Page 87 of Maleen

He peers over at me and his face lights up. “Good morning, Little Beastie!”

“Morning,” I mutter, still feeling confused on how Talyn is my bed now instead of Jesper. Did I sleepwalk?

“You seem confused? Is it because you expected to wake up next to your favourite mate?” He grins mischievously and gestures down his body. “Talyn woke me up for my shift and stole you from me. You seemed content about it, so I forgave him.”

“It’s too early to hear your rambling,” Killian rumbles as he sits up, glaring at my troublemaker of a mate.

He gasps. “It’s never too early, and she loves my rambling. Don’t you?”

I chuckle softly as I wiggle out of Talyn’s embrace, stretching. “Always. Why didn’t you wake me for my shift? Did anything happen?”

Aemon’s voice grabs my attention. “No. Nothing happened, and you needed your rest. Come on, we should get moving; we can eat some rations on the way.” He sends a tendril of shadows that caress my cheek, before climbing down from his platform and getting back on his horse.

Before I know it, we are all ready to continue our travels. I removed the platforms with Talyn’s help and Nero grumbling sleepily on my shoulder.

Thankfully the canyon widens slightly again and my anxiety about needing to leave the horses behind eases.

Eventually the canyon ends, and we are back on the path, under the canopy of leaves where the sun barely breaks through. Thankfully our eyes adjust quickly to the dimmed lighting and we carry on, waiting for the next obstacle to pop up and make the next line in the journal make sense. The only thing we suspect is that there is water involved, and I have a dread settling in the pit of my stomach that this might be one of the more dangerous things we come across.

“Are we there yet?” Jesper asks for what feels like the hundredth time.

We decided it was easier to mindspeak with each other, hoping it won’t draw any nearby creatures to us. The more we can stay undetected, the better.

Killian growls in our minds, and I can’t help the shiver that racks through my body at the primal sound. “Jesper, I swear on the Fates, if you keep asking that fucking question, I’ll let the beasts at you.”

He pouts. “I’m just so bored. I thought there would be more action than this. This is supposed to be ‘Death’s Forest’ but it’s all been too easy so far.”

“Be careful what you wish for, Jesper,” Aemon adds.

Talyn hisses. “Shh, do you hear that?”

I tilt my head to the side and it’s faint, but it sounds like running water. “I think we are almost at the next point.”

“Stay ready, ears and eyes open. Let’s move,” Aemon states, urging his horse on, and the rest of us follow in single file to make sure we stay on the path.

Nero takes off, flying ahead. “Just going to see what we are up against. I won’t be long.”

“Be careful and don’t land anywhere!” I tell him, my heart in my throat.

Thankfully he’s back within a couple minutes and his nervousness is vibrating through the bond. “Um. Sooo…”

“Just spit it out,” Jesper sighs.

He hisses at him before turning back to me, leaving the bond open so that my mates can hear his report. “There’s a massive whirlpool. There’s a stream—or maybe a spring, but the brambles are so thick it’s hard to be sure. It ends in the whirlpool so large it cuts right across our path. There’s no way around: the woods surrounding it are so thick not even a mouse would get through it trying to escape me.”

I swallow hard. This should be easy to figure out. “Talyn and I should be able to create a bridge for us to cross over it, but we would have to see it in person.”

“I don’t think that would be a problem. Great thinking, Princess.”

We bounce a few more ideas between each other as we make our way to the whirlpool, the sound of rushing water getting louder and louder the closer we get.

We break through the treeline into an extremely small clearing with just enough room for us to be side by side on our horses as we overlook the whirlpool in front of us. Violent waters spiral so fast it looks like they’ve cut their own path down into the earth.

“Fuck, this thing has to be at least thirty feet across,” Jesper mutters in awe as he bounces on his saddle, excited about this challenge.

“Surely this is some kind of test? This thing can’t be natural,” mutters Killian, eyeing the liquid tornado with suspicion and checking our six.

“Talyn and I should be able to create a bridge since there’s no canopy. Even if we could go off path, the second line of the riddle said that we shouldn’t. I think this is our only option.” I hop down off my horse and stretch, shaking out my limbs a bit as I move closer to the edge of the pool.