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“Are we seriously expected to just stand by while our family and friends die?” Ro continues, getting more distressed. “Because they will. Some of them won’t make it.”
“King Kirian is extremely protective of his loved ones. He’ll do everything in his power to ensure their survival.”
“Not Zella.” Ro laughs humorlessly. “She’s ready to throw herself into the sky right now, and believe me, Kirian can’t order his mother around. I get that he’s king, but she’ll do what she wants.”
“It won’t come to that,” I reason with conviction. “This is a test of mental strength, which means it’s a puzzle we have to solve. There’s a way out of this—some sort of strategy we must come up with. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a thrill for Armand. If he knows how it’s going to end, that would be very boring.”
“Even if that’s true, he wants us to fail.” Ro wrings her hands. “Because forcing us to stand by and cry while falling mountains kill people we love would be pretty entertaining for him.”
“Mountains,” I mutter, and an idea pops into my head. “That’s how the Meteor Mountains came to be—stars rained down.”
“Right.” Ro nods. “Are you saying the upside to this is that we’ll gain some new landscape?”
Grasping her shoulders, I look at her with hope bursting inside me. “Remember when I said Madden would move mountains for Zaylee?”
A bright realization lights Ro’s eyes, and she grips my forearms. “That’s it, Kai. We need Madden. Madden could stop all this, and no one would have to die.”
“We need to go get him.” My pulse is racing with exhilaration, but Ro voices the most obvious obstacle before I can.
“But how would we do that? I guess you could fly to Sterling, but the question is, would it be the same short distance from which we came? Or would it be half a day’s flight like in the real Valora? Either way, I wouldn’t be able to go with you because I’d just slow you down, but I could wait for you here.”
Just as quickly as my excitement bloomed, it dies a swift shriveling death. “That won’t work.”
“I don’t mind being left behind.”
“It’s not that. Madden isn’t there.”
“But we were just with him.” Disappointment falls like a shadow over Ro when she sees where I’m going with this. “We were with himfiveyears ago.”
“Exactly. And I guarantee he moved Princess Zaylee immediately after the incident. Once he realized Armand knew of his hiding place, he wouldn’t have kept her in the temple.”
Ro’s throat works with a rough swallow. “So how will we find him?”
Grinding my teeth, I think hard. I run through so many scenarios, but all of them end in tragedy. I see my world get destroyed again and again.
My head starts to ache. I massage my temples as the stress gets to me. I’ve kept my cool throughout this game, but I’ve reached my limit.
Knowing what I need, Ro hugs me. She wraps her arms around my torso and melds the front of her body to mine.
She’s warm and soft. Her closeness soothes me, and it helps to clear my jumbled thoughts.
“Wherever Princess Zaylee is, I bet Madden is there as well. Find her, find him,” Ro ponders. “What we really need is a portal and a Seeker, but we can’t get those without communication.”
“Communication. I think that’s the key. Somehow, we need to get a message to the royals. Winning this challenge is about giving them the solution.”
“Got any ideas on how to do that?”
“If I’ve learned anything about Armand’s game, it’s that the opportunity will come to us on his timetable. We can’t force it. We just have to be patient.” Though my reasoning is logical, I’m bitter and angry.
Armand has inflicted so much trauma on us. When we leave here, we won’t be unscathed. The internal scars will last forever.
“Well.” Ro’s tone turns sultry, and she slowly trails a finger down my arm. “Since we have to wait anyway, I have an idea about something we could do to occupy ourselves in the meantime.”
My body responds, and then I’m focused on my other head. My cock lengthens at the thought of plunging into her wet heat. “Are you serious?”
“Yep.”
I glance around at the empty foyer. “Here? Now?”
