Page 20 of The Chosen Fae

Rune gathered her inner strength and reached out with her other hand, grabbing Pari by her ankle.

Taking Pari by surprise, Rune yanked her off the rope. Pari screamed all the way down to where she splashed into the river. Rune quickly swung her leg up onto the rope and hurried to stand, the rope swinging with her.

She glanced over at Stone, whom she thought might have already reached the end of his rope bridge. He was the only one she would cheer on, but he was still fighting Vesper. Both were trying to throw the other off the rope.

The others in the competition had likewise decided to eliminate their competitors and were still far behind her on their ropes. At the same time, they fought each other, trying to throw their opponents into the river.

Then she had an idea. She could make it to the end of her rope bridge and dash off for the idol, or she could take out as many of the other competitors so they wouldn’t reach the end of their rope bridges. She would show them she wouldn’t be trifled with if anyone else came after her.

Since they were out to get her, she might as well deal with them first. She finally reached the end of her bridge, much quicker now that she wasn’t fighting with a competitor who was trying to throw her off.

Then, with her sword in hand, Rune dashed to the rope bridge where the next pair of fae were still trying to dump each other into the river. They stopped fighting when they saw her coming. They were too far away from the end of their bridge to stop her, and she took great satisfaction in slicing through their rope. She didn’t wait to see their shocked expressions when they fell into the river, though she would have loved to, but she raced off to the next rope bridge to take care of the next of her competitors.

They were so busy fighting each other that they didn’t see what she’d done to the other rope bridge or that she was coming for them. She cut through the rope, and they fell into the river without even realizing what she’d done to them. No fun. She preferred that they had seen her coming for them.

The next one she went to cut, the two males were fully aware of what she was doing, and both were scrambling to reach the end of their bridge. Too late. They suffered the same humiliating defeat as the others: the bridge fell, sending them into the water.

Lolita, the smallest fae, looked once at her in horror. She hadn’t had a partner to fight her, which meant she wouldn’t have lasted, but she was too much of an underdog as it was, and Rune wouldn’t do her the unkindness of forcing her into the river. If the smallest fae won the challenge, Rune was all right with that.

Rune knew that Lolita only went along with the others because she had no choice. Rune saluted her with her sword, then dashed back to where Stone and Vesper were fighting. She wouldn’t cut the line, but she knew if Vesper got past Stone, he could run faster than she could.

“Do it!” Stone shouted at her when he saw her draw close.

She couldn’t. He still had a fighting chance if he could dump Vesper off the rope. “Knock him off the bridge already!” Rune ran off to find the idol.

Stone was irritated with Rune that she wouldn’t just cut the rope bridge he was on as Vesper punched him in the gut, and Stone doubled over in pain. But when Vesper tried to hit Stone in the head, Stone grabbed Vesper’s leg and lifted it off the rope, throwing him off balance. He fell backward and off the rope, but managed to catch it in the nick of time. Still in pain from the first fall Stone took, and now from the beating from Vesper, he jumped on Vesper’s hand, grinding into it.

Vesper cried out, but he wasn’t letting go. Before Vesper could reach up with the other hand to grab the rope and pull himself up, Stone suddenly kicked Vesper in the head, sending him flying into the river. With no time to lose, Stone made his way to the end of the rope bridge and dashed off, well, staggering as he went.

Stone smelled Rune’s scent and tracked her, but when he found her, she hadn’t located the idol yet.

“Oh, I’m so glad you made it. And Vesper?” Rune asked.

“He went for a swim. But you should have cut the rope.”

“Nah. I knew you could handle him.” Then she began searching for the idol again.

He spread out from her to see if he could locate it first. They were both looking at the trees around them, the mossy stones, and the tall bracken. It could be anywhere.

He heard movement to his left. Rune had been to his right. Suddenly, a cantankerous boar charged out of the woods and headed in their direction. He scrambled onto a pile of rocks as the beast snorted and pawed at the earth below, its tusks gleaming in the filtered sunlight.

Then Stone saw Rune heading his way. “Watch out for the boar!”

Rune ducked down and traveled through the tall bracken until she could reach the other side of the rocks. They were taller there. She couldn’t get a handhold or foothold. Stone hurried over and reached his hand out to pull her up.

“Thanks,” she said, climbing up with his help and standing way above the boar with Stone.

“Did you find the idol?”

“I thought I heard a faint hum coming from this direction. And you can hear the burbling creek nearby.”

He listened then, the boar having distracted him so he hadn’t paid any attention to anything else. They began to climb to the top of the boulder, with him helping her whenever the rocks were too large for her to climb. It helped to have longer legs.

When they reached the top, they saw the idol sitting in an alcove near the creek. The humming was faint, the water rolling over the stones in the creek nearly drowning it out. Which made sense, or it would have been too easy for the wolf shifters to find.

They both raced down the rocks and reached the idol at the same time.

“It’s ours,” she said. “Take hold of it at the same time as me, Stone.” She said it in a commanding tone.