Page 8 of Wicked Prince of Shadows (Wicked Princes #2)

CHAPTER FIVE

Hot, thick, and slick, a vine coiled tight and yanked me forward. My knees slammed into the cracked ground. A scream ripped from my throat as a horrible rotting scent filled my lungs. “Help!”

I clawed for purchase, hands slapping against a nearby trunk. Burning sap splattered onto my palms and ran down my arms, searing, the stink acrid and sharp. My muscles screamed as I pulled, desperate, teeth gritted. The vine jerked me harder, grit and stone grinding against me.

Another vine shot from the darkness and wrapped around my leg, then my waist, constricting like a python. I screamed as it pulled me closer to the edge, my nails breaking as I clawed at the cracked earth. My bandaged feet offered no traction.

"No!" I shouted, twisting violently. The vines smelled like decay, rotted hair, and old blood, their surface slick with some foul substance. Though I tried to use my magic against them, they didn't respond.

These looked like vines, but they weren't made of plants at all! As they held me, they sapped my strength and burned.

My fingers wrapped around a jagged rock, and I swung it down with all my strength against the vine on my waist. The impact sent pain shooting up my arm and into my side, but the vine only tightened. I struck again and again as I slid closer to the chasm’s edge.

"Let go!" I gasped, my lungs straining for air as the vine around my waist squeezed tighter. A strange pulsing sensation passed into me, making me feel as if my energy was draining.

I kicked with my free leg, and one of the vines snapped up around it to bind it too while the others snaked up to squeeze me at my chest. I barely kept my arms out of the slimy vines.

The edge of the chasm was only inches away now, some of the stones and earth crumbling under the weight as the vines pulled me forward relentlessly.

I struck at them with the rock again, but my blows grew weaker as the pressure around my ribs made it harder to breathe. Black spots danced at the edges of my vision.

A pained wheeze escaped my lips as I tried to dig my fingers in.

Help!

I couldn’t even force the words out, I had so little breath left.

DHRRUUUMM-THA-KRAAAK-KRRRUUMMM!

A tremor shook the earth from below. The ground swelled upward in a sudden, violent heave, buckling and cracking. The force threw me backward, away from the edge.

The vines stretched taut, then snapped with the abrupt movement. I tumbled backward and landed hard on my back, the impact driving the breath from my lungs. Dazed, I struggled to roll over as the earth continued to tremble and shift beneath me.

Get up! Whatever had made that would be coming for me.

Ribs and lungs still aching, I scrambled to my feet, staggering away from the edge. The vines writhed where they'd broken, oozing a thick, putrid substance as they retreated back into the darkness. My instincts warned me there were more down in that chasm.

I didn't wait to see if they regrouped. Despite the burning in my feet and the stabbing pain in my ribs, I forced myself to run, putting distance between myself and those grasping horrors.

"Maker preserve me," I gasped, my hand against my throat. My hands shook violently, my skin crawling with the phantom sensation of those vines on my flesh. The sap burns on my arm ached and throbbed.

Several yards away now, I turned to face the chasm again, my mind racing. I still needed to cross. There had to be a way for someone without wings.

The sun sagged low, its light weak and watery, casting everything in long skeletal shadows. Twilight bled across the cracked land, and the air felt colder, heavier, as if the darkness itself were waiting to swallow me whole.

In the fading light of dusk, I scanned the chasm and its line for any clue.

There—about thirty feet away in the center was a sort of column.

But it was the only one. And thirty feet was still too far a distance to jump.

Even the best jumpers could maybe make it to twenty-six feet.

A narrow ribbon of stone connected the landmass to the column and extended to the other side, but it wasn't even a foot across.

In this darkness with those vines—whatever they were—was a death sentence.

Panic clawed at my throat as I stumbled along the edge of the chasm, keeping a safe distance from the edge while searching for any possible safe crossing. The blood moon was rising higher now, casting an eerie dull glow over the landscape that made the shadows deeper and more threatening.

I pushed forward, limping on my bandaged feet, each step sending fresh spikes of pain up my legs.

The trees behind me blocked any view of the palace, but I could feel it looming in my mind.

Was the Hollow King searching for me already? Had he defeated the behemoth?

My chest tightened at the thought of him discovering my escape. His threats lingered as the wind picked up, filling my ears and drying the sweat in my dark hair. Based on the damage to the palace, he likely had far greater issues to manage.

