I was gliding through the clouds, arms spread wide to either side. I felt the chilled rush of air across my skin, felt my clothes ripple in the currents. I let out a cry of joy and tilted my arms to the right, dipping lower toward the nearest cloud. I was free. I could go anywhere, do anything. Nothing could stop me—
I jerked in midair.
I flailed my arms in an attempt to realign myself. I managed to keep gliding but almost immediately hit another bump. My head throbbed with pain as though I’d slammed it against a wall. Below me, the sky, once a beautiful shade of blue, had turned ominously black. Fringes of red lightning arced from thunderhead to thunderhead.
It’s just a dream, I reminded myself, though I wasn’t sure when I’d become aware of that. Nothing here can hurt me.
I jerked again, this time plummeting as I lost momentum. A scream was ripped from my throat as I fell straight into the dark clouds. Streaks of lightning snarled across my arms. My hair, streaming in my wake, crackled with electricity.
And then the clouds parted and I saw the mouth of a volcano below, gaping wide and ready to swallow me. Veins of red-orange lava oozed from the center and spewed from the sides.
I screamed again, forgetting my earlier self-assurance that this was nothing but a dream. This was a nightmare. I had to stop myself, had to regain the feeling of flying once more before it was too late.
I flapped my arms, praying that whatever I’d done earlier would work, but I was helpless to slow my fall.
I looked down as the red-orange grew brighter. A layer of scalding air seared my face.
A pair of eyes opened beneath the surface of the lava.
“I am Vulcan,” the rumbling voice spoke in my mind, drowning out the whistling air and cutting off my screams. “Find me, child of prophecy. Deliver the pieces, or watch everything you love crumble to ash.”
I was gliding again, but this time I knew it wasn’t a dream. I could feel the sensation of movement, though I stayed in one place. I cracked one eye open and then immediately shut it as bright sunlight stabbed into my sluggish brain. The back of my head throbbed. I tried to raise my hand to rub it but found my wrists strangely stuck.
That’s not good.
After letting my eyes adjust, I opened them a little wider. I was in a car. And…
I moved my wrists some more and this time was able to pick out the sensation of rough cords lashing them together. Rope. I was tied up.
Yeah…definitely not good.
The car hit a bump, bashing my head against the window. I let out an involuntary groan. Someone on my other side moved and rough fingers grabbed my chin. I found myself looking at a familiar pinched face, with a nose squashed like an accordion and one tooth that jutted too far over the outside of his lip.
“Yu…” I said, my memory returning to me. He was Lukas’s second-in-command.
“Looks like she’s wakin’ up, boss,” Yu said.
“Good,” I heard Lukas say.
Yu dropped my chin and I managed to stop my head a moment before it slammed into the window again. My awareness of my dire situation grew with every passing second. And it wasn’t just me. Iris had been there in the forest with me. Her screams still resonated in my memory.
I licked my dry lips, head still pounding. “What did you do with Iris? If you’ve hurt her, I’ll—”
“Punk thinks she can threaten us?” a woman in the passenger seat cackled. I could make out the tips of a mohawk from over the headrest. The studs of a biker’s jacket covered her shoulder where it leaned on the armrest. “You ain’t calling the shots now, little girl.”
“Yer friend’s fine,” Yu said. He leaned back so I could see to the other side of the back seat. His grin widened. “Well, maybe not fine, but she’ll live. Probably.”
Iris sat slumped on the other side. Her hands were tied like mine and a thick cloth gag had been roughly stuffed in her mouth. Barely dried blood oozed from nasty cuts on her face. Her right pant leg was entirely soaked in blood from a deeply gouged wound that looked exactly like the kind Lukas had given Jasper.
My hands grew hot as I turned my furious gaze onto Lukas in the driver’s seat. “I’m going to make you pay for that—”
“I wouldn’t.”
In a flash, Yu shifted one of his claws and put them beneath Iris’s throat. “None of that flashy magic of yers. Try it, and she’ll be bleedin’ a river.”
My fire died as quickly it started. Iris stared at me with a mixture of fury and resignation. She gave a short shake of her head that had one of Yu’s claws opening a new line of blood across her chin.
