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I ignored his comment, skidding to a halt and forcing him to do the same. “Holy shit.”
“Holy shite,” Bane agreed as a cat, no, a damn cheetah the size of a small car leapt through the portal, the shrieks and slashes of vile magic not far behind him.
“Keep moving!” Dax shouted.
Anxiety crawled through my guts, rolling into a heavy, spiked ball akin to a mace. I looked around, unable to see the portal. “Where the hell is the portal?”
“No clue,” Bane replied, tossing me a fanged grin. “I wager you’ll probably be pissed at me for this later, but I can’t watch your tiny legs struggle any longer.”
My confusion puddled into frustrated resignation as he hoisted me into his arms, my legs automatically winding around his waist. In fact, I did want to be pissed, but why waste precious seconds on something I couldn’t control. Oh well, at least now I can focus on getting us all out of this alive.
I closed my eyes, envisioning the map of the Fairytale Realm pinned to the wall of the tent juxtaposed to a copy of the battle plan. There, the memory seemed to pulse, drawing my attention to a spot circled in glittery, green marker. Opening my eyes, I squeezed my arms around Bane’s neck, pressing my face into his soft fur. “Keep to the north, head to the waterfall. It shouldn’t be that far.”
“Gods, you’re so bleedin’ smart,” he groaned.
My eyebrows arched as he hardened between my legs. “Really? Right, now, in the middle of a battle?”
My erratic, stupidly handsome grotesque laughed. “Maybe it’s just an adrenaline fueled cockstand,” he joked. “No, it’s always you. I refuse to be ashamed that your intelligence makes me hard.”
“Sure it d—” my sentence ended on a scream as the ground abruptly dropped off.
We fell, the majestic, terrible beauty of a powder pink waterfall roaring beside us. My heart rabbited harshly, panic causing adrenaline to flood my veins.
The tip of Bane’s tail nudged against the underside of my chin until I met his penetrating gaze, a stare determined to block the pain caused by countless spells attacking his wings as they saved me from killing blows. Still, I was his mate, and he couldn’t hide the pain flickering behind them from me. I didn't get a chance to assess the fine webbing of cracks visible along the top of his wings before his lips slammed against mine. His kiss was so ferocious that I momentarily forgot where the I was, hell, maybe even who I was.
As he pulled away, we splashed into the churning plunge pool at the base of the waterfall and sank through the portal. Reality sliced through my lingering desire as freezing temperatures greeted us, lungs burning with every glacial inhale and we landed hard on a cold, unforgiving surface.
I blinked away the tears hazing my vision, as I attempted to block the agony centering in my left ankle and hastily observed our surroundings. An ominous crack follow by a series of softer ones rent the air.
“Shit, shit, shit. Bane, the ice,” I warned.
He hastily got to his feet and jogged backwards several feet. “We’ve more immediate problems.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth, then a tangled mass of bodies shot through the portal hanging midair and onto the frozen lake. The ice moaned, fracturing into uneven chunks, like an island breaking into pieces and forming an archipelago. The slab Bane and I stood on steadily floated away from the others, propelled by the wake caused by their impact. Stilly, Dax, and Grimnyr struggled to untangle their knotted limbs.
Sips of arctic water sloshed over my boots, and my heart rocketed into my throat. “We’re sinking.”
“Fuck,” he growled, his talons scraping deeper into the ice. He gritted his teeth and winced, spreading his wings wide.
All the warmth drained from my face as the formally small splinters webbing the edges of his granite wings spread. “No! You can't fly. I won't allow you to take that risk.”
“We don't have much of a choice, Honeybee. Either I fly you to solid ground or you freeze to death below the water as a human popsicle.” His tail whipped around frantically, causing our brief safe haven to wobble. “Don’t you bleedin’ dare,” he hissed.
My lips curved downward. What’s he suddenly pissed about? The thought fled quicker than it arrived. One moment I was clinging to Bane, balancing poorly on my non-injured leg, the next careening through the air and onto the main, unbroken mass of frozen lake, thrown by his tail. A disconnected thought swam to the surface, It must be true then, it really does have a mind of its own.
“Eeeeppp!” An embarrassing squeal leapt from my tongue as I teetered on the slick edge, pinwheeling my arms and injured ankle screaming. My boots slipped just as a rough, strong hand caught my forearm and hauled me from death’s embrace. I collapsed on the ground, gulping in lungsful of air. If I don’t regulate my breathing, they’ll probably freeze solid.
I failed to keep track of anything but the knowledge that, so far, I had survived against all odds.
Gideon’s serious face filled my vision, his lips pressed into a hard line around a lit cigarette as he crouched beside me. “You’re okay now.” He nodded once, as if reassuring himself of that fact and helped me to my feet.
My teeth chattered as I stood there uselessly, one leg bent at the knee, and feeling like a flamingo marooned in the North Pole, or more aptly, the wilds of Russia. “T-thank you.” The demon just nodded once more. In fact, the setting reminded me of a Slavic folktale I’d heard years ago. Damn, what was the title…twelve something.
Bane’s wings twitched restlessly as he clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides, then glared at his tail, bearing his teeth, and muttered a string of what must’ve been nasty swears in the Gaelic, judging by his contorted expression. My mate’s eyes swung to me, fierce determination reflecting in his glowing irises. “Don’t move, Honeybee, I’m coming for you.”
I ran a mental hand down our mate bond, hoping he felt more of my love and reassurance rather than frantic anxiety.
“Oh, thank fuck,” I practically moaned as warmth moved over my skin as my armor’s climate control switched to heat. In this moment, I couldn’t be more grateful for my fated bestie. Sure, my hair might be frozen and my fingers numb, but the rest of me defrosted quicker than my train of thoughts filtered into my skull.
