Daydreams And Nightshade (DaN #1)

Chapter 59: Fellowship of the Arical

"I don't get it." Abram shook his head from underneath the protective sail as the Nocturne saw familiar land in the distance again. They'd tried to get away from it three times already, but every time they tried sailing away they just ended up in thick mist and found themselves on the way back to the mara-infested island. "If it's a nightmare blight then why can it alter... Reality?"

Luna was about to throw up again. Whether it was the seasickness returning or the painful reminder of the last time they'd had to deal with the creature in question she didn't know. Perhaps it was both, but the latter worried her on a whole other level.

Noah was holding her hair back as she leaned out over the railing, and he sighed as he too spotted the island once again.

"This happened last time too," he said as he turned to Abram, and Luna turned in the other direction to spit bile again. "When Luna and Father tried leaving a house the mara was tormenting, and they just kept coming back to it."

"And? How did you get out of there?" Abram turned to Luna, who couldn't quite face him as she turned back to retch again, and he gave her a concerned frown. "... Maybe I should ask Lucius instead."

"Probably," Noah agreed, wearing the same expression on his face.

"Last time we had to wake the woman in the house up," Lucius said as he walked up next to them along with Derek and Ethan. "It was her nightmares that kept us in that place and once we managed to wake her, we were able to get out of there."

"But this seems to be an entire island we're talking about." Ethan gestured around them. "It's not just a lady in a house."

"So are you... Saying it's the entire population contributing to such a massive... Spell? Curse?" Abram tried to find a good word for it but couldn't pinpoint it.

"Except most of them are dead," Lucius' voice was low, glancing back at Livia and Shyen who were being distracted from the dire situation by a delightfully smooth Alexei and his jokes. They hadn't quite taken the shock as well as the others.

"Maybe that's—" Luna gasped for air to regain some form of composure. "That's why it's so big. Noah says it's bigger than it was back then, and it's apparently been... Feasting on this island. So it's been staying here, possibly trapping as many as possible in its nightmare..." She knitted her eyebrows. "... Thing, and then devoured their fear, killing them in the process, which is probably why they all looked, you know... Like that."

A moment of dread filled the air, and Lucius sucked in a breath.

"Well, if it's still here it must mean there are survivors somewhere for it to prey on, and if we can snap them out of it there's a chance we could escape like we did from that house."

"Roya and the others were supposed to be here, right?" Alexei asked from further away, and Luna squeezed her eyes together. She'd been hoping to avoid that conversation, especially because Alexei had been one of the more calm people so far. The possibility of the pirates having made it was slim, and she didn't want to be the person to suggest Roya may have ended up like the horribly fated people they'd just seen.

"Roya?" Lucius asked.

"One of the pirates," Luna explained, giving him a look suggesting he tread carefully around the subject. "A friend of Alexei."

Lucius pursed his lips together, understanding what she was trying to say.

"The Arical," Derek suddenly said, and the group jumped. "Maybe we don't need to deal with the mara at all if we get a hold of the Arical. Those pirates were supposed to have it, right? That's why we came here after all."

Luna brightened up, almost forgetting her nausea.

"Yes, of course! The Arical is a portal device! We could find it and get out of here in no time!"