“There’s a good girl,” the woman said. “We’re almost there. Might as well sit back and relax.”
Where was there?
Worry about Iris festering in my chest, I reluctantly sat back as Yu dropped his hand. We were still in a heavily wooded area, driving down the single lone highway that’d been our marker of the mundane world all throughout the trial. I wanted to ask Lukas where we were and what he planned to do with us. At the same time, I knew he wouldn’t answer. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. The only thing I did know was that I had to get Iris and me out of this. I couldn’t bear seeing her get more hurt than she already was.
“You should have left Iris behind,” I said. “She can’t do anything. Just drop her with the Outcasts and I’ll cooperate.”
“You’ll already cooperate,” the woman sneered. “Don’t need to drop her—”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Mad Max wannabe,” I said. The woman’s head snapped back like I’d slapped her.
“You little—”
Without taking his eyes from the road, Lukas grabbed her hand as she reached for me. “Touch her and you lose this arm.”
The woman drew her arm back as if scalded. “Yes sir. Sorry sir.”
Lukas glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Your friend was an idiot to try to take me on alone.”
Iris let out an indignant grunt and kicked the back of his seat with her good leg.
“She was just a tool to lure you out and get you both alone,” he continued.
“She’s going to bleed out,” I said.
“If she’s strong, she’ll survive.”
Strength, strength, strength. That was all there was with this guy. And now, because of my stupidity, Iris might pay for it.
“I get it: you can’t win the trial legitimately so you’ll cheat your way to victory. I’m no expert, but that doesn’t seem very king-like, does it?”
“Do you really believe I care?” Lukas said. “I told you, whether they like me winning or not, those in the Conclave and other paranormals will fear me.”
“They sure will!” Yu said, practically slobbering over himself to praise Lukas. “No one’s as strong or brilliant as you, Lukas!”
Iris grunted again, and I thought I made out the words, “Kiss ass.”
“Besides, I can’t let your friend go for another reason,” Lukas said. “You both are meant to be a gift to someone very important to me. I wouldn’t cheat her out of a two for one deal.”
My stomach plummeted even further. I didn’t like the sound of that at all.
The woman suddenly pointed to a spot up ahead where the highway turned off onto a poorly maintained service road. “This way, sir. We’re almost there.”
My head began throbbing again as we tore across worn ruts and chewed up gravel. The trees soon thinned out and we stopped at a dead end in the middle of a grassy field full of rocks. Lukas leaned across the dashboard to peer around. “This better be it.”
Yu exchanged a worried look with the woman before saying, “It is, sir. We scouted it earlier ourselves.”
“Get out,” Lukas said.
Needles of pain shot through my legs as Yu threw my door open and pushed me to standing. I heard Iris collapse as she was manhandled out her own side, and I rushed around to shoulder the woman as she dragged her up. “Don’t touch her!”
This time the woman just smirked. “Keep acting like that as long as you can, princess. You’ll stop fighting soon enough.”
I glared at her before reaching down as best I could and helping Iris to her feet. She gave me a grateful nod.
“Walk,” Lukas said.
I tried to support Iris as the two of us were marched away from the car and straight into the grass. Panic clawed at my insides. I couldn’t see the highway from here and I couldn’t see anyone or anything. I had horrible visions of Lukas taking us out here just to kill us, but the fact that he was supposedly keeping us as a gift—as sick as that was—gave me hope.
Iris was struggling to keep up. She kept her injured leg straight, leaning heavily on her opposite side. She nearly tripped more than once over a rock and I tried to help catch her balance. Blood continued seeping from her wound. Sweat slicked her forehead. I wanted to yell at Lukas to slow down but I knew he wouldn’t do it.
Lukas stopped and held out a hand toward Yu. “Give me your shirt.”
Yu blinked. “What, sir?”
He shrank back as Lukas turned to look at him. “Don’t make me ask again.”
