Page 64 of Outcast Fae

I counted to four. Vaughn leaped and scattered the sand, but no new stepping stones were revealed.

“No!” Vaughn cried out as his legs windmilled in midair.

We started to drop like two heavy logs. Panic flared in my chest. We would be fried like bacon.

Vaughn dropped the shirt and held onto my legs, bringing me down with him. My wings beat harder, slowing down our descent, but just barely. I gritted my teeth, growling, sinking with Vaughn’s massive weight attached to me.

“I can’t,” I hissed, pain rippling across my back.

Vaughn glanced up, meeting my gaze.

Then he let me go.

I shot up and over the edge of the pit. I landed on the ground, tumbling across the sand as he fell into the pit.

No. Oh, no!

“Vaughn!” I scrambled to my hands and knees and rushed back. Heart in my throat, I peered down.

Vaughn glanced up at me, his massive hands clinging to the sidewall. Relief washed over me as I reached down, grabbed his wrist, and pulled. I helped him climb up, feeling as if my arm would come out of its socket. I cried out in pain but held on. At last, he clambered over and collapsed at my side, chest heaving.

I lay on my stomach for a few beats as the pain on my back and arm slowly subsided.

He was alive. We were alive.

“They figured it out for us. C’mon,” a voice said.

I glanced up to find Chan and Sinasre standing on the other side of the pit. Chan cast a handful of sand in front of him, ready to jump.

I sprang to a sitting position. “No, wait!”

Chan didn’t heed my warning and vaulted onto the first visible stepping stone.

Vaughn sat up as if spring-loaded. I counted in my head, my heart hammering, and when I reached four I yelled. “Jump!”

“Jump!” Vaughn yelled with me.

But Chan didn’t jump in time. The stone disintegrated and he fell into the electrified pit. A horrible crackling sound echoed from deep in the ground.

Unable to watch, I turned away, throwing my arms over Vaughn and hiding my face in his neck.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chan was dead.

We stared into the pit at his twisted shape. There was no movement, no life. His body was charred and blackened in places from the electricity that had stopped his heart, ending his life.

They’d killed another of us, just as Vaughn had said. First Wally, now Chan. None of us were going to make it out of here alive.

Vaughn let out a tortured growl, full of anger and frustration. Sinasre, on the far side of the pit, stared down in silence. I felt the tears sliding down my cheeks and I smeared them away, leaving hot, wet trails across my face. I didn’t know Chan, but what I knew of him was that he seemed to be a decent guy. He was quiet and helpful. He’d been kind to the members of our group, sharing the fish he’d caught.

He didn’t deserve this. No one deserved this.

I waited for Meadow Song or Silver Bear to show up and make some pronouncement. I wasn’t sure what I would do if they did. Try to rip their throats out with my bare hands? That felt like the best option, but I knew it would end my life. They killed Chan for no reason. Any act of aggression would warrant a target on my back.

But did I care? There was no rhyme or reason with these people. I would die here no matter what, so why not take out a murderous human first?

Vaughn’s hand rested on my arm. It was a small thing, this intimate touch of skin on skin, but I took comfort in it. It seemed our teamwork through the obstacle course had solidified something between us. That trust that I’d struggled to find had finally come to pass.