“Look, I know you don’t want to be here with us, but you’re going to get us all killed unless you at least try to get your head on straight.”
“My head is on very straight, Nollaig,” Reyna said evenly. “It’s just that our roads do not line up. Your king forced me to bind myself to him. That doesn’t mean I suddenly want him to win this war. In fact, I want him to lose more than I did before.”
“Hmph,” she said. “At least you’re blunt about it.”
With unshed tears burning her eyes, she glared at Lorcan’s retreating back. “He betrayed me. I trusted him, and he twisted that trust into pain.” Reyna did not understand why she was telling this to Nollaig, an enemy shadow fae who probably couldn’t wait to burn Reyna alive once this war was over and done with. “I can’t pretend that he didn’t.”
“Yeah, well, that’s a prince for you.” Nollaig huffed. “Unfortunately, Tarrah thinks he’s needed here. As long as that’s the case, you two are going to have to coexist in peace somehow. Otherwise, the quest fails.”
“Maybe I want to sabotage this quest.”
“You don’t. Because if we fail, the wood king wins. And as much as you hate us, you hate him even more.” Nollaig reached out and gave Reyna’s shoulder an awkward pat. “We’re on the same side, Princess Reyna.”
“We are not,” she growled in response.
“Okay.” With that, Nollaig turned and trailed down the tunnel, her cloak billowing behind her like a wraith.
A red glow loomed large down the path ahead. The party exited the tunnels and strode into a cavern that looked like something straight out of the fire realm. The rock walls around them crumbled from a blasting heat that sank deep into Reyna’s skin. The parched ground led to a thin, rocky path over the center of the floor. On either side of that path were pools of churning, molten lava.
Swallowing hard, Reyna stopped.
“What is this?” she asked as evenly as possible.
Nollaig turned toward her, and even the darkness of her cloak looked crimson in the deep reddish light. “We need to go through here to reach the other gate.”
Reyna pointed at the lava. “That looks like death.”
“Accurate,” Nollaig said. “It’s molten iron. Fall in, and you’re not getting out.”
Reyna’s eyes bugged out of her head. “It’siron?”
“I don’t like it either, but Unseelie will keep us safe,” Tarrah said in a soft voice, her hollow eyes glued on the roiling lava.
“Come,” Nollaig said. “The path is short.”
Reyna didn’t like it, but she also had no choice. She could feel her vows tugging her forward, away from safety and toward the molten iron that would be poison to her fae skin. Grimacing, she followed after the others, stepping carefully on the jagged, cracked ground. Mist swirled around them.
Suddenly, a heavy blast of wind slammed into Reyna’s side. Her balance faltered. She stumbled forward, and her foot caught on crumbling stone. She tipped over the side of the path, a terrified shriek ripping from her throat. Throwing out her arms, she grabbed the edge as she fell, her fingernails digging into the rough stone. Her legs dangled beneath her, and the heat of the lava melted the bottoms of her boots.
Wingallock screamed, darting frantically through the cavern.
Terror burned through her as she clung on with every ounce of strength within her body. She did not dare glance down. She didn’t need to. The churning sea of red was alive in her mind’s eye. Molten iron. Even if she survived the heat, she would never live through the poison of the iron.
Not even a fae before the Fall could survive that.
Sucking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes. Deep down in her soul she knew, she was going to die.
A warm, strong hand curled around her wrist. Another soon followed, rougher and courser than the first. Gritting her teeth, she stared up to see Lorcan and Nollaig leaning over the ledge. They held onto her as tightly as they could. Determination clung to the harsh set of Lorcan’s jaw, his eyes sparking with the red glow of the lava beneath Reyna’s dangling feet.
Nollaig wound her hand under Reyna’s shoulder. “We’ve got you. Let go, and we’ll pull you over.”
Reyna swallowed hard and nodded, releasing her desperate hold on the ledge. Instantly, the world dropped out from beneath her, and she bit back a scream. Nollaig grunted as she took Reyna’s weight, toppling slightly forward. But Lorcan pulled her back, and then reached down and wrapped an arm around Reyna’s waist.
He pulled hard. They all collapsed into a heap on the ledge. Relief was an avalanche on top of her. Reyna pressed her cheek against the comforting coolness of the stone and sucked in frantic breath after breath. She’d almost died. Shewouldhave died…if Lorcan had not saved her life.
A soft gasp echoed in the cave. Reyna glanced up to see Tarrah standing over her, her cheeks white and her eyes as round as moons. “Are you all right, Shieldmaiden?”
A tiny chunk of ice that surrounded Reyna’s heart threatened to break away from the wall she’d erected to keep herself safe. But she just stared up at the shadow fae, grumbling, “I’ll never be fine as long as I’m a prisoner.”
