“It’s only a rumor, but there are whispers of a dangerous beast lurking in that canyon. And since we’ve encountered a dangerous beast at every site we’ve visited so far, I’m inclined to believe we’ll find one here, too.”
Calem shrugged. “Nothing we can’t handle. Haven’t we tamed an unexpected beast or two before?”
“This won’t be like before.” Gazing toward the damning crevice, she stood and folded her arms across her chest. “Again, it’s just a rumor. But if it’s true, if the Prentiss is real…”
“Can you tame it?” I asked.
“No.”
“Aw, come on.” Calem cracked his knuckles. “This beast sounds totally badass. We could use it against Yazmin.”
She gave him a hard look. “I’m telling you, I can’t tame it. No one ever has.”
“But they weren’t you.” Calem’s smile was strained.
“It eats people, Calem. I’m not sure being ‘me’ will make much of a difference.”
My brows drew together, and I ran a tense hand through my hair. “How come I’ve never heard of this before? Royals have been traveling to these burial sites for centuries to have their claims recognized by the gods. There would’ve been details about this somewhere.”
“No one except your ancestors have ever crossed into its territory. Maybe the royal line is protected.” She eyed the book resting on the ground by her bag. “Between that explicit warning in the text and the rumors from my people…I don’t know what to expect, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.” Shaking her head, she turned back toward us. “Maybe we should wait here while Noc goes alone. We can—”
A terrifying screech split the air. Fig had jerked his head around, targeting something in the distance opposite the direction of the canyon. A billowing cloud of red dust had bloomed on the horizon, and I narrowed my eyes. Something like metal glared in the sun. The frenzied cadence of Zeelahs’ hooves smashing against the earth reverberated in my ears. Too far away for Leena to hear, but clear enough for me.
“Sentinels.” I rocketed to my feet and slit open my palm, letting blood blades form above my hand. Calem and Ozias cursed as they took up their stances, calling forth shadow blades and crouching low onto the balls of their feet. This was a first. Sentinels rarely left the castle gates and were only dispatched to battlefields as a last resort.
Or to protect a rebellious prince.
Just as I was about to bark orders, Fig again let out a bone-shattering screech. This time, his head riveted to our left, gleaming red eyes targeting another billowing cloud. Except this one wasn’t red, but smoky and black. And through the snarling mess of shadows, I spied my former brethren barreling toward us. Including Darrien.
“I’ll kill him!” Calem roared. His frame shook as his control splintered, and stone-like scales raced across his skin.
“Wait!” At the same time Leena screamed, Fig cried out yet again. To our right, a lone woman with platinum-blond hair stood wreathed in ruddy-red light. Foreign beast cries shook the very air around her, and she thrust her hand forward. It was a silent command I knew all too well.
Gripping Leena’s wrist, I yanked her toward the only escape we had left: the bridge.
“Run!”
Calem practically screamed with frustration, but somehow managed to put a stop to his transformation and chase after us, Ozias right beside him. We abandoned everything. Our tents. Our belongings. Our mounts. There wasn’t time. Leena only had a moment to send Fig back to the beast realm before I called on the shadows and swept her into my arms, racing through the onyx abyss to get us to the ruins faster. Calem and Ozias were on my heels, each one of them tossing glances behind us. We hit the bridge and the wood groaned beneath our feet. Even our shadows couldn’t totally blanket our rushed escape, and every footfall caused the planks to tremble and sway. Beneath us, the endless depths of the Gaping Wound waited to swallow us whole. Leena’s grip on me tightened as she looked down into the nothingness, then to the threat at our backs.
For a moment, I looked over my shoulder and my heart lodged in my throat. All three groups were nearly at the lip of the canyon. Yazmin didn’t bother to rush. She didn’t have to. Beasts I couldn’t begin to name snarled and raced ahead of her, maws gnashing and claws gouging the earth. One of them I recognized from the Kitska Forest. The cloud-like legendary feline that’d killed Gaige. The Sentinels had launched off their Zeelahs and were racing toward the bridge on foot. Their blinding columns of light ate away at the tail end of our shadows, and a sharp hissing met my ears. Darrien and his men wielded ink-black weapons, blades hovering above their hands. He reached for his bow. Then, nocked a shadow arrow and smirked.
“Ozias! Calem! Heads up!” I shouted. Darrien’s arrow whizzed through the realm, barely missing my cheek and embedding itself deep into the wood of one of the planks. His men followed suit, sending a volley of expertly thrown blades after us. We were easy marks. A lucky few missed us, a few more blocked by shadows we controlled, and the rest… Telltale grunts from Calem and Ozias. The sickening sound of something dastardly sinking into flesh. A red-hot pain in my shoulder, followed by the sticky heat of blood. Only Leena was protected.
My gaze snapped back to the path before us. We were almost at the butte. Just a few more feet. Another blade pierced the flesh between my shoulders, and pain sparked deep in my muscles. I bit back a curse and pushed forward. What would we even do when we got to the ruins? We could take cover behind the rock altar housing Tyrus’s remains, but what then? They’d just follow us across the bridge. At least they’d be forced to travel one by one, narrowing their attack and making it easier for us to target them.
Again, I glanced back, only to find that they’d come to a halt at the bridge. The closest Sentinel unsheathed his sword. And then he swung it in a deadly arc, slicing through the bridge’s railing and disconnecting it from the edge. Time slowed as I watched it fall. Gravity pulled at us as the tension gave out from beneath our feet.
Focusing only on the ledge ahead, I threw Leena toward the plateau. She sailed through the air, wild eyes frantic and damning as she realized what was happening. She bellowed my name as she was jettisoned from the shadow realm and tumbled to the earth in a plume of red dust. As she stretched her hand toward the canyon, I caught a glimpse of flickering rosewood light.
Ozias, Calem, and I gripped the railing just as the entire bridge went slack, and we careened into the sheer face of the butte. The force of the hit thrust us from the realm and shook Calem’s grip. He let go of the rope railing with a frantic scream. Faster than I could blink, Ozias snared him about the wrist and then yelped as his shoulder gave a nastypop. His eyes glazed over, and Calem dug his fingers into Ozias’s forearm.
“Noc!” Leena’s face peered over the ledge. Another volley of shadow blades from Darrien’s army, and she pulled back as quickly as she’d appeared. Her cry echoed through the canyon and set fire to my veins. Across the way, Darrien laughed.
“You make this too easy.” His haughty words carried effortlessly to us—as did the stretching of his bow as he nocked another arrow and aimed directly for me. Somewhere, the beast realm door opened, the deep rumbling shaking the mountain and covering us in a spray of dust and debris. I heard the twang of his bow as he let loose his arrow, but lost sight of the glistening blade in the shower of dirt. Covering my face with my arm, I braced for impact.
It never came. Just the resounding thud of an arrowhead burrowing into wood.
And then a strange tugging sensation around my waist.