The terrain grew rougher. I followed the chasm's edge as tendrils of dark fog clung to the rocks. Strange boulders jutted from the ground like broken teeth, and thorny vines crept along the rocks, their barbs gleaming in the blood moon's light.

I kept my distance, remembering the burning sap from the trees. Sap dripped from the thorns and hissed a little each time it struck the stone, pitting it.

My stomach twisted. I’d seen that wall of darkness and thought it was just clouds or fog on the edge of the chasm, but no. It was a cliff with fog and mist around it.

Something skittered in the darkness behind me—a clicking sound like bone against stone.

I spun around, swearing inwardly as my muscles tensed. I scanned the area. With a sheer wall of burning sap thornbushes and fog on one side, a dark forest of burning sap trees behind me, and the chasm in front of me, I could jump or…

More rocks clattered about a hundred feet away, sending my blood spiking. Nothing seemed to be moving, but it was almost impossible to see more than rough shapes. I turned back to the edge of the chasm, my stomach twisting and curling in knots.

"Twelve feet to the other side," I estimated, my heart pounding. "Maybe less."

It was still a dangerous jump—terrifyingly so—but not impossible. If I got a running start and didn’t falter or look down, I could do it. My gaze darted to the edge, and the sheer darkness of it made my head spin.

No, don’t look down at all.

No looking down.

No thinking about what could be down there that I couldn’t see.

I trotted back from the edge, my heart hammering in my chest.

My bandaged feet throbbed with every slight shift of weight, but I pushed the pain away and turned just as more rocks shifted closer to me. A terrified squeal rose in my throat as I charged forward, unable to see anything coming at me but already imagining claws or mandibles sinking into my flesh.

The edge rushed toward me, and I flung myself forward with everything I had.

For one terrifying moment, I was suspended over nothing but darkness with the moonlight streaming over me. My stomach lurched as I sailed through the air, arms outstretched.

The opposite edge rushed up, and I struck it chest-first, the impact knocking the wind from my lungs. My fingers scrambled frantically against the loose gravel and dirt, finding purchase on a jagged outcropping of rock.

"No, no, no," I gasped, my legs dangling over the darkness. My arms trembled with the strain of holding my entire body weight. The edge began to crumble beneath my fingers.

I dug my elbows into the edge and heaved upward, ignoring the rocks that bit into my skin. My foot slipped, and I nearly lost my grip entirely.

"Come on!" I growled through clenched teeth, muscles burning as I fought for every inch.

With one final desperate heave, I flung my right leg over the edge, then rolled my body away from the abyss and scrambled out of the way.

My chest heaved with each ragged breath as I pressed my face against the cold, cracked earth.

I'd made it. I'd actually made it across.

Thanking the Maker that the vines hadn’t snagged me out of the air, I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the screaming protest from every muscle and wound.

Something was moving in the darkness—several somethings, their large shapes indistinct but unmistakably closing in. And the pit with the portal was just to the left, a couple hundred feet away.

Wincing, I forced myself forward and ran. My bandaged feet slapped against the ground, each step sending fresh spikes of agony up my legs. The blood moon cast long, distorted shadows across the barren landscape, the darkness filling every crevice and hollow.

Behind me, something let out a high-pitched chittering that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I didn't look back. I couldn't afford to.

There—a darker patch in the ground ahead, roughly circular and slightly sunken. My heart leaped. It had to be the pit. The portal. My way home.

I pushed myself harder, my lungs burning with each breath. Just a little further. Just a few more steps.

The clicking sounds behind me grew louder, more aggressive and heavier. Whatever was pursuing me was gaining ground.

With a final burst of speed, I reached the edge of the pit and skidded to a stop. It was about fifteen feet across, the sides sloping down steeply. The sides were covered in a strange, dark substance that gleamed in the moonlight, shifting with dull highlights like the afterthoughts of color.

I stooped down to swipe my hand over the edge. Whatever the surface was, it was dry. Good. Down below, the portal shimmered with soft light at the bottom of the pit, about seven feet below me.

I thrust my foot against the edge and shoved myself forward.

Down I slid onto the ledge. Through the portal, I could see the marble fountain with the statue of Tanith and all the beautiful blue, white, and purple flowers in the painted planters.

Candles had been set out on the table. Home was just on the other side!

I jumped onto the portal, feet striking first.

And nothing happened.