Soul Ties

Chapter 18: Down the Rabbit Hole

"You're his father." It comes out more like statement than a question.

"The very same," Caelum replies, his eyes slowly searching my body. I cross my arms in front of me and take a step back. He seems amused by that.

"Well, where's Scorpius?" His name feels thick in my mouth. I clear my throat, trying to gain some of the control I'm lacking. Caelum points a finger behind him.

"Back at the house. We should get going now that you're finally here." He eyes Barlow and lets out a snort. What's with this guy? If this is what Scorpius' father was like, I could only imagine what his own personality would be. Something vile, I presumed.

Barlow turns towards me, a glimmer of something in his eyes. Was he crying?

"Good luck, Lynx." He grabs my hands in his and pulls them up to his chest.

Without thinking, I hug him tightly. Please don't leave, I think, hoping he's psychic and can somehow hear me. When his arms squeeze me harder, I detect the faint flicker of hope that comes over me. Although, once he releases me from his arms, I know it's over. Now I felt like crying.

"Take care of her, would you?" Barlow says to Caelum. Caelum gives another snort and just turns away, walking the direction he came from. Does he expect me to follow him?

I turn back to Barlow. "Thanks for everything. Would you tell my mother I love her?"

He gives me a nod.

"Of course."

And with that, he turns back towards the ship and heads that way. Seren's face passes through my head, but I can't tell Barlow to give her a message from me. Plus, I don't want Caelum to know anything about her. I can't chance him overhearing her name and questioning me about anything.

A heavy exhale escapes me as I turn to where Caelum had been walking. I jog over to where he is, trying to keep pace with him before I'm left out here on this deserted cliff. I don't know much about him, or about any Pharon, but it didn't seem likely that he would care if I got lost.

We make our way through the smoke, walking silently side by side. From my peripheral I can tell he is watching me, taking in my features, or maybe just being creepy. Either way, a tingle on fear sits on my skin. Suddenly, I'm grateful that I'm wearing something to cover myself up.

The air seems to get thicker the more we walk. My lungs flare against the dense fog around us, straining for a clear gulp of oxygen. Caelum doesn't look the least bit affected about the air, walking at the same pace he had when we first started. It's a struggle to keep up with him.

My eyes burn, tears threatening to spill over the brim. I quickly rub them on my sleeve, hoping Caelum won't see it as a sign of weakness. I hear him chuckle next to me, but he doesn't comment on it. After what felt like hours, a shadow of something in the distance comes into view.

It's enormous. Was everything on this planet so unnecessarily large? The smoke in front of us starts to thin out and I almost breathe a sigh of relief, anticipating cleaner air. But the feeling quickly comes to a halt once I finally see what's waiting for us ahead. A house of horrors.

The house is gigantic, almost as big as the halls I walked through on Uthoria. The ends of the roof are covered in spikes, pointing every way you could think of. I mean, it was covered. Not one part of that roof didn't have some large point protruding out of it. The wideness of the foundation scared me. I imagine flesh eating monsters lurking around every hallway in that place. It also has no windows, which added to my panic. And the very blackness of it made my skin crawl, the darkness from the inside obviously seeping into the outside walls. There's no door, no way to enter, but, more importantly, no way to escape.