Chapter Twenty
Bennett
After half an hour of flying, the large and familiar lake spread out before us.
Above it was a partly cloudy sky steadily growing into a stormy one. This wouldn't make finding my tower a simple task.
We landed on the muddy bank, surrounded by grass and moss-coated trees.
"We're on the edge of the lake," Felicia spread out her arm. "So, where's the tower?"
On the horizon, there was only a mass of dark gray clouds…and a little black dot in the distance. The darkest clouds were right above that dot. That had to be it.
"It's that black dot out there," I pointed to it.
"What dot?" Felicia's eyes narrowed. "All I see is clouds."
"Wait," Ophelia held up her hand. "This is glamour. Bennett saw a black dot out there, but we can't see it because we're not princes—I read about protection charms like these in the Wicked Fairy's spell book."
"So, what does that mean?" Timmy raised his paws.
"It means I'm going first," my face tensed.
"Cloaking charms for everyone else," Ophelia waved her wand.
"Oh, there's the black dot," Felicia's eyes widened. "Now I see what you were talking about," she peered out. "What's the best route to the tower? It's on an island, so we can't walk."
"How about you conjure up a boat, Ophelia?" Timmy offered.
"We can't do that, either," she pointed to the churning waves. "Look what's around there."
Small, snapping shapes, sharp fins, and hooked tentacles the height and width of cannons thrashed about in the foam.
"Piranhas, sharks and a kraken," I gritted my teeth. "I had a feeling the Wicked Fairy wouldn't just secure me with glamour and a magic storm." I looked up into the pounding droplets. "This could just be me being a spirit, but could we reach the tower by air?"
"Seems like the only option," Ophelia nodded and lowered her head.
"But we will not see squat in those clouds!" Timmy thrust his arms across his squat body.
"That's what we witches are here for," Baba Yaga drew her wand. "We'll do our best to blast away the clouds, forming as much of a clear path as we can."
"All right then," Timmy put his paws on his hips, "I am in. And you, Felicia?"
"Let's go," Felicia grinned and mounted Bananas.
Ophelia clenched her jaw, pulled her hat on tight, and mounted her broom.
"Wait for me," Timmy climbed in front of her on the broom. "Bananas can get panicky, and I have a poor grip. I think it would be best if I hitch your ride. Does that work for you?"
"Sure. I'd like an extra pair of eyes while I try to steer," Ophelia kicked the broom off towards the raging clouds.
"I'll help," I flew beside her. This was my mission, after all.
"Thanks," she bent tight over her broom.
"No problem!" Timmy and I called together.
"Really," she managed to smile through the storm. "Don't take yourselves for granted, you guys."
"Take ourselves for granted?" Timmy looked up at me. "The swashbuckling cat and the Prince?"
"On second thought," Ophelia lowered her eyes, "Don't get too full of yourselves."
We joined Baba Yaga and the other witches in an oval formation around the ogres.
Ophelia blasted a hex into bunch of clouds, which shrunk them for a few seconds.
Everyone knew we needed the whole witch army.
"Up! Up!" Timmy yowled.
"What?" I pried my eyes up at the light-cracked dark clouds.
"Not look up, go up!" Timmy's claws snagged Ophelia's blouse.
"Hey! Get your claws out of my corset!" She tried to pull him off. "What's going on?"
Timmy pointed down to the sharp fins and long, snapping jaws of sharks just a few inches below.
She zipped upwards and panted. "Sorry about that—low-flying habit."
We had to lower the risks somehow. My spectral eyes darted about. "I could navigate through the storm ahead of us and try to keep us on the smoothest—Aah!" A lightning bolt nearly blasted through me, and I zipped out the way. "Watch out for lightning."
"Got it," she nodded grimly. "And I like your idea, Bennett. Fly ahead."
Then, a great, burgundy peak shaped like a bowling pin slowly rose from the waves. An eye the size of my head opened in the peak's center. Six enormous, hook-studded tentacles lashed up from the waves like whips. A burbling growl came from the churning foam.
"The kraken," I firmed myself. At least it wasn't a dragon—better giant, hooked tentacles then magical fire breath.
"What's your problem with us, Sea Monster?" Ophelia snapped down to it. "Well, other than trying to enter the tower you're guarding, that is."
A tentacle crashed down in front of us, splashing a spray in our faces.
