“Exactly!It’s not like I can somehow show up at the castle and knock on the door.Like, ‘Oh, hey.Yeah, it’s me.You didn’t want me before, so I figured I’d track you down and pretty much force you to hire me to have sex with you.’”
Savagely, I bit a hunk of bread off the loaf.With it partially hanging from my mouth, I muttered, “Humiliating.”
Marina leaned her head against the trunk and flopped her big dragon-feet out in front of her.“Is it truly so impossible to infiltrate the castle as Rafaela says?”
“I’m sure.You know she doesn’t exaggerate much.”
Marina snorted.
“Okay, so she exaggerates.But not when it’s serious stuff.She doesn’t want me to get hurt, so this is serious to her.She says the Abysmal Fortress regards everyone as its enemy.”
“Except for her sister, now dead.”
“You heard that?”
Marina shrugged.“The fortress treated her sister like a pampered princess while making Rafaela’s life miserable.”
“What else did you overhear?”
“That you have to fly across the abyss to get there, and only then, if the castle allows you to land.”
I rose.“I’m gonna go see how deep the abyss is.”
“Rafaela said not to risk it.There’s no way to cross without a flying beast.”
“Or a spell.”
“Or a spell.Maybe.”
“I’m just gonna look.No harm in that.See what we’re working with, then head back to town, hide out, make a new plan.Then attack.”I grinned, though it was a little forced.“And kill him.”
Marina wiped a dusting of bread flour from her palms and stood too.When I walked, she followed, leaving our belongings behind.
When I was within twenty feet of the abyss, and the shadows licked at my boots and the hem of my skirts, I took one measured step at a time.
Marina stopped following.“Careful, Sora!”
I nodded.The shadows weren’t hurting me beyond a profound cold.
I drew another step closer.The shadows wrapped around my ankles.
Another.They climbed my calves.
More and more, until I was one step away from the edge, and the shadows hugged my torso.
My entire body trembled.My teeth chattered.
“Sora…”
I shuffled that final step.
Crouched down to peer ever so cautiously into the abyss?—
I yelped, and jumped back when a bridge materialized in front of me.
One moment there was nothing but shadows, the next there was an entire hanging bridge that linked Ombrash Island and its Abysmal Fortress.
My heartbeat pounded.My breaths came too fast.
