Page 116 of Wraithwound

Lena shook her head. “Not then either.”

“It’s lovely,” he said.

And Lena could feel the flush creeping up her cheeks.

“Ready to go?” Cross asked after a moment, giving her hand a squeeze.

“Yes.”

Climbing out of the fissure was easier than she expected. Cross guided her, expertly directing the placement of her hands and feet. She’d never had to rely on somebody else so completely, and it was terrifying. She also found that it was easy.

But the heat remained a constant.

They had been trekking up the mountain for several hours, and Lena was relieved they hadn’t encountered any other creatures, morphing trees or segmented insects, as they continued up the mountain.

Just as the thought materialized in her mind, the mountain began to shake. Lena’s knees buckled, and Cross’s grip tightened around her hand before tugging her down. For a moment, the trembling ceased.

“What was that?” she asked tentatively. But it was the mountain that answered.

Chapter

Sixty-Three

Cross’s arm tightened around her waist. He held her close as the ground shook violently. She heard rocks come loose around them and tumble down the mountain, and she briefly wondered what other horrors this place would have in store for them. Cross’s heart thumped loudly against his ribs, hers matching the same rhythm. A sharp crack split the air, and the ground shuddered and groaned.

“Another fissure opened behind us. We have to run!” Cross yanked on her hand, urging her to upward as gravity tugged on them.

Fear beat a steady drum in her chest as it warred with the heat induced exhaustion and the adrenaline that worked so hard to cut through it.

“We have to climb,” Cross said, pulling her in front of him as they worked their way up the steep incline.

Lena lost her balance, arms flailing as Cross’s hand cupped her behind and shoved her forward. Luckily, she put her arms out just in time to quell the momentum.

On their hands and knees, they climbed. Cross urged her from behind to feel for hand holds. Unable to escape the blinding white light that assaulted her senses, a dull throbbing had formed behind her eyes, so when Lena spotted a rippling barrier before her, she wondered if she was hallucinating. The ground shook again, and she dug her nails into the stone beneath, her fingers stiff and sore. Rocks slid behind her, and her heart caught in her throat.

She couldn’t hide the fear in her voice. “Cross?”

“I’m here!” he shouted above the cracking and groaning of stone.

When she looked up again, the rippling barrier shone closer.

“Do you see it?” she yelled over her shoulder.

“See what?”

“The wall!”

“No!” he shouted back. But it was there, now only about a foot in front of them. “There’s a wall here!” she said.

“It might be the boundary to the temple!” he shouted back, his voice closer now. Lena reached for it, but Cross grabbed her hand.

“Together,” he said.

With joined hands, they reached for the wall, Cross pulling her upwards as he too moved through. The same sensation that had gripped them when they crossed through the gate met them here. They were sucked from the blinding white realm and thrown through into the unknown.

Chapter

Sixty-Four