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Just as the friction became unbearable, the forest stopped and they were back in the open field. Before he could make a run for it, she clasped his wrist and dragged him back, then waited for the giant to progress ahead before she finally whispered.
“I can’t camouflage us with magic. I felt his energy and he might get wind of mine.”
Magenta eyes widened, even while he kept his focus on the creature.
“Where’s Yu?” she asked.
He shook his head, expression morose. “I don’t know.” When she looked around and attempted to return to the forest, it was his turn to take her wrist. “You can’t go back. We need that mountain portal.”
“We’re not even sure if there is a mountain portal,” she shot back. But he was right. They couldn’t waste time.
“Yu lives here,” he reminded. “He probably went to hide, knowing better than to follow a giant and get himself squashed.”
Which was what they were doing and what they couldn’t stop doing. Her resolve solidifying, she nodded resolutely.
“We wait until he’s out of the field. Then we follow,” she said.
There was no protest as Rick agreed wholeheartedly, but he didn’t hesitate to voice it out after a few seconds.
“That’s more like it.”
The fields were easy to navigate, and the trembling ground became their marker when they couldn’t spot the giant as he waded in and out of the forests. They got to the edge of the mountains somewhere in the afternoon…then, to their surprise, kept going without needing to scale the mountain as the giant entered a cave behind some thick, unkempt bushes. They looked at each other, a wordless communication with Rick’s decision loud and clear. But he waited for her.
“Yes,” she mouthed.
That was all he needed to push on and race inside. She raced after him, then stopped when darkness wrapped around her, unable to see anything beyond the cave entrance. She was startled when hands were on her before she recognized them. At Rick’s urging, she resumed walking.
They stumbled along some paths, indicating that while the Fae had sharper senses than her, the lack of sight was also a detriment for him. Trepidation slithered in when the trembling inside the cave quieted and they no longer had a marker. They stood still, unsure, before she drew a deep breath and took the first risk.
Energy crawled out, responding to her call as she willed them into her eyes without compromising them with any visible light. Relief coursed the moment she could see that the cave was empty, but with doorways where the upper part had been scratched a few times—the giants’ heads probably bumping against them by accident. Excitement leaped as she grabbed Rick’s hand, squeezing it once and trying to ignore the warmth that action brought. She led him to a doorway, then another doorway until it became a blur of doorways, pathways, and mazes with footprints and more scratches.
When they spotted a light up ahead, the roles switched and it was the Fae taking her hand and racing for it. They exited the cave and crouched under the nearest boulder as the last rays of sunlight shone on them. She glanced back at the cave, waiting for a giant to jump on them—
“Holy shit.”
She whirled to face Rick, magic readied to go on offense. But he was gaping ahead. She followed that gaze and her hand dropped away as she took in the sight.
“Holy shit,” she echoed, no longer bothering to ask him where he got the phrase from.
What should have been more forests became rolling hills and mountains surrounding them, the top ends within their line of sight…their spot so close to the clouds that she was half-sure she only needed a few minutes to climb up and touch them. Cliffs edged their flat area from all corners while a castle stood ahead, the rock and stone structure carved into smoothness, and larger than anything she had seen in her life.
“How did we get on top of the mountain when we didn’t even climb?” she asked in a daze.
“We’re in the Otherworld,” was his equally dazed response as he openly admired the view. “Sometimes it’s best not to analyze these things.”
It had to be the cave, a magical transport leading upward. She glanced back at it once more, nerves lurking. If the cave was magical, could it have detected hers? Would it alarm the giant—or giants—of their presence? Could they be walking into a trap?
“Em?”
She broke out of her reverie and shook her head. “I don’t like this.”
“Bad feeling?”
“You could say that.”
He sidled closer. Her nerves didn’t quiet down completely, but that steady presence eased them a little. “Then let’s do it fast. We’re already on top of a mountain, so we don’t even have to go inside the castle.”
“We don’t?”
