It’s getting colder. I can see my breath each time I exhale. But I keep marching on.
There’s a small light reflecting in the water up ahead that has hope flaring within me. I pick up my pace even though I am shivering and my legs threaten to give out beneath me.
Before I can reach the glint of my salvation, the ground rumbles beneath me, and I scramble to find a foothold until it passes.
My hand slips off the rock, and I tumble backward into a hole I hadn’t seen. The slick walls make my attempt to find purchase futile, and I fall down, down, down, scraping my hands as I go.
At the bottom of the hole, a shallow pool has formed, and I am soaked to the bone when I splash ass first into it.
I am going to die in this puddle. Who knows what microscopic devils hide in the still water or how long they’ve had to grow. If nothing else, I’ll freeze to death.
No. Fuck that.
Standing, I feel around for an opening, or a way to climb my ass back up, but there’s nothing. The stone is too smooth and wet to be of any use.
The curse I release echoes back at me, and I shut my eyes.
“Are you going somewhere?” a deep voice calls from above, and when I open my eyes, there is firelight bouncing off the walls and the water below me.
“Were you following me?”
“Do I sense thanklessness in that tone?” Raiden asks.
“Stop fucking with me and get me out of here!” As I say it, a rope falls from above.
“It’s not my fault you have the navigation skills of an infant.” I’m going to hit him so hard when I get up there.
I grab the rope and start to climb. Thankfully, the fall felt much further than it was, and the climb is not difficult. Though I do stumble when I reach the top, falling forward into Raiden who wraps his free arm around my waist and holds the torch far from us.
“These tunnels are fucking death traps,” I say, still holding clumsily to him. Then I murmur a reluctant, “Thank you.”
He carries me a couple of steps until my back touches the rough tunnel wall, and I put my hands behind me to steady myself.
He’s leaning over me now, and I can’t find the courage to look him in the face. The fire from the torch he’s holding just above my head is blazing hot on my cheek, and I just know I’m covered in dirt from my short-lived escape attempt.
Raiden reaches his free hand to my chin, tilting it up until I can feel the tickle of his breath on my nose. The air I can’t release sits tight in my lungs, waiting.
“There is no hole you can slither into that I will not pull you out of. Nowhere in the depths of darkness you can sink into that I will not find you.” It’s a threat, I think. But something within me pulses at the way he says it.
Arina
“We are short help today. You will deliver baskets,” Breesha says by way of greeting as I enter the kitchens.
I’m stunned as she pushes a wheeled cart piled with full baskets in front of me. “Alone?”
“You will be fine. You know your way around, yes?”
She knows I do. Since my little mishap, I’ve been going on delivery rounds with the others whenever I can. Working to get my bearings.
Apparently, she’s not worried in the least that I will try to leave. Maybe this is my chance. I haven’t collected any real information to bring back with me, but I can mark my way home. Leave a trail that could lead the soldiers here.
And then be responsible for the death of how many hundreds of innocent fae? No.
I need to speak with Queen Daphne. There has to be a way for them to reconcile whatever rift lies between her and the Rhiza.
I set the first basket before the door labeled on the delivery map Breesha shoved into my hand as she pushed me out. Two sharp knocks should be plenty to let the inhabitants know the basket is out here.
I’m two steps away when, without warning, a hand wraps around my neck, and I’m thrown hard against the wall.
