Whatever he needed, I would give.
Up ahead, a turtle and lotus carved door waited for me. Cracked open and giving me a way to escape the dragon wall.
My heart hurled me toward it, guiding me, whispering to me.
Dashing through the wall, the mountain and trees swallowed me whole.
Thick branches blocked the starlight and wide trunks blocked my path. The air grew thick—every breath acrid with smoke and scorched stone.
Flinging my hands out in front of me, I ran.
I didn’t need eyes to see where I was going. Not when my heart guided me.
The ground sloped upward.
A luminous glow beckoned me forward, but...it wasn’t moonlight.
It pulsed a violent gold, licking at rocks and leaves, revealing a cave mouth where a monster dwelled.
Trading bracken and foliage for a world made of water and stone, I staggered against the wall as a wickedly sharp pain almost killed me. The world turned helter-skelter as I clutched my chest, sipping air, begging the pain to stop. Each inhale was too hollow, too shallow—filling with an absence as if Lucien couldn’t hold on any longer.
The cord in my heart—the tether in my soul—blazed white-bright, jerking me forward.
My shoulder bruised against the rock as I followed the urging—like a compass needle, leading me to where I was supposed to be.
Whisper kept pace with me, his whiskers flaring as the air temperature increased to unbearable degrees.
The deeper we travelled into the caves, the louder the water roared. It thundered everywhere and nowhere, loud enough to drown everything.
I ducked under a low arch, tripping into a large cave that’d been fashioned by time and liquid. Instead of round walls and empty spaces, the cave wove like a snake, full of shadows and corners, pockets of pools glittering in the red haze.
Whisper hissed as he stepped into a shallow puddle, shaking off his paws as if it’d burned him.
Steam rose from the ground, licking around my ankles.
It had to be close to boiling but...I couldn’t feel it.
My skin didn’t blister.
I was immune.
But Whisper...
He pranced on the spot, trying to find a cold patch. He snarled and hissed and...couldn’t come any further.
Pointing the way we’d travelled, I panted, “Go back.”
He roared.
“Go home,” I roared right back. “You can’t come. I’ll help him. IpromiseI’ll help him.”
Lucien couldn’t be too much further in this labyrinth.
I would find him.
Save him...
“Go, kitty cat.” I broke into another run, leaving the panther behind as I followed a pitch-black tunnel, lit up thanks to Lucien’s fire.
