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Twenty
Callum
With the darkthing heading toward Kelia, I carefully stepped across the amber walkways, making sure each step wouldn’t break the thin crystalline substance.
Deeper around the root, the steam from the pools below made my body slick with sweat, even without a shirt on. Wiping my hands off on my pants, I reached around to step on to a piece of stone to an area behind the main root.
Mab would get an earful when I found her. What was she thinking running into the portal? My heart filled with both pride and fear. She was my blood, and just like me she would protect those she cared about.
My hand slipped and I cursed, wiping the sweat off my head. From where I stood, I couldn’t see out to where I had left Kelia. I didn’t like leaving her there to fight that creature alone, but she was better suited to take that shadow monster on.
I shimmied across a thin walkway to where I had seen that glowing ball of light. Quickly, and very carefully, I moved across and through the spiderweb of glass toward the side of the cavern. There, above me, sitting on a large stone piece that stuck out of the root was Mab, completely covered in glowing light.
“Mab,” I whispered.
Her eyes fluttered open, and I held a finger to my lips, motioning for her to be quiet. Not too far from her sat a part of the hive, and without knowing if krubera were in there we needed to be extra careful. “Can you get down?”
She shook her head and gripped the crystal harder.
Looking around, I saw a broken piece of crystal past my feet. She must’ve broken a piece when climbing. I could get to her, but then we would have to find a different way out of here. “I’m coming up.”
I jumped and grabbed a crystal branch above me, just catching the edge with my fingertips. My muscles strained as I pulled myself up then hopped over to another ledge and up and over, until I was close enough to Mab to grab her.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, and I patted her hands. “Stay on my back and hold on tight. We’re getting out of here.”
A bunch of crystals hung from a limb, right by the entrance to a krubera hole. The hole didn’t have the film over it so it could be abandoned.
“Hold on and stay quiet. We need to get some of those crystals for the prince.”
“What happened to Uncle E,” she whispered into my ear, squeezing my neck and holding on.
Having Mab so close, knowing the truth about her distracted me, and I had to pause to wipe the sweat off my brow. Did Mab know? Did she know that I was her grandfather?
And Lara . . . if I had known the truth, I would have done things differently. She never would’ve been betrothed in the first place. I would’ve kept her safe.
Mab squeezed my shoulder. The bunch of life crystals were close, enough to not only save the prince but protect anyone else that needed it. Sweat coated my hands, and I paused to wipe them off on my pants.
“Hurry,” Mab whispered, nudging me forward.
With one step in front of the other, my thoughts spun, and my heart continued to accelerate. I reached out, my fingers just missing the bunch of life crystals.
A rustling sounded ahead.
“Callum, hurry.”
Two glowing eyes appeared in the darkness. Mab squeaked and I grabbed the bunch of life crystals just as a krubera jumped out of the hole and onto the ledge. Two long honey-colored antennas twitched in our direction. The insect was a bit bigger than I remembered, resembling the size of the dogs from the surface. It scurried forward, more curious than angry.
“Climb,” I said, and slowly shifted to move Mab off my back and onto the branch above us. “Hurry.”
She grabbed one of the pieces of crystal sticking out and began climbing the web back up. Once she had a head start, I moved, hoping our curious intruder did not bring its friends.
Glancing down, the krubera didn’t immediately run up after us.
Instead, it rubbed its antennas together and clicked its pinchers.
All around us, glowing eyes appeared out of the hive, followed by theclackof insects chatting. “Keep it moving.”
Mab scurried up and through the different levels, me close behind. We were still too deep into the spiderweb for me to see Kelia, and I had no idea if the krubera near her were on the move.
