Page 35 of The Stone Secret
The bridge shook, throwing me forward a step. I grabbed the ropes just as the plank beneath me gave way with a crack. My stomach shot up into my chest and my heart into my mouth as I dropped.
My grip on the rope bridge was the only thing keeping me from death. Hands burning, arms screaming, I hung there like a prize pig.
Don’t look down.
Don’t look down.
I looked down into the mist, spotting a hint of gray jagged rocks.
My bowels turned liquid, and dark panic clouded my mind. Like hell was I giving in to the dread. I hauled my body up, arms straining with the effort.
“No!” Bax shook the bridge again. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I just…I’m sorry.”
It took every ounce of power I had to keep hold of the rope as my bones rattled, hips slamming against the planks around me.
I didn’t have the energy to yell back. Everything was focused on staying attached to the bridge.
“I can’t let you go back.” Bax’s voice was louder.
He was getting closer.
I wouldn’t go out like this. Not here. Not today. “Argh!” I pulled myself up and out of the gap, enough to swing my body forward. If the next plank was rotten, I was fucked.
Please, please, please.
My boots connected with solid wood, and relief threatened to weaken my knees.
“Cam, no!”
I let out a curse and pushed forward, moving faster but staying light on my feet so as not to put too much weight on any single plank.
I hit the other side a moment later and turned to look back.
“No!” Bax broke into a sprint, uncaring of the planks.
The idiot was going to get himself killed. “Stop! Bax, don’t—”
A sharp crack cut through the air, and Bax’s eyes went round with horror, then he fell through the bridge, his bellow of horror echoing in my ears while my own scream remained trapped in my throat.
He was gone.
He was fucking gone.
My chest ached with the horror of it, my throat pinching with the threat of tears. But that part of me determined to live dragged itself to the surface and forced me backward toward the port. Toward the tree.
I hit the light, and needles of fire erupted across my skin, raking over my senses as I pushed through the pain and past the strange resistance.
What was this? Why couldn’t I get through? Did we have to be in teams, holding the map and—
The resistance vanished, and the light swallowed me.
CHAPTER15
Istumbled onto gravel, heart punching my rib cage, eyes hot with the threat of tears, and slammed into a hard wall of muscle. Familiar forest-green eyes looked down on me in concern.
“Cam, thank fuck.” Touron wrapped his arms around me. “You made it. We were so worried.”
“I told you she’d be fine,” Shar said, but her smug smile dropped at the sight of my face. “What happened?”
