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“It was nothing you didn’t deserve for almost feeding my brother to a bunch of demented flowers,” Runa snarled from her position over Kronk’s opposite shoulder.

Before I could argue my case, Kronk had reached the other side. He shrugged, dropping his siblings to the ground. Before I could manage a dignified dismount, two powerful hands grabbed me, and I sailed over Kronk’s head. My back slammed the dirt, oxygen punching from my lungs. I gasped, staring up into the athos’s inverted face.

Kronk leaned over me. The promise of my demise was a glimmer in his eyes as he pounded his fist into his palm. I croaked in response. Seeming appeased, he nodded and stormed away.

Chapter Seventeen

RUNA

I stompedthrough the woods behind Kronk. Despite our supposed alliance, the vampire wasn’t one of us and never would be. Again, he’d put a member of our group at risk. Same as he had in the alleyway and the throne room. Other than Idris, I’d never met a more self-serving bastard. Custodis was just another corrupt leader, faking concern to fulfill his own agenda. It was a fact I needed to keep in the forefront of my mind, no matter what slipped past the devil’s manipulative tongue.

Kronk slowed in front of me. “I think we found the ravine.”

Together, our group moved forward, one cautious step at a time. Our next obstacle stretched out before us. Mist rose from the vast chasm, the sounds of the forest echoing off its steep walls. The opposite bank might as well have been an entire continent away, the length impossible to cross.

I dared to glance into the immense pit, toeing a rock and kicking it into the ravine. The stone pinged once off the rim, then into the hole. Not another sound emerged. It never hit bottom. I shivered, inching back from the edge.

Voices hit us from either side of our group.

“We’re not alone,” Drazen said.

We scanned the cliffside. Others had made it here, too. In small, ragged groups, they gathered along the edge.

I glanced to my left. “There’s a bridge.”

Though calling it a “bridge” was a stretch. Frayed ropes held together rotted boards, several of which were missing. The rope passage swayed in the breeze, seeming on the verge of collapse.

Others noticed it as well. Shouts rang out. Two of the groups rushed to the entrance at the same time.

“This should be interesting,” Drazen muttered.

After a brief tussle, one of the competitors made it to the crossing first. With little hesitation, he raced onto the rotting surface. The ropes pitched and groaned beneath his weight. I held my breath, waiting to see if he would fall.

Would we need to use the bridge as well? No way that rotted thing would hold Kronk’s weight. And I sure as hell wasn’t leaving him behind. An image of my sister’s sweaty hand in mine rolled through my memories, and I winced, pushing the thought aside.

Behind the first man, a second followed. Then another. And another.

“I can’t watch.” I smacked my hands over my eyes, peering between my fingers.

Sure enough, the rope snapped, and half of the wooden planks gave way. Screams rang out as several of the competitors plunged into the bottomless void. Some managed to hang on, clinging to the rope, slowly making their way across, hand over hand.

“The bridge is a death trap designed to thin the herd,” I said.

“Agreed. We’ll need to build our own, as we did in the water challenge,” Custodis answered, his icy gaze locked on one of the trees.

He turned to Kronk. “Think you can knock one of those over?”

Kronk nodded, lines of determination furrowing his thick brow. “Let’s find out.”

Standing behind the tree Victor indicated, Kronk rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. Palms planted against the mossy bark, he stabbed the toes of his boots into the ground, stomping footholds. That done, he leaned his considerable weight into the trunk and shoved.

Thick muscle rippled across my brother’s broad shoulders. Veins stood out on his giant biceps. His stony complexion turned pink, then red, then almost purple. I chewed on my thumbnail, uncertain who would break first, the tree or my brother. Finally, the wood splintered and cracked. Branches swayed over our heads.

Demanding arms circled me, pulling me back. “Out of the way in case it rebounds.”

The vampire’s frosty cypress scent filled my nostrils. Some defective reflex kept me from breaking free of his grip, allowing his touch instead.

I watched in awe as the tree tilted toward the chasm. Kronk unleashed a mighty roar, and the wood splintered, the noise like lightning had struck the ground. The treetop hit the opposite bank and bounced.