I flew backwards with a jerk.
"Ack!" Ophelia sputtered and wiped her mouth. "I think it threw a fish at me!"
I ducked a swiping, hooked tentacle.
There were tentacles all around us, eager to snare us, spear us with their hooks, and pop us in that sharp beak underwater.
We zipped left and right and loop-de-looped, ducking and dodging tentacles.
Ophelia fired a burning hex at a tentacle, and it dropped into the brine with a hiss.
As she threw hexes, the kraken's tentacles dodged them and lashed out at her.
"Leave my witch alone!" I floated down in front of the kraken, arms crossed, my spectral eyes set in a glare.
The kraken pointed a tentacle at me, then at the tower, and back at me again with confused noises. Its wide eye shuttled with its tentacle.
"His body's still in the tower, you overgrown pile of calamari!" Ophelia yelled up.
The kraken looked back down at me, its eye narrowed, and it growled again.
I whistled. "Oy!"
The kraken's eye turned back to me, and it widened again, still unable to understand.
"I'm the spirit of the Prince," I placed my hands on my chest to better display my transparency.
The kraken's scaly red skin blanched, and a short shriek burst from the waves.
A mischievous grin spread across my face. "Boo!" I shouted at the kraken.
The kraken's beak briefly emerged from the surf as it let out a high-pitched cry and splashed through the waves into the distance.
"See ya, Cyclops!" Ophelia waved. "You," she gave me an air fist-bump, "Are the best spirit ever."
"Thank you," my cheeks turned a deeper shade of ghostly blue.
Crash! Bananas burst through the glass, and landed in the tower with a thump.
The wind forced rain through the crooked hole.
I hovered just beyond the window, and peered through the spiderweb-shaped gap to see a vast, sand-colored circular floor.
Doves fluttered about, and three large grizzly bears sniffed about a coach.
"Looks like we'll have company," my teeth gritted. First the storm, then the sea monsters, and now this?
At the far back, there was the hint of a thin, wooden stairwell.
I flew down through the wide hole and into the tower. While I couldn't exactly get wet, it wasn't pleasant to have cold, sharp rain shoot through me.
Ophelia and Timmy burst through the hole in the glass.
"I knew you guys could do it," Felicia beamed.
"What is all this ruckus?!" a voice screeched.
Goldilocks stormed down the stairwell and into the hall, her hands and face clenched.
"Just giving you a warning that we're not outnumbered," Felicia put her hands on her hips.
"Prepare to fight!" Timmy jumped down from Ophelia's broom and raised his épée. Then, his fur puffed up to dry, turning him into a gray-and-white pompom. "Water," he grumbled and straightened out his fur. "En garde!" he thrust out his épée.
"So," Goldilocks puffed short and low, like a bull about to charge, "You found Tempest Tower. Want to see your ghost prince in the flesh, do you?"
"There are a few things we can't do when I'm disembodied," I held out my hands with a mischievous smile.
"Why should my relationship with Bennett be a problem?" Ophelia waved her wand. "I'm not as wicked as I was before."
"Because you're a witch!"
"Then you're a hypocrite," she fired a hex.
Goldilocks ducked, and the spell grazed over her curls to strike the wall.
"Defend the mistress!" Fred led the charge of doves.
Dragon opened her wide maw, ready to get a meal on the fly.
"You can't have a dragon!" Goldilocks strode forward. "Only the Fairy Godmother had dragons!"
"Sit down and shut up," Ophelia shot a laryngitis and binding hex at her with two flicks of my wand.
Goldilocks flopped face-first onto the floor, ropes around her arms, wrists, and ankles. She raised her head and opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
I bent low under the birds and led my team to the stairwell.
Ophelia held up her wand and took the thin bannister.
"I think our story is near its end," Timmy looked over his shoulder at Felicia as we climbed the stairs.
I floated to the platform and ornate cherry door ahead of us. "That was one adventure we had together, wasn't it?"
A warm, pulling sensation rose in me.
I began to taper into smoke. "I'll see you when I wake," I smiled at Ophelia.
"See you soon," she lifted her head with a warm, firm smile in return.
Wispy tendrils of ectoplasm spread out from my legs. My torso started to taper along with his lower body. I crossed my arms and shut my eyes as I dissolved into fading bits of smoke, into warm darkness until my true eyes opened.
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