I try to match his pace.Care to share your strategy, or am I just supposed to follow you blindly through this death trap?
My strategy is to get there first and stay alive,he replies.Anything beyond that depends on what we find. So stay close.
I sense his focus sharpening like a blade being honed—thoughts narrowing to the path ahead, the sounds around us, the potential threats lurking in every shadow. But beneath that clarity, his focus keeps snagging on me. I’m not sure if it’s exactly interest—despite the bond, he somehow seems to keep a veil of control—but it’s at least charged awareness. The volatile pull of someone who sees me as both obligation and risk, a live wire he can’t quite let go of.
Fine. Lead on, Champion.
We push deeper into the forest, the glow from the vegetation casting everything in its otherworldly light. Strange sounds echo from the darkness between trees. Clicks and chirps and occasional low moans that raise the hair on my arms.
The other champions can’t have landed far from us,I think.
Which is why we need to stay ahead of them.Hiswords slide into my mind.Try making less noise.
He moves with a predator’s silence, parting glowing ferns with the back of his hand, his gaze constantly sweeping the alien landscape. I follow, trying to mimic his stealth, but my boots catch on roots and my clothes snag on thorny vines. The forest is a symphony of unnerving sounds, and every snap of a twig under my foot feels like a gunshot.
We come to a deep chasm that looks like a black wound in the luminescent earth, spanned only by a massive fallen tree slick with glowing moss. It’s at least thirty feet across, with a drop that vanishes into darkness.
You first,he sends, his meaning clear. My lighter weight makes me the test subject.
My pleasure,I think back, my tone dripping with sarcasm.
I inch onto the log, arms outstretched for balance. The moss is like wet silk under my boots, treacherous and slick. Still, the trunk seems strong, not yet substantially rotted.
But halfway across, my foot slides.
I flail, a strangled gasp escaping my lips as I pinwheel, my gaze plunging into the abyss.
A hand clamps around my arm, yanking me back from the edge with brutal force. I slam into Zeriel’s chest, his other arm wrapping around my waist to steady me. My hands fly up, pressing flat against the hard wall of his torso. His compass digs into my ribs, a cold point of pressure between our bodies.
His heart hammers against my palm, a frantic, powerful rhythm that echoes my own.
Got you,the thought is a low rumble, devoid of his usual sharpness. It’s just… a fact. A statement of possession that has nothing to do with ownership and everything to do with the solid reality of his grip.
I had it,I lie stupidly, my voice breathy and thin. My face is pressed against his chest, and the scent of him—leather, steel, and the clean scent of rain—fills my head.
He doesn’t answer, but I feel the shift in him through the link. A flicker of something that isn’t anger or impatience. It’s a hot, sharp spike of awareness, a possessive current that arcs between us before he shoves it back down.
He lets me go almost as abruptly as he caught me, nudging me forward.Finish crossing.
I do, my legs trembling slightly, acutely aware of him right behind me, his presence a tangible weight at my back. We reach the other side in silence, but the air feels heavier than before, the near-fall still lodged in my bones.
I turn to him when we’re on solid ground.A little warning next time you decide to play the hero? You nearly gave me a heart attack.
His mouth quirks faintly.You were already having one. I just stopped it from getting worse.
Before I can retort, a scream rips through the forest, high and sharp, followed by the brutal, wet crunch of what can only be breaking bone. It comes from the east, not far from our position.A champion or their slave has found their end. Or their beginning.
Zeriel’s head snaps in that direction, his amusement vanishing.That’s our cue.
He breaks into a run, not waiting to see if I’ll follow. I curse under my breath and sprint after him, the echo of the scream chasing us deeper into the forests. The race has begun.
Chapter 46
We drive through the glowing undergrowth, each step dragging us into harsher, more uneven ground. My lungs burn, but the adrenaline sparked by that scream keeps me moving, my gaze fixed on the powerful lines of Zeriel’s back as he carves a path ahead.
It sounded like a female scream. I hope it wasn’t one of the wards I know. And I hope whatever got her isn’t too close behind us. I don’t sense dragons in the immediate vicinity, except…
Another sound begins to intrude, a deep, rhythmic thrumming that vibrates from above.
