And the fear he was attempting to conquer by dragging her into this cave… It was the fear of confined spaces. The worry of being unable to escape a narrow place once inside.
Oh, he was good. He was very, very good.
Sable swore colorfully and threw a glance over her shoulder before hurrying after her brother.
~
Sable had never seen anything like it.
The cave stretched on for miles, and lining either side of the river, from floor to ceiling, were piles of gold and valuables. Coins, jewels, goblets, crowns—it was far more than what the House of Fire contained within its massive treasury. Before her mother had died, and she and Killian were cast out of their home, the two had spent countless hours playing hide-and-seek, dressing themselves in adult-sized velvet capes and crowns too big for their heads.
Killian’s voice bounced off the walls as he walked several feet ahead of a hesitant Sable. “Does this remind you of anything?”
Despite herself, Sable smiled. “You read my mind,” she said. “How do you think all of this got up here?”
Her brother shrugged. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think a treasure-hoarding drake had been here.” As he walked, he ran his gloved fingers along the side of a mountain of gold and silver coins. A trail of them cascaded to the cave floor, jingling softly. Sable tried not to flinch as the sound repeated itself from every angle, again and again, telling her precisely where the walls were in this place. The darkness was so thick, it felt like they were buried alive.
Sweat ran down the undersides of her arms and beaded on her brow. Every breath left her lungs tighter than the last.
She swore the walls were pressing in on her.
Was she imagining it? The lack of air?
“How long do you think it goes for?” Sable peered into the endless black. The interior of the cave was lit only by thin fissures and holes in the ceiling; rays of wintry sunlight fell upon the piles of treasure, setting them aglow.
“Let’s find out.” Killian began strolling deeper into the cave, and Sable followed, the rushing of the river and the staccato rhythm of their footsteps echoing softly.
As they walked, the air became heavy with the stench of rot. Sable pressed a fist to her mouth to muffle a gag. She slowed her pace, her fingers fluttering toward the pommel of her sword. “Do you smell that?”
Killian nodded, but Sable could hardly see him in the dark.
It smelled like…like rotting meat. She stopped walking. “Maybe we should go back.”
Before Killian could respond, a low, guttural snarl rippled through the cavern, reverberating back at them from every angle.
Something splashed onto her boots. Was that…water? It couldn’t be, for no moisture dripped from the ceiling, and the river ran too calmly to splash this far.
Sable stumbled back a step, blinking fiercely against the crippling dark. There was a hissing sound, like something slithering across the cave floor. Coins jangled and plinked into the river.
Her fingers fully closed around the jeweled hilt of her sword. “What was that?”
Killian’s arm was outstretched toward her, as if preparing to grab her and throw her over his shoulder. “We should go,” he ground out.
The air was suddenly very warm and humid, as if they were standing in a hot spring. The tang of rotting meat was pervasive, and she gagged again.
She started backing away, but her calves slammed into something solid, and she fell. She landed hard on her ass, and coins rattled beneath her. Her legs were draped over whatever she’d tripped on, and she blinked heavily, struggling to see…
A stream of light fell upon…scales. Scales a gleaming onyx.
And directly above her, high up in the shadows of the ceiling, was a pair of blood-red eyes, the pupils slitted. They blinked, and Sable swallowed a scream. She stammered Killian’s name. And even in the pitch black, the one word he mouthed was clear as day.
“Run.”
Sable spun, launching to her feet. Claws swiped, and wings swept; she wasn’t sure how she managed to dodge them.
“FASTER!” Killian yelled. He was right on her heels, but so was the dragon, whose deep roar echoed off the cave walls, the sound so deafening that Sable had to clap her free hand over her left ear.
The ground rumbled beneath their feet as the dragon pursued them, every heavy step sending Sable and Killian tripping over their own feet. Gold showered around them from all sides, pinging off stone and splashing into the river.
