Granite walls surrounded her, and a ceiling soared high above, worn symbols etched deep into its surface. The ground beneath her boots hummed with a faint energy she could feel through the soles, and her unease grew. Ahead, the vast entrance, like a gaping maw, led to a platform jutting into empty space.
She’d never been one to panic easily, but her instincts were practically screeching the national bloody anthem. Ash swiped her sweaty face with the back of her hand, trying to stifle her dread. “Where the hell did you bring me?”
He ignored her, crouching on the platform’s ledge.
Perspiration beaded her brow and dripped down her spine.Dammit.She stripped off her parka and tied it around her waist.
The sudden hiss of steam venting from fissures in the veined wall next to her had her stumbling back, her heart careening in her chest. “Shit!”
Ash covered her nose, groaning at the god-awful stench of sulfur, and something else…something wild and ancient thrumming in the air.
Wild and ancient?
Hysterical laughter choked her, and she clenched her hands, her own abilities tingling beneath her skin. Every instinct within her screamed that something was wrong.
Ash stomped over to the red-haired jerk and nearly tripped on her own feet when she reached the massive,raillessplatform. She grabbed the rugged edges of the wall and gaped.
Holy bloody crap!She was so high up that clouds billowed past! In the distance, through the violet-edged vapors, she caught glimpses of golden spires glinting in the twilight.
“This isn’t Romania,” she breathed. “Russia? They have buildings with gold domes and…” her voice trailed off as the clouds sailed past and more of the city came into view.
Her mouth fell open as the world unfurled before her like a hallucination—an eerie, fairy-tale-like realm no earthly architect could have imagined. The sprawling city seemed carved into the foothills and the mountain itself, with towering, monolithic buildings and enormous archways big enough to?—
What?
To fly through?
Ugh. She shook her head at the foolish thought.
Glittering domes and towers rose impossibly high, bridges threading between the mountain peaks. Beyond the city, her gaze fixed on a soaring, shimmering palace built into the mountain itself, rising into the sky, its spires half swallowed by thick clouds.
It isn’t Russia.
“What is this place?” she whispered.
Her abductor shifted on his haunches, his attention fixed outside.
Something was off with him as well. He wasn’t like those clueless idiots who tried to burn her on that bloody pyre. Like Race, he carried a similar undercurrent of danger—wild and barely restrained. He lacked charm or softness, exuding only cold intensity. The kind that made her anxiety tighten like a noose.
“Look, if this is some war-torn sanctuary of yours, just say so. Otherwise, I’m going to assume I’ve been kidnapped by a bloody cult.”
That got him to blink. “You’re safe.”
“Oh, yes, Isooobelieve you!” she retorted. “You not only abducted me, you bloody knocked me out!”
He exhaled through his nose. Not quite a huff of irritation, then he resorted to silence again, his attention on the view.
She pushed up the long sleeves of her navy Henley and thermal undershirt, wiping her damp face with the hem of her shirt, her attention back on the glimmering city in the distance.
A low rumble echoed like thunder, but it felt different. Deeper. More primal. Her gaze snapped back to her abductor. His expression darkened, and he rose slowly.
She followed his gaze to the clouds in the distance.
At first, she saw nothing but drifting dark vapors. Then something indistinct slipped through the gray billows—enormous, serpentine, with wings so wide they didn’t flap so much as glide through the sky. Shadows clung to its form, then a sparkle of emerald flashed. It banked through the low clouds, too fast and too fluid to be anything engineered.
Her breath caught. “What the actual f?—”
A hand slapped over her mouth before the rest escaped. “Quiet.”
