do anything. Deby hadn’t managed to break Aura’s spell, neither hers.

Aura didn’t move her head from my shoulder, and she kept whispering something in my ear. I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but I gathered all my power, and in a second, I pulled out the weapon from my belly. If I was going to die, I didn’t want to go alone or to let her win. I hit her with my elbow in the mouth, and I plugged the weapon in her neck. I had used all my strength, so I fell on the ground. Aura fell too. I didn’t know how did that weapon work on her or me, but I felt how my life was leaving my body slowly. The spell on the warehouse disappeared, a sign that Aura had died. Deby ran out shouting some spell. The others were soon able to pass further to get to me, but I couldn’t say a word.

I saw Aaron bending over me. He had the tears on his cheeks and desperation in his eyes. Ivy was sitting on me, and she was pressing on my wounds. She had undressed, and she was trying to stop my bleeding with her clothes.

“Take some blood and do the damned spell” I said to Deby.

But she couldn’t recover from the shock.

“We’re not doing anything without you!” says Ivy.

“She used the weapon on me, and I can’t go anywhere with you. It doesn’t matter how hard you’re trying to stop the bleeding because you have to let go at some point” I say.

“I will not see you dying again!” says Aaron taking my head between his big hands.

“You will not see that!” says a familiar voice.

Ema was approaching us, breathing heavily.

“That is an infamy!” she says. “This is the real weapon! I carved an identic one, and I changed them. It was hard, but I did it! I knew it was a chance she may use that on you. So, Deby, get your shit together and open that portal! Send Jo in the Underworld, so that all can be all right! I haven’t spent all that time with that horrible woman for nothing!”

“I can’t believe this!” shouts Aaron happily.

Deby got close to me.

“Deborah, take some blood from Jo so you can do that spell. The second you send her through that portal, you will do the spell in that warehouse.”

“Without Jo?” she asks confused.

“Yes! Without her! She will find her way back to you anyway. You can’t wait three months or more until she comes back. You need to do this now!”

“Ok” says Deby.

Aaron bent over me and took me in his arms.

“I think now it’s your turn to find your way back to me!” he says and kisses me on the forehead.

I nodded my head, and I smiled. Deby whispered something and opened the portal next to me. I stretched my hand to it, and then I saw only white. After white it was dark.

Sometimes it’s better to hit the road with more backup plans, in case something goes wrong. Just when I thought it was the end, it was the beginning. Ema had saved my life, and I had to repay her somehow. I got away from the death again, even if I had thought my life had ended there. I had started to believe that I hadn’t run out of luck as I had thought all that time.