Page 281 of Sky’s Edge

It looked like the space beyond was filled with fire.

We were running straight toward fire.

“Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuckfuckfuck,” I bitched as I kept moving.

“Faster,” Monique urged.

We went faster.

So much faster, when the stairwell let out into the…I had no idea what the fuck it was, a chamber, a temple…neither of us had it in us to stop.

Therefore, we dashed across the narrow bridge single file to the plateau in the middle before we were able to halt our progress.

Around this plateau, the rest of the circular space—outside that bridge—was what appeared to be a bottomless pit of fire.

And this was it.

There was nowhere else to go.

We were trapped.

Did Monique lead me into a trap?

Impossible.

Impossible!

“Stand ready,” Monique warned.

“Ready?” I demanded. “For what?”

She didn’t answer.

I had many questions (so many!), primary at that moment to all of them was how we were being followed, by what was clearly a threat, and why it seemed she led me into a trap.

However, this question went unspoken due to the fact I was standing still as a statue, stupefied as she lifted one clenched fist, shook it once in the air, like one would shake a cocktail shaker, and a staff sprung from her fingers made of bright white light.

It was very long.

She held it in the middle.

And each end was not blunt. They were both wicked-sharp blades, facing in opposite directions. Each had a lethally curved tip.

Agog with this, I wasn’t ready for when she swung her other arm in front of her, and at the end of her arc, a deadly blade of white light curled around her knuckles.

What.

In.

The.

Fuck?!

“They’re here,” she whispered.

But I knew they were.

Shit!