Daegelus | Volume One: Subject 0333

Chapter Forty-One | Weavers

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The ice seemed to go on forever. All Elijah could see in every direction was white, and it was starting to make him feel nauseous. He spent thirteen years of his life living in a place that knew no colour, and the longer he stared, the more the frost began to look like the walls of the lab.

He shifted his sights to his companions, who were all still playing cards while the autopilot carried the plane further over the wall. Jake was losing badly, and it looked like he was seconds from throwing a fit like a toddler. August kept smirking at Zoe, whose cheeks were red. For some reason, knowing that the fae was flirting with her made Elijah feel...aggravated. He didn't know why, but he felt the urge to tell August to back off. It wasn't his place, though. Zoe wasn't his friend, and he certainly wasn't her bodyguard, either.

With a quiet sigh, he looked out the window again. The empty, lifeless white began to change; small, narrow rivers flowed along the surface, and dried-up shrubs were dotted over the place, becoming more frequent as they flew onwards. He then noticed that the military escort had backed off, circling around to head back, and when he stared out the front of the plane, he saw something that he was beginning to feel as though he never would.

The edge.

"We're nearing the end," Elijah said, looking at the fae man.

August held his cards against his chest as he turned his head to look outside. "Time really does fly when you're nervous as heck," he muttered. "All right, time to buckle up," he said, taking everyone's cards.

"Hey!" Jake complained. "I was finally gonna beat you."

"Sure you were," August said, and when he looked at Jake's cards, he laughed. "Better luck next time," he said, showing him his winning hand.

"You gotta be cheating," the pardus complained.

"No one's cheating, Jake," Zoe said with a sigh as she strapped herself in and put Antonio into her bag. "You've always been terrible at cards, and your poker face sucks."

"So does yours," he sneered.

"Hers is still better than yours, no offence," August said amusedly, fastening his seatbelt.

"Whatever."

Elijah made sure that his seatbelt was secure, too. "How far is the landing area from here?"

"Uh...not far," August said as he grabbed the control wheel. "Ah, crap," he then muttered.

"What?" Zoe asked worriedly.

"Well, if we don't get snow while we're flying over, we get it when we're trying to land," he answered, nodding out the window.

Elijah stared ahead at the thickening blizzard; it intensified so quickly that one moment he could see the forest, and the next, he couldn't even see the edge of the wall anymore. "You can fly through this shit, right?"

"Of course I can," he said with a smirk and grabbed a pair of goggles from a compartment under his seat. "These babies are your best friend in a storm." He pulled them on over his head, attached them to his face, and sat up straight. "Hold on tight."

August suddenly made the plane dive down. Elijah gripped both his armrests and clenched his jaw, hoping he might see something through the storm, but all he could see was shades of white. The plane shook violently, and a flurry of metallic clangs echoed around him, making his heart race in his chest as dread quickly consumed him.

Zoe panicked, wincing anxiously. "C-can't you slow down?!"

"I'm gonna throw up," Jake announced.

"Don't be doing that in here," August warned him, taking one hand off the wheel to point back at the pardus. He then gripped the wheel again and adorned an almost maniacal grin. "Easy does it," he said, slowly pulling the wheel towards himself.