Page 17 of Hidden Kingdoms

“Escaping!” I ground out through clenched teeth, not pulling away yet despite how tightly he was holding me.

“You can’t leave! You have to—” His eyes flew wide at the same instant a heavy dread clawed at my insides.

No, no, no. Not again.

My own fear was mirrored on his face, eyes darting around to locate it, and I knew I wasn’t lucky enough to escape it again, not for a third time.

He spun, pulling me into his body as I caught sight of the inky black darkness stark against the fog that still surrounded us, now easily ten times bigger than it had been in my room.Filling the sky until the soft glow of the approaching dawn was all but extinguished.

It was back; it had followed us.

“Run!” he shouted, grabbing my hand, dragging me with him in the opposite direction to where I was making my escape. My head whipped around, searching for the third member of our party, panic thick in my throat at the thought of any of us being caught by that thing. The magik that moments ago flared with a vibrancy I had never experienced, now felt stagnant under my skin.

“He’s coming,” he assured me, his grip almost bruising in his desperation to get away. Taking three strides for every one of his, his momentum propelled me forward. The grass cushioned my bare feet as we sprinted through the mist, as I struggled not to slip, lungs burning with both the effort of our escape and the effect of the thing pursuing us. Risking a glance at his face, the mask gave me nothing but a glimpse of gritted teeth. I still couldn’t see Stormy, but I hoped he wasn’t far behind.

Icy wind whipped at my skin as I let him guide me blindly across the land, the burn in my legs growing at the incline we hurtled up. Blood roared through my body, limbs throbbing from the effort of enduring this pace. The pounding of feet mixed with the rattle of their weapons. The clanking of gold that wrapped around my wrists and ankles echoed around the empty land.

A shift in the air told me it was closing in, my body to grew heavy with the effort of fighting off the sheer terror it induced. My hand was clasped in his as breath rattled in my chest, the air around growing thick as I attempted to suck in oxygen.

Any energy I could muster was draining away, a vacuum in the unseeable sky siphoning all we had to give. I didn’t dare risk the seconds it would take to see how close it was. Knowing it was there was enough, I didn’t need to see it.

As we crested the hill, my ears picked up another set of heavy footsteps, and I allowed myself a moment of relief that we were all still running for our lives. That moment was lost as waves of despair crashed upon us. I could hear the men grunting for breath as they fought through it and I wilfully ignored the sounds that were coming from me in the effort to keep myself upright and moving forward.

The fog that had been so thick only a moment ago had begun to dissipate, clinging to the lower plains and revealing a towering stone wall further away than I would have liked.

Half running and half falling as my frozen feet screamed in protest, we pressed forward to the large wooden gates that I hoped signalled safety. The distance between us and the pursuing entity grew, and I pulled in a single, clear breath moments before I pitched forward, knees slamming hard into the ground.

Hands reached for me and I let them, using their strength to right myself as large fingers closed around mine once again. Our destination drew closer, every painful step that wracked my body made it almost impossible to focus on anything else, and I knew I wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for the two men beside me. Although the grass cushioned my steps, running barefoot had stones digging into the soles of my feet. Sweat beaded on my body despite the chill in the air, making my hands slick, but there was no way I was letting go.

“Faster!” A bellow came from behind, and I was wrenched forward as a tendril of darkness ghosted its way down my back. Agony burst across my skin at its touch, and I cried out, sensing the ripple of satisfaction that pulsed around us. A growl ripped from Big Guy’s chest, his hand tightening on mine as it took every part of my being to continue running.

A soft glow shone around us as his other hand pulled out one of the luminescent stones he had used in my room, the presenceretreating for a second before the stone stuttered and faded. Curses flew from both men, followed by a thud as he dropped the useless thing to the floor.

We were close now; soon we would be at those gates. If they thought we would be safe there, who was I to argue with them on the destination? Anywhere felt better than where we were right now.

With the sky clearing, I noticed the slight ripple in the air in the direction we were running towards. It was a shimmering curtain of iridescent silk barely visible just a few metres from the stone wall stretching out in all directions like a dome. I barely had time to register what it was as we burst through it, a familiar pulse of strong energy thrumming through my body, my mind whirling as I recognised that feeling.

I’d just run through a ward. This place had magic.

The terror that had so thoroughly gripped my mind slid away, and my fingers sparked with energy as magik flooded me. The hand holding mine instantly pulled away and I spun as an ear-shattering shriek pierced the air, watching as the inky shadow hurled itself at us.

Chest heaving with relief at the intake of a full breath, I staggered back, desperate to get away as it threw its mass at the rippling air, but found no way through. Its huge mass writhed as it crashed upon the ward like a wave on glass, tendrils reaching out, searching for a gap again and again.

My body was vibrating as my muscles went into shock, one of the men shouted out angrily to someone, somewhere. I wasn’t paying them any attention. Too busy eyeing up this thing that had now tried to attack me for the third time. It wouldn’t get through—I was sure of that—and as it realised the same it shrieked in frustration, the sound grating along my bones.

How it made that noise, I had no idea, because I definitely couldn’t see a mouth. Then, like in my dream, it began to foldin on itself, the air around it growing impossibly dark as it collapsed into a black hole of its own making.

I was fast becoming accustomed to strong hands grabbing at me as they pulled me backwards. Shrugging listlessly out of their grip, I twisted around to the dark stone wall that stretched further than I could see, the top impossible to lay eyes on. The heavy wooden gate directly in front of me my only choice.

Where the fuck was I?

9

CHAPTER NINE

ELODIE

The mix of exhaustion and sheer relief at the disappearance of our smoky pursuer was enough that I dropped to my knees panting hard, hand pressed against my racing heart.

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