The Other Side of the Lie (EDITING, ON HOLD)

Eighteen-Mist

She stared at the door before her, shock clouding her mind. She had gone from kissing Swift to him shoving her out of his cell.

"Mist?" Hawk came up behind her and put a tentative hand on her shoulder. The guards at the cell door stared straight ahead, impassive. "I was sent to get you. We're leaving now. King Triton has let us take kelpies to Montflame. He's sending Adrian with us to take the kelpies back after and spy on us, too."

"He actually said that?" Mist stared at Hawk, surprise bringing her out of her stupefied trance.

Hawk raised one eyebrow. "Knowing what you know of him? Yes, he did."

Mist choked out a laugh.

"Come on," the Sky fey urged, taking Mist's hand to pull her out of the dungeons and up to where the sunlight streamed through the water.

They travelled underwater for two days, leaving the river only to sleep. Adrian stayed with the kelpies in the water at night, and Mist was a little surprised when she woke up to see she was first, not curled around Swift, and second, that there was a beautiful horse with silvery blue scales covering its body grazing on the reeds that grew along the riverbank. And there was a boy with nothing but swimming trunks lounging on a rock, watching the kelpies–because there were more of the creatures eating along the bank–with half-closed eyes.

"'Morning," the boy greeted her without looking her way. From his voice Mist recognized Adrian.

She shifted so she could speak, having, per usual, reverted to her wolf form to sleep. "Legs?"

Adrian looked up. "What, so the Sky fey can retract their wings and the Sea fey can't have legs as well as a tail?"

"Where'd the swimsuit come from?" A sleepy Bella asked. She was nestled between her brother and Hawk and she blinked bleary green eyes at Adrian, who laughed. Hunter started awake at the sound, and Hawk began to wake as well.

"They are useful to have around," was Adrian's cryptic reply.

"We had better get moving," Hawk yawned.

Mist stretched, and felt her muscles relax as the tension in them released. "Come on then," she said, and approached one of the kelpies and swung onto its back. She did it with much more ease than she had the first time she had to mount one of the creatures without the help of the floating being underwater provided. That was to say, she didn't slip right off the other side. The others got on as well, Hunter grumbling about breakfast.

They made good time and only an hour later they found themselves at the base of Montflame. The mountain was in truth an active volcano, but the Fire fey had some system in place to prevent the lava flow or any other debris from reaching and damaging the surrounding forest and the river. Mist was not sure of the particulars, as even the little time she had spent in school had never given her any knowledge on the other Factiones and their territories or cultures. Hawk had told them a little about Montflame, but he had never actually been to the volcano and so was misty on the details himself.

"Welcome," Adrian said grandly, sweeping an arm through the water, "to Montflame."

Looking up through the water the shape of the mountain wavered, rippling with the movement of the river.

"I am not allowed to go any farther, so good luck, and don't drown in the lava. The spell I placed on you all will wear off the moment your heads break the surface, and even if it didn't, it wouldn't permit you to breathe lava," Adrian said wryly.

"What about Swift?" Mist asked, a worried frown creasing her brow. "If the spell breaks, then he'll drown."

"No,"Adrian reassured her. "I've accounted for that already, he'll be fine. Besides, vampires don't have to breathe."