Page 10

T he tulip tunnel opened to a grand entryway that was far bigger than the underground cavern. Chandeliers with rows of crystals radiated magic light that brightened the space so much that it felt like midday.

I didn’t wait for anyone to realize who I was. I ran straight through the middle and rushed out the fortress’s main entrance. Guards shouted questions to each other behind me, but I kept running. If I had any chance of—

Of what?

I almost stopped and debated with myself. But instead, I hiked my dress up a few more inches and charged down the grand staircase outside. I had to put more distance between the angry king and myself. It was probably futile, considering the bond between us, but I couldn’t just wait for him to decide that I was as horrible as every fae he’d ever imagined. I didn’t know what I was hoping to accomplish, but I knew I needed more space. And fast .

The sun hadn’t climbed above the mountainous horizon yet, but pink and orange light rays skittered across the sky and reflected off the snowy surfaces, lighting the world enough that I could easily see where I was going.

More elves roamed about the courtyard at the bottom of the stairs than I’d have expected at the break of dawn. Some wore soldier gear, some looked like they were exercising horses and dogs, but some looked like normal people, just gathering early to mingle. It was a strange idea, but one I did not have time to entertain.

I ran even harder, toward the impossible bridge that spanned the lake hundreds of feet below the fortress.

No guards blocked the bridge. Strange. For people so obsessed with keeping their fortress secure, you’d think they would have soldiers checking anyone who entered the bridge.

A rush of shouts erupted behind me. The guards from the fortress entryway must have decided that I shouldn’t have raced through there moments earlier. Just before I climbed the steps up to the bridge, someone yelled my name.

“Callista!” Mylo. The one person I really had betrayed—though not deliberately. If intentions counted for anything, I’d never really lied. I glanced toward his voice, hoping to explain, but he was farther away than the group of soldiers who ran toward me. He held the reins of a huge horse who looked like he was ready to bolt at any distraction.

The group of soldiers caught my attention again, and I shook my head. I had to keep going. I climbed onto the bridge and raced for the other side. Before I was even a fourth of the way across, I stumbled on my own feet and fell to my knees.

I whipped my head behind me, terrified of the soldiers catching me before I regained my footing, but they had all stopped at the bridge’s entrance.

“Callista.” Mylo’s voice carried on magic all the way out to the bridge. “Come back. I’m sure there’s a solution to whatever has made you run. But… you must come off the bridge.”

I shook my head slowly, and a cold wind flipped my hair in front of my face. I hadn’t noticed the cold before, but now that I was still—with my hands and knees touching a frozen bridge—it chilled my entire body. I had to keep moving, had to warm back up.

I pushed up to my feet again. The soldiers still had not followed me onto the bridge. I couldn’t explain it, but I wouldn’t argue with good fortune.

And since they weren’t making me run, I walked so I didn’t fall again. I moved slower this time, and tried to catch my breath as I walked. This bridge was five or six feet wide, but didn’t have a railing. I couldn’t tell what held it up as it spanned hundreds of feet across the chasm with the lake at the bottom, but I refused to worry about that until I was safely on the other side.

“Callista,” Mylo’s voice whispered across the wind. “Whatever this is about is not worth your life on that bridge. Please come back.”

I shook my head. He would think that. He was the king’s most loyal soldier, the one singled out to help on my first day in the fortress. And he would get in trouble for leaving me unsupervised. No, I could not go back at his insistence.

Sunlight erupted over the mountains and spilled across the bridge like a flag unfurling. The way it sparkled off the snow and erupted over the summits caught my attention, and… I slipped again.

The icy bridge did not help my poor balance.

As I hit my hands and knees this time, though, two huge eyes emerged on the bridge in front of me. A crab-shaped body crawled up from below the bridge—a crab shaped animal that was at least four feet tall.

Its eyes rose on stalks above its head and, while I watched, it unfurled an arm-like structure from its mouth that reached up and wiped dust and dirt off its eyes.

