Inner Darkness (Book 2 of Dragonfire series)

Chapter 17

Alena's POV

I entered the portal with Damien, and was startled by what I saw on the other side.

We stood on nothing. There was nothing beneath our feet, yet we did not fall. It almost looked like we were standing on a light grey cloud. The sky looked dull and gloomy, as if it were about to storm. The space around us felt different. The oxygen in my lungs felt different. Everything about this place just wasn't quite right. Damien tried to guide me but I grabbed his arm roughly.

"Why aren't we falling? I'm not flying and there's nothing beneath our feet." Damien simply held out his hand and released a small ball of energy at the space beneath us. To my surprise, it stopped, as if it had hit a wall and released a light that rippled across the ground.

"There is a ground, it's just invisible to our eyes. I nodded and followed him as we walked across the invisible floor. We finally came across what looked like a floating box.

"Let me guess, that box is really sitting on some invisible table?" Damien smiled before handing it to me.

"Only pure magic can open this box. You know what you have to do." I looked down at the small object in my hands. It was practically a mini treasure chest. I tried to simply open it with my hand, but it didn't budge. I sighed in annoyance and placed my left hand over the top of the chest. I closed my eyes in concentration and slowly started feeding my energy into the box. A sudden gust of wind broke my concentration and I turned to see who had entered through the portal. Aradia stormed up to Damien looking angrier than ever.

"Alena, focus on opening the box. I'll deal with everything else." I nodded obediently and continued to pry the dumb thing open. I heard voices behind me and I couldn't help but listen.

"Aradia, what do you think you're doing in here?"

"I'm putting matters into my own hands because I'm sick of watching you call all the shots. Now, whether you like it or not, I am getting a piece of whatever is in that box." Another gust of wind blew, more violent this time. Tiny water droplets, barely noticeable, touched down on my skin. That's weird, is it actually sprinkling in here? My thoughts were cut off by Damien's voice.

"How did you get in here? You should be under my mind control."

"Sorry, but I guess your little trick isn't shock proof."

"Kiora threw a bolt of electricity at her and it must've broken the mind control or whatever." If I had any emotions right now I would probably laugh at the fact that those three are actually standing around having a conversation. I suddenly gasped as the lid to the chest flew open, revealing it's treasure.

It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It was black and sparkled like a diamond. It looked like it had rings spinning no around it. The small sphere looked to be no bigger than my hand. I carefully formed a force field around the thing and slowly lifted it out of the box, unsure of what would happen if I touched it. I turned to face Damien, Aradia, and Stella. Their jaws dropped in amazement.

"The legend, it's true!" Aradia tried to take a step forward, but was quickly stopped by Damien. I felt something wet land on my nose; followed by another one on my arm and legs. I looked up and saw large raindrops falling from the sky. The clouds grumbled angrily, as if they knew I tad taken the magic. A crack of thunder followed by a lightning bolt made all of us jump.