CHAPTER XVII
"Storms in the Sky and Whispers of a Witch"
The journey had picked up pace.
Too fast, almost — like a river suddenly losing its calm, rushing recklessly toward some unseen edge.
I didn't know why, but something about Cael felt… different.
Impatient.
Like he was chasing something — or maybe running from something — and this journey? He wanted it over. Quickly. Quietly.
I, on the other hand, found myself wanting to pause — to take a breath, to feel everything.
The skies above us were painted with soft streaks of lavender and blue, clouds drifting like forgotten lullabies. We were headed toward Skyland — a place I'd only heard of in stories told under stars. I had imagined it my whole life… floating gardens, air so light it felt like silk, towers kissed by winds older than time.
And when we finally arrived — when our feet touched the floating island wrapped in mist and magic — I felt it all.
Wonder.
Awe.
A whisper of something ancient.
But that moment of magic shattered before it could bloom fully.
We were met not by music, or light, or welcoming arms…
But by silence.
Heavy. Still. Wrong.
A royal guard, panicked and breathless, met us at the gates. His face was pale, his voice trembling.
"Princess Caeli… she's gone."
My heart dropped.
"What do you mean gone?" Cael demanded, stepping forward.
The guard's eyes darted between us. "Taken. A witch — she came in the night. No one saw her coming. No one could stop her. The Queen and King were away, attending the Great Council meeting… there was no one left behind strong enough to protect the Princess."
The words echoed like thunder in my chest.
Skyland — the kingdom of air, light, and clarity — had been breached. A princess stolen from her own palace.
And no one had been there to stop it.
I turned to Cael. His jaw was tight, fists clenched. There was fury in his eyes — but something else too.
Fear?
Regret?
Maybe… a secret?
I wasn't sure anymore. But I knew this much: the race had changed.
This wasn't just about finding the keys now.
It was about saving the ones who carried them.
Because with every step forward, the darkness was no longer just following us…
It was moving faster.
Striking first.
I looked toward the sky, once so beautiful, now veiled with a shadow I couldn't quite name.
And in my heart, a quiet voice whispered:
This journey… is no longer ours alone.
Someone — or something — was trying to end it before it truly began.
And Caeli was only the beginning.
"A Storm Unleashed and Whispers of Doubt"
The moment the guard spoke those words — "Princess Caeli has been taken by a witch" — something inside Cael snapped.
His entire demeanor changed.
His face darkened, his eyes burned like wildfire, and a storm rose behind his clenched jaw. There was no hesitation, no confusion — only fury. Raw and fierce.
"She promised me…" he growled, stepping forward as his voice echoed like thunder. "I told her. I told her that if she wanted anything, anything at all, she should come to me."
His voice cracked with rage.
"But she didn't listen."
The air around him began to tremble.
"And now…" he whispered, "the consequences… won't be pretty."
And then—
He raised his hand toward the sky.
The moment his fingers sliced through the air, the winds shifted violently. The clouds above began to churn and twist as though answering his call. Lightning cracked somewhere in the distance, and then—
WHOOSH!
A spiraling vortex formed in the air — a swirling whirlwind that wasn't just wind… it was power. Dark, commanding, ancient.
Cael's magic surged like a tidal wave, and within seconds, the air began to take shape.
A glowing web — no, a trap — of wind and light formed in the sky, weaving itself tighter and tighter until it dropped swiftly around us.
Before I could react, I found myself pulled forward — and so were Aurelia and Carmine.
The magical trap didn't hurt… but it bound us in place. Contained us. Controlled us.
"What are you doing?!" I cried out, struggling against the wind wrapping around my waist.
Cael didn't even look at me. His voice was sharp, steady — far too calm for someone with a storm pouring from his soul.
"Flash. Chiko. Rira," he commanded.
The three of them perked up, instantly alert.
"You're going with Olivia," Cael said firmly. "Take the Ivory Crystal with you. Go to the witch's hometown. Meet me there."
"What about us?" Carmine demanded, struggling against the magical snare.
Cael turned toward us, his expression unreadable. "I'm taking you three myself. There's something I need to make sure of."
I froze.
Something about the way he said that… chilled me.
