Page 18 of Shadows of Air and Earth
My lips pressed into a thin line, my nose wrinkling with disgust. "Trolls, Dragoon. Specifically trollass.” The sound of choked laughter echoed from behind me while I stretched my arms over my head, drawing my blade from the shadows. "Stay here. I'll take care of this before they end up bringing down the tunnel upon us."
"By the sound and the smell of it, there is more than one troll, General Dark. It’s a fucking stampede of them," the air elemental exclaimed.
Glancing over my shoulder, I winked at him through the darkness. Whether he saw it or not did not matter, the tone of my voice said it all. "That's the fun of it, Dragoon. Just stay here and I’ll be back in a few." Turning towards Xi, I added, "Keep the tunnel from collapsing. This may be quartz but troll clubs are enchanted to break through any stone and earth…I'd rather not have the whole of Lac Asari collapsing down on me." Striding forward with my sword raised, I added under my breath, “Drowning is never that much fun."
Walking into the darkness, the smell becoming more and more concentrated, I heard Xi’s whisper. "Did she just insinuate she drowned before?"
I grinned, certain that by dinner time they would have their shit worked out. They were too interwoven, too connected to stay at odds with each other.
"Maybe it was a metaphor," Riley whispered back, his words following me through the tunnel where more roars and distant grunts could be heard. Weaving shadows around my head, before my eyes burned from the smell, I heard Xi's last words.
"I'm also starting to hate it when she uses that tone…like the world is ending but no worries, we will all die a glorious death."
My eyes gleamed in the darkness. If the world did indeed end one day, our deaths would be more than glorious—they would be eternal.
Chapter 11
Riley shifted uncomfortably whilewe watched Remnant fade into the darkness, and I found myself wishing she would come back, if only to save me from the awkward silence between us.
I was hurt and confused, afraid of the answers to the questions burning in my mind. Who had he used his power on? Why? When? What happened to them? Did he kill them? And as these thoughts echoed over and over in my head, none of the answers Riley could possibly have seemed adequate enough and that…terrified me.
"Xi—" he attempted but was cut off by a sudden sonic blast bursting from the far reaches of the tunnel. Flying backwards, I grunted when I hit Riley’s solid body, his hands firmly gripping my shoulders to place me back on my feet while we both gagged on the sudden concentration of that vile smell the general so lovingly calledtroll ass.
But that wasn’t the worst of our worries, no it could never be that simple. Like a quake that broke the surface of the earth, the sound of quartz cracking and the thunderous booms of large slabs of stone caving in all around us was terrifying.
"Shit!" I screamed, my knee slamming into the floor, my hands slapping against the smooth surface while I gritted my teeth, willing the stone to mend. My eyes widened, feeling the utter destruction of the tunnel itself and the pressure of the lac above, trickles of water already seeping into the stoney layers. Pouring more power into it, I cursed again. It was too much, compromised almost beyond saving.
I snarled,almost. I wasn’t about to let the one thing that had been my salvation and my freedom end so tragically. If I did, then what was it all fucking for? The never ending training, the tortured labor to build character, the faeling dreams of escaping, the hopes to one day be stronger so that I would have my vengeance and take back my life.
"How can I help?" Riley knelt beside me.
Turning to face him, I was close enough to see the anxious lines on his handsome face, knowing that it wasn’t for the worry of being buried alive, but out of concern for me. It pissed me off.“If I refuse your help will you collar me and force my hand?” The words escaped venomously from my lips.
Green brows furrowed together, hazel eyes flashing with hurt and anger. “Be angry at me all you want now terrella but not at the sacrifice of your own life. Please. Tell me how I can help, and when this is over, I promise, I will give you the answers you seek, I will walk away if that is what you wish but only when I know you are goddess damn safe.”
Eyes watering with bitter tears, I whispered the truth while my heart broke for the tunnel and what was already beginning to feel like the loss of him, "I won’t be able to hold it back."
More roars and bellows, thunderous booms, and falling rocks surrounded us, all of which Riley ignored, his gaze never leaving mine. The air stirred and I closed my eyes against the familiar calming feel of it while my hair was brushed back from my face. Snapping my eyes back open, I stared straight into Riley’s glowing hazel ones, two perfect andalusite gems, ones that I could horde like a dragon, peering deeply into for the rest of my life. I wasn’t sure if I could ever let him walk away but also was not sure if I could ever stay. His entire body leaned towards me as we shared one breath. "I got you terrella and I always will even if you don’t want it."
I gasped when violent forces of air exploded all around us and I sighed with partial relief. The combination of Riley’s pressurized air and my earth powers forced the stone to shift back in place and the cracks to mend, taking the strain off my body but not my heart.
That was us, an unlikely pair of elements weathering the storms, manipulating our fate with air and earth—smoothing surfaces tarnished and blemished by scars and broken dreams.
Except those dreams were slipping away.
Ear-splitting roars, a thunderous crash, and another shuddering quake through the tunnel tore our gazes fromeach other and we peered deep into the darkness where large mounded forms appeared.
Riley’s eyes narrowed. “Something is coming and coming in fast.”
I nodded in agreement, I could feel and hear the forceful skid of a creature heading quickly in our direction. Steel glinted in the darkness as Riley drew his scimitars, its metal sliced through the air.
Our breaths collectively held as the sliding sound came to a forceful squeaking halt right at our kneeled bodies. Riley’s blades were poised across a pale throat, emerald green eyes encased in a halo of dark hair sparkled from the general of Faerie.
I blinked slowly with understanding, Remnant Dark had been fucking thrown several feet back through the tunnel and had ended up sliding across the quartz to be delivered at our feet.
“Oh hello,amicis.”
Friends. I blinked again, she had just called usfriendsin ancient fae.
