Chapter 21

                “This is so, so bad,” Acacia mumbled as she paced the hallway. They were trapped in a supposedly overgrown and abandoned place. Which also meant that no one knew they were here. Lifea’s plan of a quick trip had been useless, since Siri wouldn’t know they were lost.

                  The Solark was also a lost cause because they couldn’t even find it. And transporting didn’t work—Acacia had tried.

                  Lifea was flipping through the pages of the Book of Plans. Not so cleverly named, in Acacia’s opinion. “Wow, I think this was a sort of journal for somebody. This whole book is filled with plans. Wait, isn’t Cloudstorm the name of the alien solar system?” Lifea asked, turning another page.

                  “Yeah, why?” Acacia didn’t care that her voice was on the near verge of panic. “Inside here, someone wrote that he or she had plans to destroy it,” Lifea replied, sounding so calm despite their current situation.

                  “To destroy an entire solar system? Who wrote that?” Acacia walked over to Lifea, curling her fists to steel her frantic nerves.

                  “I don’t know. But I don’t think it’s happened yet, or news would’ve hit our village,” Lifea admitted. “And this could be a joke. Destroying a solar system is no easy—” Acacia interrupted her mid-sentence.

                  “We have bigger problems, like getting out of here,” she snapped. Lifea huffed. “Seriously? We’re talking about this again?”

                  She wanted to argue now? Fine. “What are you talking about? I’ve never done anything wrong,” Acacia shot back. “How about making Bloome dump me, and embarrassing me in front of my town by showing your powers?” Lifea screamed.

                  “If I didn’t do anything, we’d all be dead!” Acacia shouted. Their voices grew louder the more they argued. Finally, Lifea blurted, “He used to love me!” Acacia stared open-mouthed at the elven girl.

                  “Bloome used to like me. Until you came. Then you started dating with him in secret. That’s why I hate you so much!” she yelled. Acacia kept staring as Lifea stomped to a side of the hall and curled her knees in.

                  As much as Acacia wanted Lifea to feel hurt for every unkind thing she’d said to her, she couldn’t help feeling a pang of sympathy for her. After all, this had been a major misunderstanding. Acacia didn’t like Bloome—at least not the way he liked her.

                  And Lifea was mad because he’d dumped her for another girl who didn’t even like him. “I don’t like him, like him,” Acacia said. She sank down beside Lifea. After a minute of silence, she added, “And . . . I didn’t mean to embarrass you or whoever when I saved your village.”

                  Lifea sniffled. Silence. “I’m sorry I set those honey jar traps for you.” Acacia smiled. “So, we good?”

                  Lifea nodded, wiping her tears away as she stood up. “Yeah. At least until we get out.” “Then let’s find a way out of here,” Acacia felt along the walls of the hall, stopping when she caught a glimpse of the book again. The words were in threatening, blood-coloured words.

                  “No kidding,” she whispered as the words sank in. Someone had really wanted to destroy Cloudstorm. Literally. They needed to find their way out of here first, but just in case, Acacia tucked the book under her arm. Lifea was looking around the hall, surveying the vines when Acacia turned around.

                  “Do you think Siri shut the Solark?” Lifea hissed. Acacia hesitated, hoping the quiet was enough. She didn’t necessarily trust Siri though . . . .

                  Loud voices and footsteps attracted her gaze to the hall on the left. Lifea was looking in the same direction. Slowly, Acacia drew some of the sweat of her face (disgusting, but there was zero moisture in the air) for protection in case the people were bad.

                  They crept forward.

                  Silently.

                  Not a trace of sound.

                  They neared the hallway, and Lifea nodded to Acacia’s water-ball. “Hyaahhahhhh?” Acacia let the water ball splash onto the ground. Up ahead, Annice, Claris and Bloome were standing, braced for attack, and faces ashen with fear.

                  “Whoo!” Claris whooped as the groups hugged each other. Lifea sidled closer to Acacia and away from Bloome. Acacia pretended not to notice. “What are you guys doing here?” she asked.

                  “This elf-girl Siri made us go through a Solark, and we ended up in this weird hall,” Claris answered. Annice bit her lip. “We couldn’t find the Solark. Just a hall leading to an empty podium.”

                  As if on cue, there was a grinding noise—like turning gears—and everyone glanced upwards. “Oh no,” Lifea whipped her head around, like someone was watching them before leaning in and saying, “This castle is enchanted.”

                  “Enchanted?” Annice paled. “What does that mean?” Lifea swallowed and continued, “An enchanted castle. The hallways aren’t the same, each leading to a different object. But without anybody in a hallway, the gears grind, making the hallways shift and change places without moving around. That’s why we couldn’t find the Solark. It could be anywhere. Any hallway.”

                  Acacia didn’t completely understand that statement, but she knew enough. They needed a plan. Splitting up would be a bad idea. However, if all five of them went into a hall at the same time, that meant that the chances of the gears changing the hallways would lessen by at least—twenty percent.

                  “I think we shouldn’t split up,” Claris argued when Acacia explained her plan. Why did plans always end up in arguments? The argument was reaching crescendo proportions when a teleportal appeared beside the group.

“How did that happen?” Bloome mumbled as Lifea peeked through the teleportal. “Even if it isn’t safe, we can’t stay in here,” Acacia panicked. This was scary. There was no safety net.

They could be heading from a danger to another. This could’ve been a planned trap. To make their group so desperate for escape. And yet, she still stepped towards the teleportal. Staying in a hallway-changing enchanted castle was a bad idea. She just hoped that this wasn’t a mistake.