Little Saint Bride [Death and the Maiden, #1]

Chapter Twenty Eight: Daughter of Spring

'Ness? You're bleeding!'

The will o' the wisps are moving, floating upwards like wayward souls before drifting towards the dark passageway. Instinctively, I know that I can't lose sight of them, and my chest pounds at the panic of being left behind. Without answering Hadrian, I pull him to his feet so that he can see the spirits drifting away.

'Will o' the wisp?' he says, astonished. Momentarily, he's distracted from my injuries. He lifts his hand, tentatively stretching towards one of the flickering orange lights. 'I have never seen anything like this...they're supposed to be legend.'

Legend or not, I follow them towards the edge of the bank, preparing to step into the boggy water. The lights from the wisps hover and dance over the dull moss surface, creating a ghostly, ethereal image. They circle one another, moving away as I approach, and trickling further down until I see them leading the way through a dark, boggy passageway about a human's width apart. 

As I move to step in, Hadrian grabs my arm. 'Ness, what are you doing? How did you get rid of those things? And...Ness, you're injured! You're covered in blood!' 

I flinch, casting a glance down my biohazard suit, which is splattered with blood and dirt, blending into a horrific shade. I can feel my face throbbing; I'm nearly three-hundred-percent sure that I look like one of the prisoners myself.  'I fought off the two of them. And then the wisps saved me.'

'You fought them off single-handedly? Bloody hell...' Hadrian stares at me, eyes wide. 'I knew you were strong but I didn't know you were that strong. I was caught by surprise by just one of those beasts!'

I smother a smirk; Hadrian had been "caught by surprise" and had lain like a damsel in distress whilst I fought my battle-to-the-death. 'Surprised? Hades, you were out cold.'

'Don't call me Hades...and that thing nearly stole my body! It was trying to escape by using me as a conduit!'

'Come on, Conduit. We need to follow those wisps, or we'll be meeting our friends again.' I laugh, but then stop. Smiling sends a shooting pain right up my jaw.

Hadrian sees my wince, and his face turns concerned once more. He insists on holding my arm, and walking in front of me as we step into the swampy liquid. The water reaches my thighs, and I'm thankful to the gods that this suit is water-tight. Squelching and a smell of stagnant marsh makes the both of us gag, and we both opt to move as quickly as possible. As we move, the wisps become quicker too, flashing into the distance so that we keep our pace.

To pass through the passageway, the two of us have to turn sideways, so that we perform a strange shimmy through the viscous mud, all the while unable to turn our heads to communicate. The contortion makes my muscles ache after several minutes of my arms raised against the wall, out of the green water, and my head fixed on Hadrian's.

When we climb out the embankment at the other end, Hadrian turns to help me up and gasps.

Holding his hand and with one foot on the stone flexed, ready to spring from the marsh, I turn my head with difficulty to look behind.

The passageway is filled with flowers.

Instead of stagnant water, tall grasses bloom and arch gracefully amid wild bluebells forming conical blue hats. Daisies as large as my hands loiter, towering high with the grasses, with flowering bushes trapped beneath. Ivy spreads up the damp, cold walls.

And continues to grow.

'What in hell's...' I begin, until I feel my arm give an almighty tug. I'm hurled unceremoniously out of the water-turned-grass, and I soon know why: Hadrian is staring in wonder at the impromptu garden growing. His hands have started to shake, and his eyes are wide and glassy. I open my mouth to say something sarcastic, but something twinges in my chest.