Yu hurriedly yanked off his shirt and handed it over. With a couple quick slices Lukas tore it to strips, took a couple, then threw the remains back at Yu. Iris backed into me as Lukas stalked over. He knelt by her leg and tied the strips around the bleeding wound. They were quickly soaked with blood but that seemed to slow some of the bleeding. Iris whimpered through her gag as Lukas tightened them even more, then stood.
“Now walk. And if you fall behind I’ll gut you myself.”
Iris glared at him as we started again, but managed to keep a better pace. I stared at the back of Lukas’s head. We must have been truly valuable to someone for him to show even an ounce of concern, even if it was for personal gain.
After another few minutes we stopped at a pair of innocuous-looking boulders. Between them was a space barely big enough for Lukas to fit through.
“Go back to Cliffside,” Lukas told Yu and the other woman. “Wait for my word. If Valencia tries anything, you know what to do.”
The woman jerked her chin at me. “And what if this one tries anything? She’s a lot stronger than most of the others.”
Lukas fixed me with a sneer. “She won’t. She knows what will happen if she tries.”
I tried to give him a fierce a look back, but it didn’t have the same effect it did when I was unbound and eager to bury my fist in his stomach. I played at the fraying ends of the ropes binding my hands, but Lukas was right about one thing. I wouldn’t try anything. Not yet. Not with Iris here, injured, and at Lukas’s mercy.
Lukas grabbed Iris’s and my shoulders and shoved us forward. I had to turn nearly sideways to fit through the narrow opening, Iris shuffling slowly in front of us. I felt a twinge of claustrophobia but with Lukas right behind me I didn’t dare stop.
Soon the space between the walls decompressed, growing wide enough for us to stand nearly side by side. The rocky walls continued shooting upwards until they towered over our heads. We’d entered a rocky trench fit for a labyrinth.
“Move,” Lukas said.
It was a labyrinth. Kind of. Though I got the feeling the path we walked hadn’t been intentionally made to confuse us, the high stone walls—dusted with lichen and topped with precariously placed stones that definitely didn’t make me feel safe—made it impossible to tell where we were. And more importantly, where we were going.
“I thought you and Valencia were buddies,” I said to Lukas. “You know, both working together to undermine the Conclave, fighting against an ancient prophecy that you swore to uphold, being terrible paranormals in general—the important stuff. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’d be ready to turn on her at any moment.”
Lukas let out a low chuckle. “I have no allies. Only those who work with me until they’ve fulfilled their usefulness. I was willing to work with you at one time.”
Iris let out a disbelieving grunt and I couldn’t have agreed more. “Was that what you called trying to kill me multiple times? Working with me?” I shook my head. “You need to work on your collaboration skills.”
In answer, Lukas shoved me forward again. Guess he wasn’t in a talkative mood.
The high walls started to shrink. I continued scrambling to come up with some sort of plan. The moment we reached whoever Lukas planned to bring us to, our chances of escape went from slim to pretty much non-existent. But our rocky surroundings gave us no alternative paths. Not even a large crack to wedge ourselves in between. That and…
I glanced over at Iris. She was beginning to limp again. It wasn’t as bad as before, but I could tell she was in some serious pain.
We turned another corner and I stopped. A group of people stood at the end of the stone trench, blocking our way. Like Mitch and Tricia’s group, most of them wore worn clothes and sported a number of scars and tattoos. Unlike their group, this one greeted us with nothing but glares.
“Friends of yours?” I said to Lukas.
He shouldered past us and surveyed the newcomers. “Where is Onora?”
“Right here.”
The group parted as a woman slipped through them like a gust of wind through a door. I knew immediately she was faerie. Much like Collette, there was no other way she could have been so inhumanly beautiful; perfectly defined lips, eyes glittering like diamonds with black marks dripping down her high cheekbones, her skin so pale it practically sparkled like freshly fallen snow.
But unlike Collette there was also an inhuman cruelty etched into her expression. A beautiful cruelty. She was a harsh winter landscape, something you couldn’t help watching, but never wanted to get close to.
Onora eyed us hungrily. “At last,” she said, her voice raspy like her vocal cords had been cut and restitched back together. “You’ve brought me my gifts.”