Sinatus

✨Chapter Twenty-One✨

As soon as Lily's feet hit the ground, she froze, realizing what she was doing. Why she'd come here in the first place. She felt the color drain slowly from her face.

There was a thud as Kaia dropped to the ground next to her. She looked up at Lily and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I--the Testamenti." Lily murmured. If she left now, she wouldn't be able to finish the challenges. The wizards would be likely to think she'd quitted. That she'd given up. But Lily Atwood didn't just give up. 

Kaia got up from the floor and put a hand on Lily's shoulder. "You can try the Testamenti again afterwards. And besides--if you did the challenges now, they'd be dangerous, right? Because someone is messing with them?"

"Yeah..." Lily agreed. "But if whoever is messing with the challenges is smart, they would stop, so people would think it was Archie."

"Maybe." Ivy said.

"I guess. We understand if you want to stay." Kaia told Lily. "You'll just have to tell us where you live and pretend like you have no idea where we went. Please."

Lily squared her shoulders. "No. I--I'm coming with you. Archie is technically only in prison because of me. Let's go."

Kaia smiled and dropped her hand from Lily's shoulder. The four of them hurried quickly away from the house, glancing nervously over their shoulders every couple seconds.

"Maybe we shouldn't use the usual path down the mountain." Lily suggested hesitantly once as they trudged away from the house. "The one I used to get here. I mean, what if your parents come looking for you?"

"You're right." Ivy agreed. "We can take the smaller path down the other side of the mountain."

"Okay." Lily said. "We'll just have to loop around the mountain once we get to the bottom to get my village."

"That works." Kaia nodded. They walked on in silence until Kaia asked, "Hey, is that Ara?"

Lily turned and followed Kaia's gaze. They had reached the far side of the village. Ara was indeed trotting up to them from the direction of the forest. 

"It is!" Lily grinned, crouching down to scratch her behind the ears when she reached them. 

"Is that a Lucami?" Dalton asked. 

"Yep." Ivy told him. "Now let's go."

Lily straightened and they walked across the grassy ground towards the forest, Ara winding her way around their feet as they walked. They reached the forest, where there was a smaller and more uneven path than the one Lily had taken on her way up the mountain. It was barely big enough for two of them to walk shoulder to shoulder and was surrounded by thick bushes and trees.

"I can't believe Archie's mom let Gideon turn him in." Kaia uttered after they'd been walking for a while. "I would've thought Sylla would keep quiet and just try to talk to him."

Lily thought Gideon must be Archie's dad, and Sylla must be his mom.  

"I think it makes sense." Dalton admitted. "Sylla and Gideon hate each other--they always have. I bet Gideon turned Archie in mainly to spite Sylla. That's would I would've done if I were as mean as him, anyway."

"If they hated each other so much, why did they ever get married?" Lily asked. "Oh--did they even get married?"

"They did." Dalton nodded. "But they only married for the money."

"Money?" Lily echoed incredulously.

"Yeah. They both had a pretty big amount of money. Both wanted more. Somehow thought they'd be oh so much richer if they got married." Dalton explained. "They spilt up eight years ago, when Archie was six. So all in all, it didn't work out so well."

"Yeah, it really didn't." Lily agreed, raising her eyebrows. They walked on in a thoughtful silence for a while, and Lily watched brightly colored birds hopping from branch to branch, the green leaves in the trees rustling as they landed. Kaia skipped ahead and started singing a song Lily didn't recognize. They walked on for what felt like hours, conversing occasionally, until the sun seemed to sink and disappear into the ocean of dark green tree tops.

They sat down in the space between a tree and a bush a couple feet away from the path, and Ivy and Dalton went to get firewood. Kaia pulled some food, which she'd packed back in the village, out of her bag and laid it down on the ground.  When Ivy and her brother returned, they arranged the firewood in the center of their space. 

Dalton held his hands over the wood and muttered something to himself. A couple seconds later the a small flame sprang up and their fire started to burn.

"Whoa," Lily said. "How did you do that?" 

"Magic." Dalton replied.

Lily rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant."

Once the fire was bigger, they sat down in a circle around it. Kaia passed sandwiches around and they all ate hungrily, not having eaten any lunch that day. 

"I'll go get some more firewood," Kaia offered when they were done eating, and the fire had started to dwindle, and with it it's warmth. "Ivy, can you maybe use magic to keep the fire alive?"

Ivy straightened, her eyes widening. "Um, Kaia--" But Kaia had already flounced off into the trees. "Okay, um..."

She held her hands out over the fire and began mumbling feverishly to herself. Lily watched in anticipation, waiting for the flames to grow. Instead, nothing happened. Ivy dropped her hands into her lap with a sigh.

Dalton opened his mouth to say something but Ivy beat him to it. "Shut up."

"Excuse me?" Dalton asked. Lily frowned. 

"Please shut up." Ivy corrected. "Now isn't the time I want you to make fun of me, Dalton."

Dalton looked affronted. "What? Ivy, you know I don't-- I've never made fun of you for that. Ever."

"I know." Ivy sighed again. "I just forget, sometimes. Since you like to annoy people so much."

"Shut up."

"What's going on?" Lily asked, looking at the two of them from her side of the fire.

"Nothing." Dalton shrugged.

"Sure." Lily agreed. "And I'm not on the same planet as you."

"Um, pretty sure you are--" Dalton started but Ivy elbowed him and he quieted as she started to talk.

"I'm just not very good with magic." she admitted. "I can only do really basic things. But I'll learn. Or I won't. I'm trying my best."

"Here we go!" Kaia grinned as she came over with wood in her arms. "Ta-da!"