that I simply couldn’t follow the ordinary Lady of the Lamias path. They’d seen my potential, even when my mother had completely denied it.
“We’re good to go,” Acantha announced. “Everybody, get inside the circle in the middle.”
We did as instructed. This was a slightly different design, I noticed. It looked more like a modified pentagram, with dozens of new symbols added to the outer rim, and connecting lines drawn from the batteries toward the central circle, where we’d gathered.
Phoenix and Ibrahim stayed on the outside, both of them smiling, eager to see us go and succeed in what had to be one of the craziest endeavors we’d ever gotten into.
“Send us a postcard!” Phoenix said, prompting Varga to burst into laughter.
“We’ll let you know once we land. Telluris and earpieces are working, at least for now,” Varga replied.
Acantha and Nethissis began their chant, and the modified pentagram began to light up white. The serium battery cylinders hummed, the crystals glowing bluer and bluer. In less than a minute, the ball of light formed and swallowed us whole, its electric buzz tickling my ears.
A sudden gust of wind started to whizz across the platform, pummeling the light bubble to the point where I worried it might tilt us to the side before the incantation was complete. I could see Ibrahim’s and Phoenix’s silhouettes as they moved away from the spell. The light around us got brighter and stronger, but I was able to guess that both the warlock and the sentry boy-genius had made it back downstairs.
“The Hermessi are coming,” Fallon said, his brow furrowed. “My insides are squirming.”
“That’s new,” I commented.
“A Hermessi detector? Seriously?” Herakles replied, equal parts amused and surprised.
The witches continued their chant. This one sounded longer than the ones I’d heard before, but I figured it had to do with two new factors: one, the increasing winds that were hitting our light bubble from all angles, and two, the presence of the batteries in the absence of an object from our destination.
I found myself holding Varga’s hand, my fingers tightly wrapped around it, as I braced for the worst to come. Knowing the elementals, this barely skimmed the surface.
“They finally found us.” Varga sighed. “It was only a matter of time. Luceria is one of the high-risk spots, for now.”
“Hold up, how is it that you can feel the Hermessi coming?” Riza asked Fallon.
He shrugged. “I’m honestly not sure. I think maybe Kabbah left me with something. It’s just a guess.”
“I think what really matters is that he’s capable of sensing them,” Riza replied. “A preemptive reaction would’ve been even better.”
“What, like me sensing them before they actually manifested?” Fallon asked, one eyebrow raised. “Hermessi premonitions? Sister, you are reaching!”
“Desperate times, my friend!” Riza said with a grin. “But we’ll make do with what you’ve got, don’t worry.”
The light bubble began its ascent, making us all wobble. We could hear the gale-force winds roaring outside. Thunderclaps rippled above us, sounding like angry giants eager to crush us. Despite the irregular upward trajectory, however, the swamp witches managed to get us to a higher altitude.
The light bubble made startling crackling sounds whenever lightning struck it. Fortunately, all that did was load it with more energy. Varga and I held each other close, and so did Riza and Herakles, while Fallon stood awkwardly between us, hands behind his back. The swamp witches were in front, with their backs to us, moving forward with their chants, as the bubble kept rising.
We swayed in the beating winds for a while, but once we pierced the atmosphere, silence became king. I breathed out, relaxing in Varga’s arms. We briefly glanced at one another and smiled. We’d made it off Calliope, for starters.
I wouldn’t dare be the optimist on the crew, but I was inclined to believe that we were off to a good, albeit bumpy start. However, that thought was quickly pushed away when Acantha and Nethissis, having finished their chant, turned around to smile at us. They weren’t even aware of their nosebleeds.
“Yikes,” Riza gasped and took out two linen tissues from her backpack. She handed them over to the witches, who seemed confused.
“Your noses are bleeding,” I said.
Alarmed, they grabbed the tissues and wiped their noses. Both turned pale when they saw what they’d collected. “Oh, dear,” Nethissis murmured. “I think we strained ourselves a little back there.”
“We had no choice. The Hermessi were beating us into a pulp. It was only a matter of time before they broke the