Enchanted High Book I
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Salvatore

‘Headmaster Salvatore?’ James yelled. Maybe the dream wasn’t true, maybe Salvatore was here to help. ‘It’s me – James!’

‘I know it’s you!’ Salvatore snapped.

James heard another crack of sound and the next moment a flash of red lightning swished past his face. He narrowly missed it.

‘Please,’ James screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘stop!’

‘NO!’ Salvatore was aiming another lightning strike – James quickly maneuvered his dragon away, urging it to speed up.

‘You’re coming with me!’ The crazed man’s words were followed by a red flash of lightning that James had missed. If his dream was true, if his dream was true –

The dragon slowed and at the same time, a bolt struck James on his arms. He cried out in pain as they fell towards the immense, ominous ocean below.

He did his best, to save himself, the dragon – he tried everything he had done in his dream ... but everything turned out to be so true. If this was the case, then he would surely fall into the ocean and drown ... there was no denying it.

He sucked in a sharp breath, and his body struck the water.

It was a million times worse than he had experienced in his dream.

His shut his eyes and he sank deeper and deeper ... the pressure of the water when he fell rendered him unconscious. He was losing breath ... second by second ... there was no hope of any help now ... all was lost ... James realized with a painful thought that he couldn’t even take his last breaths.

He was going to drown to his death.

James’s eyes were closed ... he plunged deeper into the ocean ... and he didn’t notice that there was a glow coming from somewhere. Luminous, beautiful, angelic.

But he could hear the familiar sound of a thousand bells ringing in slow motion ... he heard a swish and splash ... he felt a soft material over his eyes ... and then warmth.

Warmth that began from his palm and spread to every cell in his body. He opened his eyes.

He saw the mermaid – the Agni. Somehow, he wasn’t even surprised.

She looked as beautiful as the first time he saw her. She reached into the breast pocket of his shirt and pulled out the glowing object – and he realized what it was; the glowing flower that she had given him; it was bursting with light, as if she was holding a star in her bare hands.

And she pulled him towards the surface gracefully.

June was slipping in and out of consciousness. She was too weak to react to anything that she heard or saw. She would hear voices, though, planning for a big event. People, frightened, intimidated, would scoot around the place she hypothesized was a room at the top of the volcano.

The cloaked figure remained like a statue before the window, observing the red sky. Shouting commands.

‘I said bring me my youth ...’ he was saying, ‘my most prized possession.’

‘Y-yes, master.’

‘Ah, my friend,’ the cloaked figure stretched his arms towards a newcomer that June couldn’t see. But the figure stopped suddenly and glanced behind the man. ‘You have failed me.’ He spat the words.

The man who had just entered stared down at the floor and said, ‘I’m sorry, master, but the boy has died. He drowned in the ocean. I watched his struggles. He couldn’t have swam out; his hand is injured. I shot him.’

There was a stiff silence. The man continued staring at the floor and the cloaked figure pierced his eyes at him.

‘And you let that happen.’ The cloaked figure said softly.

Silence. The man must have been too afraid of his own answer.

‘I said I wanted him here ... ALIVE!’ the cloaked figure raised his voice and shouted at the man. His harsh voice seemed to continue vibrating through the walls of the room.

‘I’ll sacrifice myself, master ...’ the man dropped to his knees, ’you could use me ... yes – use me, use me ... please. I would be most honored –′

‘You are useless to me.’ The cloaked figure said. At these words the man picked up his head and looked worriedly at the cloaked figure.

‘Please ...’ the man began.

The cloaked figure interrupted and held up his hand, silencing the man.

At that moment, another man wheeled something on a table into the room.

June lifted her head, something in her head spun thousands of times, and she groaned.

The cloaked figure’s head darted to her.

‘You’re awake at last ...’ he stood beside her clutches; June searched his shadow covered face for features that could identify him ... he raised a hand and stroked her hair, her red hair. It glowed powerfully at his touch. ‘My beautiful.’

My beautiful?

June blinked and blinked trying to clear her blurred vision, but all she could see was the silhouette of his hood and body.

‘Care to join us?’ the figure said.

