The Hidden Mages

Alert At All Times

"Be careful and watch each other's backs," Hecate, the Greek goddess told us.

"We will," Angelo replied.

"Will we meet again?" I asked and she nodded.

We all thanked her before entering the sub.

"Is everyone in?" asked Vincent who was already at the captain's seat.

"Yea, let's go," I answered and with that, we were off.

Next stop..........Stormy Reef.

.

.

According to Vincent, our next destination is 12 hours away. Do you know what that means? Peace and quiet while I read my book. 5 hours had passed and I was still reading. Suddenly, Lucas came and sat down beside me.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey, you good?" I asked once I realized that he looked worried.

"Yea, I'm fine. I actually wanted to talk to you about Dylan," he whispered, making sure no one else heard him.

"Is it about when he yelled at you?"

"No and yes. It's not about what he said to me. It's about what I saw on his phone," and this got me confused but at the same time curious.

"What did you see on his phone? Didn't you said he was texting someone?"

"Yea, I did. I caught a glimpse of what he wrote. He told the person he was texting about The Dreadful Haven. Then, I also saw 'Stormy Reef' in the text," he explained.

"So, you think he's revealing our destinations to someone else? Someone we don't know about?" I asked and he nodded slowly in confirmation.

"We should tell Angelo about this," I suggested but Lucas disagreed, saying that we didn't exactly have enough proof. Dylan could have deleted the messages after yelling at Lucas that day.

"Alright, we'll keep this to ourselves but we have to keep an eye on Dylan," I told him and he agreed.

After that, both Lucas and I talked for a while. Soon, we both got tired and decided to take a nap.

"Guys, wake up," I heard Daphne said.

I lazily opened my eyes and realized that Lucas was already awake.

"We're here," said Vincent.

I quickly got up and went straight to where Vincent seated.

'This is it. I'm gonna meet my brother. I'm gonna meet Xavier,' I thought to myself.

Once Vincent was able to stop the sub, I was the first person to get off and the first thing I noticed is that this place looked way worse than The Dreadful Haven.

Like...........way worse.

It looked like the kingdom of Hades. Well, at least I assumed this is how it would look like. Guess I have to ask Percy Jackson about that(if you know, you know). "Wow, what happened here?" Leona asked after getting off the sub.

"It wasn't always like this," Vincent spoke from my right.

"What do you mean?" I asked hoping that my brother had nothing to do with the place looking like this but unfortunately I was wrong.

"It used to be a beautiful tropical island. I guess the demon didn't like the view," Vincent answered before glancing at me.

"Alright, this is how it's gonna be. We'll separate into 4 groups. We'll be able to find Xavier faster that way," Angelo explained.

I decided to pair up with Lucas and obviously Opal will be following us. The original three back together again. Angelo paired up with Daphne, Vincent with Dylan and Nico with Leona. "Here, take this," Vincent said while handing each of us a small device. It looked like a walkie-talkie but it was way smaller than it was supposed to be.

"It'll help us communicate from a far distance.

Without another word, the nine of us set out into the destroyed woods to find for Xavier.

"You okay?" Lucas asked.

"To be honest? Not really,"

"It'll be okay. We'll save Xavier,"

"Yea, I know but that's not what I'm worried about," I replied and therefore ending our short conversation.

We did bring up other random conversations while walking but we never once let our guard down. Once we heard something in the trees but nothing attacked us when we took out our weapons so, we continued our search. But even so, that didn't make it any less weird. By then, we've already walked for 20 minutes and soon, the 20 minutes turned into 30.

"Do you know where we're going?" Lucas asked, already sweating.

"Nope," I replied bluntly and he sighed

. All of a sudden, we found ourselves stopping right in front of a bridge and no, it wasn't one of those bridges that were made of bricks or stones. It was the one with wooden steps.

"Should we cross it?" Lucas asked, clearly not a big fan of the bridge and neither was I but we didn't exactly have a choice.

"Yup, let's go," I said before putting my right foot on the first wooden plank.

I had already passed 10 planks and Opal was right behind me. Surprisingly, the bridge was able to hold her weight. Lucas, on the other hand, was still at the third plank, holding the ropes for his dear life. In a minute or two, both Opal and I were already on the other side. Guess who was still at the bridge. Yup, you guessed it right.

"I'm not sure about this, Zoe!" Lucas yelled.

"One step at a time. Don't worry, it's gonna be fine," I said reassuringly.

Lucas was on the 10th plank when the bridge started wobbling. Lucas clutched the rope tightly, panic written all over his face.

"It's okay. Just keep walking," I said, trying to distract him from the fact that the bridge could fall any minute and him with it.

Right after placing his left foot on the next plank, the bridge started shaking again but this time something happened. The plank his left foot was on............broke.

Lucas lost his balance and fell.

But thank the gods he was able to grab the other plank.

"LUCAS!!" I yelled before transforming into my eagle armor.

With my wings, I flew to where Lucas was clinging on the plank for his dear life but before I could grab him, his hand slipped. I flew down at full speed, trying to reach Lucas who was screaming his lungs out. Once I was close enough, I quickly grabbed him by the arm and flew up, right back to where Opal was waiting anxiously. Once we landed, I transformed back into my original outfit. I looked over at Lucas to see how he was doing. He was on his knees with his arms over his stomach looking like he was about to throw up.

"Hey, it's okay. You're safe now," I said to him while slowly patting his back.

He looked up at me and I saw a lot of emotion in his eyes. Fear. Anxiety. Panic. I mean I don't blame him so, I decided that we should stay there for a few minutes until Lucas had recovered from the panic attack. After a solid 10 minutes, Lucas insisted that we should continue the search. So, that's what we did.

After walking for what felt like hours, Lucas suddenly asks "Where do you think Xavier lives?". I was just about to answer his question when something caught my eye. Something big. A cave.

"Ummm......probably in there," I replied while pointing at the cave. His eyes followed my finger and once he saw what I was seeing, he had the expression as I did.

"You think he's in there?" Lucas asked.

"It does look demon-like,"