My breathing turned shallow. I wanted to rush to my feet so I could stand taller than the monster, but I was afraid that I would slip and fall—possibly off the bridge. Now that its eyes were cleared, it seemed far too intent on me.

Did giant crabs eat people? Did I look like a giant shrimp?

I backed away slowly, glad that I was on my hands and knees, even if the icy bridge was so cold it burned my skin. At least I had a firm balance.

When I’d put fifteen feet between us, I stood up, hoping to intimidate it now that I was taller.

It didn’t look intimidated.

It unfurled its strange mouth and shot a stream of fire at me.

Fire!

I threw myself to the ground as far to the right as I dared. I wrapped a hand around the edge of the bridge. Why didn’t elves put walls around their bridges?

Heat from the horrible crab’s fire rushed past me, close enough that I still felt it. I pressed my face against the bridge while the hot air worried me. Only inches away from my face, the huge drop to the lake—hundreds of feet—made me light-headed. How was I going to survive a fire-breathing crab and a mountainous fall?

As soon as the fire’s heat above me disappeared, I jumped back to my feet. I avoided looking down and stepped backward. I needed to put more space between me and that thing before it shot fire at me again.

I kept my eyes on the arthropodic monster while stepping backward. It didn’t move toward me, but a rumbling chittering sound filled the bridge behind me. I spun to see what made the noise.

The sight snagged my breath. Giant crabs—hundreds of them—skittered onto the bridge between me and the elves I’d just fled. They swarmed over each other, forming a new moving, writhing surface on the bridge.

I whipped my head around again to check on the first monster. It was no longer alone either. At least a dozen more giant crabs had joined it, and they all started unfurling their unusual mouths.

Blood rushed to my head. I couldn’t dodge them all. I turned back to the larger group, and they opened their mouths too.

My breath shortened. Would they burn me from both sides? I risked a look at the lake down below, and the entire landscape tilted. I grabbed my head. Not again , I silently shouted at myself. I can’t keep losing my entire sense of up and down. Not when I need to make decisions.

I glanced at the lake again. Could I survive a fall hundreds of feet like that? I shook my head. Not likely.

But these fiery crabs? Would I survive their flames? Definitely not.

I didn’t have time to convince myself to jump. Their mouths opened. Flames filled my vision, and I closed my eyes.

Heat enveloped me, surrounding my body on both sides. But the searing pain I expected from fire did not come. Instead, the air warmed like a hot, summer day .

My eyes flew open, and my stomach flipped as I realized what had happened. A great black, leathery wing wrapped in front of me, shielding me from the giant horde of overgrown crabs, while a drekkan body protected me from the monsters behind us.

A new warmth rose inside my chest, and it overwhelmed me with feelings for the cursed drekkan king. He had come. He told me to leave, but he came anyway. He’d protected me again, even though I’d broken his rule, invaded his rose cavern, and run away. He’d come and rescued me from my own rash decision. I reached out and touched his wing. Heat met my fingertips. Such beautiful heat. “Thank you,” I whispered.

He roared and, even from within his wing, I felt his fire sear the air. Then he unwrapped the wing around me just enough that he could turn and blow flames behind us both.

After a few seconds he lifted his wings away from my body and backed up until he made eye-contact with me. He was so big that the bridge looked very narrow and unstable under him. I wanted to tell him to hold still before he fell, but I didn’t. I didn’t say a word.

Piles of ashes littered the bridge, and the smells of burnt and combusting shells reached me as soon as the drekkan stepped away. Burnt shells and cold air. I wouldn’t be able to cross the bridge, in either direction, until the ashes cooled and cleared. I was going to get very cold before I could leave the bridge.

The king’s gravelly drekkan voice rumbled through the air. He seemed to be attempting a soft volume, but it easily carried through the morning chill. “I’m going to pick you up unless you say not to.”

I raised my arms so his claw could wrap around my waist more securely, and then I relaxed into his warm, scaly hold as he lifted me off the bridge.