June didn’t have energy to reply, there was no sound coming out.

The cloaked figure let out an extended, callous and venomous laugh that echoed in the room and in June’s ears.

‘I’ve waited a very long time for this ...’ he reached for the cloth that covered an object on the wheeled table. ‘And at last ... I’ll be where I’m meant to be ... with my Linasia ...’ he removed the cloth.

June blinked again trying with all her might to see what the object was; all she could make out was a small shadow that branched out like veins.

‘Do you remember this?’ the figure asked. He carried it in his hand and stepped closer to June. The object he was holding was now visible.

It was the wishing tree.

June groaned and lifted a hand to touch the tree. The figure moved it effortlessly out of her reach.

‘June, June, June ...’ he chanted. ‘Surely you know who I am?’

June’s lip moved numbly. ‘P-Prince ...’ she stuttered.

‘... Xavier?’ the figure said. ‘That’s correct.’ He laughed. ‘But is that all you know me as?’

The words formed in June’s mind. Who else would you be?

The figure laughed again and walked away. ‘Open the portal.’ He growled to his servants.

The mermaid lifted James out of the water and onto a warm rock with strength he didn’t know she could have had. At the first feeling of oxygen – clean, fresh air, the lovely filling sensation of everything completing, fixing together like a giant jigsaw in his lungs – he felt adrenaline rush through him.

‘How –’ James said through thick breaths, ‘how did you replace me?’

The mermaid pointed her long finger at the flower she was holding which was glowing more than ever. James was lost for words. She had given him the flower to replace him again ... perhaps you would need light in the darkest of times ... did that mean that she knew this would happen?

‘Thank you,’ was all James could say.

The mermaid blinked. ‘What do you do now?’

James’s mind raced. What does he do now? He looked around for the dragon and spotted its wing floating in and out of the water. James swam towards it and pulled with the little energy he had left and dragged the dragon to the rock. It wasn’t rising and falling with breaths; he wasn’t sure whether it was even alive when he saw the injury it had taken to its wings.

‘It’s injured,’ he said. ‘I can’t fly it.’

He ran his fingers over its rough scales, feeling himself succumb to double the guilt than he had felt. It was because of him that this innocent work of nature had lost its life, when it had nothing to do with any of his problems ...

Then the mermaid placed her hand on the dragon’s wing. It began to glow a soft red, with blood, or with power, James didn’t know. James watched the mermaids eyes close in concentration. After a while, the mermaid let go of the wing.

James gasped. The dragon’s wing was healed.

‘You can fly now,’ the mermaid wrapped her fingers around the back of James’s neck, bringing her face closer to his. Her skin was wet, she was perfumed with the scent of the ocean, her home, her life. And before she turned away, she planted a kiss on his cheek and dove into the water. He looked down at his hand, and saw that he, too, was healed; not even a faint bruise was left behind.

He watched her tail disappear.

James burst out from just below the white line of clouds; it curled around him and the dragon like the mist at the Flaming Pearl hot springs. The wind roared, whipping across his scalp. The dragon beat his wings faster, as James instructed it to lower further towards the ground.

His eyes searched the tiny specks of land for a mound of hill, the volcano, or even any sight that the men had stopped to take a break. All he was greeted with, though, was bones.

Then to his surprise, he caught sight of a person, standing, covered with a black cloth. Unsure of who it might have been, James decided not to investigate. But the other side of him, the more reckless and intrigued side, pulled him towards the person. He wanted to see who it was.

‘Down,’ he whispered to the dragon.

The dragon landed roughly on the hardened ground, stumbling a little before it became steady. James lowered himself carefully off its back, his eyes still fixed on the person.

Silently, he walked towards hunched figure; the person’s back faced him so he still couldn’t see the face. When he was close enough, he heard the weeping, saw the body shuddering with each breath. Overcome by sympathy, James reached out a hand and laid it on the person’s shoulder.

In one sharp movement, the person spun around and gripped James’s throat; he coughed, looking into the face of the person – it was a man he had never seen before.

Remember the mystery of the growling creature in the attic? I saw its eyes tonight. And then it disappeared.

--THUG.