Not the wind.
Not the magic.
Him.
His voice wasn't filled with fury anymore.
It was filled with intent.
And that terrified me more than anything.
He wasn't acting out of grief, or urgency, or protection.
He was planning something.
Something dangerous.
Something irreversible.
Flash, Chiko, and Rira nodded, though I could see hesitation flicker in Flash's eyes. He looked at me — just for a moment — as if silently asking:
"Should I trust him?"
I wanted to scream no.
But the words caught in my throat.
Because I didn't have proof.
Only a feeling.
A twisting, awful feeling.
That Cael… wasn't telling us everything.
That this rage wasn't just about Princess Caeli.
That this storm… had been building long before the witch ever came.
And now, the winds had been unleashed.
But who would they destroy?
Her?
Us?
Or himself?
As I watched the storm close in around us, one thought echoed in my heart louder than the winds howling overhead—
Cael isn't just angry… he's slipping.
And if he slips too far…
None of us may be able to bring him back.
"The Hole of Shadows and the Power I Couldn't Touch"
Cael didn't fly this time.
He didn't rise into the sky like he usually did, letting his wings blaze behind him like shooting stars. No — this time, he did something far stranger… and far more terrifying.
Instead of lifting us into the air, he raised both hands — calm, controlled, and unnervingly still — and whispered something under his breath. A language I didn't recognize. A magic I had never heard before. It wasn't the usual ancient tongue we had been taught in our magical texts. This… this was older.
Forbidden, maybe.
And then it happened.
From the very space between his palms, the air began to rip open — like fabric being torn from the seams. At first, it was a thin line, a shimmer, like heat rising from stone. But within seconds, it widened into a swirling black hole — a portal made entirely of shadow. Not darkness… shadow. Because this wasn't the absence of light.
It was something that consumed it.
A depth so pitch black it looked like it could swallow sound itself.
I stood frozen, my breath caught in my chest as I watched.
And then… I felt it.
A force — invisible, but unbearably strong — latched onto us like invisible hands, yanking us forward.
Not guiding us.
Dragging us.
Like we were nothing more than toys.
"Cael—!" I shouted, but my voice felt weak, like a whisper swallowed by wind.
His eyes didn't even flinch.
He wasn't angry anymore.
He wasn't panicked.
He was… focused.
Dangerously focused.
And that scared me more than any outburst.
Because it meant this was planned.
Not a moment of magic slipping out of control — but control itself, sharpened into something lethal.
We were being pulled toward the black hole now. Fast. My feet scraped along the stone path as if I weighed nothing. Carmine stumbled beside me, Aurelia's wings fluttered in protest, but none of it mattered.
His magic was stronger.
Stronger than anything I had seen before.
And not just strong — unbreakable.
The kind of magic that should have been impossible for someone like us. Even the most powerful among us had limitations. Our powers were bound by balance — by rules. We were taught that too much magic bends the soul, burns it, even breaks it.
But Cael…
He looked untouched.
Unburned.
Unbothered.
I remembered the days when just a brush of my fingers could disrupt illusions, tear apart weak spells. Magic would fall apart at my touch like dry leaves. I used to be able to sense the weakness in spells — their flaws, their cracks.
But this?
This wasn't weak.
This wasn't cracking.
This wasn't even fairy magic anymore.
This was something else entirely.
My hand reached out on instinct, trying to grab onto something — anything — to stop the pull, to resist even for a second. But nothing worked. My magic sparked at my fingertips, and fizzled out instantly, like fire trying to burn in a vacuum.
Useless.
I was useless.
My power — my defiance — everything I was proud of…
It didn't matter.
Because Cael had crossed some invisible line.
And now…
We were at his mercy.
Dragged like dolls toward a darkness that had no bottom — no end.
And in that moment, as the shadows grew louder, swirling around us with whispers and cries that didn't belong to any world I knew — I realized something I had been too afraid to accept until now.
Cael wasn't just powerful.
He wasn't just lost.
He was becoming something else.
Something I didn't recognize.
Something I couldn't stop.
And if I didn't find a way to reach him…
We wouldn't just lose this battle.
We'd lose him.
Forever.
To be continue.....