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Lark grabbed Draven by the neck, but instead of hauling him out of there, he said something into his ear while the raging wind and sand whipped their clothes and hair about them.
Draven broke from his statuesque state and they bolted toward me. We ran—all three of us together. The beast slammed down so close the ground lifted. Lark stumbled, Draven grabbed his arm, and we ran on. Sand burned my throat and eyes. I glanced back, and there it was, a mountain of heaving muscle and hideous reaching appendages.
“It’s coming!”
“The rocks, go!” Draven yelled.
A huge, jagged spur of rocks jutted ahead.
The ground trembled and the mountainous creature thundered closer. I didn’t dare look again—could only run. Lark reached the rocks first and vanished inside a cave’s mouth. I skidded in after him and spun. The beast surged toward Draven, its vast mouth open, gulping sand, dwarfing him. Fear iced my skin. He wasn’t going to make it.
“Draven!”
He sprinted, daggers flashing in his hands, face locked in desperation.
It was gaining on him. Growing larger with his every stride.
Dunes collapsed around Draven. Wind gusted from behind us, dragging more sand with it, obscuring Draven. And then, for a horrible moment, there was nothing to see, just the red storm and nothing of Draven. My heart seized. I couldn’t lose him too. Not like this.
Draven lurched from the maelstrom and plunged toward the back of the cave. Lark and I retreated too, and the beast slammed down, shaking the rocks, the ground, the air, everything. But as quickly as it had come, the rumbling ceased, the winds dropped, and sand rained back down, settling in moments.
I blinked grit from my eyes.
All was still, outside the cave and in.
Lark lay on the cave floor to my left, Draven my right, both panting, painted red with sand, but safe.
“What by Dallin were you thinking?!” I snapped, unsure who I was mad at more: Draven for thinking he could stop an angry mountain or Lark for going back for him.
Lark caught my eye, and mischief sparkled in his. He threw his head back and laughed. His laugh echoed around the cave and out into a now eerily still night.
Nothing about any of this was amusing. We’d almost beenconsumed.
My lips twitched, and my own laughter tickled my chest.
Even Draven’s haggard face broke into a smile. “Fuck me,” he panted.
I hated both of them, the pair of fools. We’d almost died. Again. Yet, here we were, alive, trapped in a cave, three men from three courts lost in the middle of the desert, hunted by kings, and sandworms, apparently.
“Should have brought a kareel.” Draven snorted.
By Dallin. I laughed and dropped to the cave floor between them. I didn’t even know why I laughed. As our hilarity died, the quiet flowed back in, dragging reality with it.
Draven arched an eyebrow at Lark. “You came back for me?”
He shrugged, his grin sharp and bright. “I promised I’d get my mouth on your cock again.”
Draven flung a handful of sand at him. “Fool.”
We’d lost everything, except each other. We were probably doomed. My laughter had faded, but my smile remained. There was no one else I’d rather be doomed with than Lark and Draven.
CHAPTER2
Lark
Draven threwa rock out of the cave. It thumped onto the ground, sinking several inches. Nothing else moved. It appeared as though the worm had gone, but I wasn’t convinced. A creature that big didn’t vanish, as it had appeared to do after we’d narrowly escaped its gullet. It was out there, probably waiting for someone stupid enough to walk on the sand and trigger it. “You should go take a look,” I told Draven.
The warlord narrowed his eyes, then tossed another rock, a little farther from the rest. Still no movement.
