Suddenly, Kai is knocked backward, and he flies through the air, landing on his feet in a crouch as dust billows around him. His eyes burn fiercely, now more gold than blue.
“Something is messing with us,” he murmurs, his muscles tense, ready to strike.
“It’s a witch,” I murmur.
“Seriously, first an ancient-as-fuck vampire, then a Grindylow, and now a crazy-ass witch?”
I shrug and close my eyes, letting out a slow breath. “We are in the Outlands,” I murmur, more to myself than to Kai. The weight of those words settles over me as I surrender to my magic, allowing it to flow through me like a current. I stretch out my senses, letting them expand and unfurl, searching.
In my mind’s eye, I see the rugged terrain spread out before me, my owl sense homing in on the smallest details. I focus, trying to detect anything—any movement, any shift in the air that might indicate something hidden or lurking. My vision sweeps across the vast expanse, and what greets me is a valley stripped bare of life, a wasteland of dirt, with jagged rocks that dominate the landscape like the bones of some ancient, forgotten creature.
The terrain is harsh and unyielding, its sharp edges reflecting the unforgiving nature of this environment. The ground is cracked and dry, with only the occasional twisted, brittle shrub breaking the monotony. My senses continue to probe, reaching deeper, searching for the slightest hint of movement, but all I find is emptiness. An unsettling calm.
“I can’t find her,” I whisper, the words tasting like dust on my tongue. But even as I say it, I pick up on a faint heartbeat, a slight shift in the air ahead.
My head snaps in the direction, and I open my eyes. “This way.”
Kai silently falls into step next to me as we stealthily maneuver around the jagged ridges and boulders littering the valley. The sharp and irregular rocks loom ominously around us, casting elongated shadows that seem to swallow us whole as we hastily move in the direction of the heartbeat.
“I wonder if this witch is the one who cursed your dragons.”
My attention darts to him. “One, they aren’t my dragons, and two, what curse?”
“You don’t know?”
“Obviously not or I wouldn’t be asking.”
“They couldn’t come here themselves because of a curse that a witch had placed on them, and since we are here to collect the last—”
Suddenly, Kai’s mouth snaps shut, and he grips my arm tightly, his eyes wide with alarm as he brings a finger to his lips in a desperate gesture for silence. I freeze, straining my senses to detect the source of his hesitation. The air grows heavy with awareness, the silence broken only by the faint whistle of the late-afternoon breeze through cracks in the rocks.
Then, without warning, the ground beneath us trembles violently, a low rumble reverberating through the valley. My heart pounds in my chest as I look up, dread pooling in the pit of my stomach. A crack splits through the cliff above us, uneven fissures spiderwebbing across the rocky surface.
“Run!” I shout, my voice raw with fear, pushing Kai forward with all the strength I can muster. We sprint frantically, our feet pounding against the unforgiving earth.
A deafening roar fills the air as the cliff side breaks off behind us, a cascade of rocks and debris hurtling down in a deadly avalanche. With each step we take, the earth quakes beneath our feet, as if eager to devour us, while the suffocating cloud of dust and debris follows. In this moment, there’s no room for fear or hesitation, only the primal instinct to survive.
Without warning, Kai’s arm shoots out, his hand firmly grasping mine with a strength that leaves no room for argument. He yanks me sideways with a sudden, jarring force, and the shock of it rips a scream from my throat.
Before I can fully comprehend what’s happening, Kai pulls me into a narrow crevice in the rock face. The space is barely wide enough for the two of us, and the rough stone scrapes against my back as he presses me into the tight gap. His strong arms envelop me, drawing me close, his body a solid shield against the outside world. The warmth of his chest seeps into me, a stark contrast to the cold, unyielding rock at my back.
I grip his shirt tightly in my fists, my knuckles white with the intensity of my hold. My heart pounds, each beat loud and frantic in my ears as I bury my face in his chest, seeking refuge in the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. His scent, warm and familiar, mingles with the faint, dusty smell of the rocks, grounding me in the midst of the chaos.
Kai’s face presses close to mine, his breath warm against my neck, and I can feel the tension coiled in his muscles. His body is taut, every sense alert, yet there’s a calmness in the way he holds me.
As we hide in the crevice, a thick cloud of dust sweeps past, filling the air with a gritty haze that clings to our skin and makes it hard to breathe. The dust chokes the world outside, turning everything into a blur of brown and gray, but in this small, enclosed space, there’s a strange sense of safety. Time seems to stretch and warp, each second dragging out as we wait, the world outside muffled by the thick, swirling dust. The only soundis our breathing, Kai’s deep and steady, mine fast and shallow as I try to calm the panic that bubbles just beneath the surface.
Chapter thirty-two
Ashwiyaa
“If I lose my temper, you lose your head.”
Coughing, Kai and I reluctantly pull apart, our movements slow and stiff as we step out from the narrow crevice that sheltered us. The world outside is eerily transformed, as if we’ve emerged into another realm entirely. Gray dust swirls around us in dense, whirling eddies. It creates an almost ghostly atmosphere as the sun dips lower, casting its final rays behind the towering mountain range. The light filters through the dust, turning the air a muted orange and gray, adding to the surreal, otherworldly feel of the scene.
Gasping for breath, I instinctively raise my elbow to cover my mouth and nose, trying to find some relief from the heavy, suffocating air that clings to us like a second skin. The dust is thick, gritty, and it scratches at mythroat and lungs with every breath I take. My chest tightens as I struggle to draw in clean air, the effort making my head spin.
I glance over my shoulder at Kai, my eyes blinking rapidly as I try to clear the dust and grit from my vision. His figure is barely distinguishable through the haze, his body coated in a thin film of dust that clings to his skin like ash. Even his hair has taken on a grayish tinge, the particles settling into every strand. He looks as if he’s been carved from the very rock around us, a living statue brought to life by the storm.
