Page 129 of Crown of Chaos

The ground lurched under us, and a sharp clap of thunder split the air as the landscape shifted yet again. A dark, spooky cave appeared, and I made a sound of frustration as the air grew thick with the fragrance of flowers, which bloomed around our prone forms. For a second, I considered just remaining here until another option presented itself. Aden had told us not to take the easier paths, but we weren’t really being given a choice which direction we went in.

Esme lifted, peering toward the entrance with a frown creasing her forehead as I glanced back to the shadow creatures.

“It’s a good thing those fuckers can’t fly,” I muttered before the sound of wings filled my ears. I sat up, peering up into the sky. A tingle of unease settled around us until the squawking shrill of a giant-ass bird shook the ground. “I just need one fucking moment to rest!” I yelled at the bird that snapped rows of razor-sharp teeth toward us. Esme grabbed me, yanking me to my feet and hauling me toward the protection of the dark, musty-smelling cave.

The moment we entered, the bird was right behind us, slamming into the entrance and snapping its jaw. We inched back, forced to move deeper into the space to avoid being eaten.

“Aria, there are stairs,” Esme said, and I spun to where she was pointing. The staircase led downward, and I groaned at just the thought of having to walk down them. My legs ached from running and my arms were little more than Jell-O from climbing.

“We need to rest a minute.” I didn’t wait for her reply before moving toward the stairs and sitting on the top one.

Esme sat next to me, and we stared into the pitch-black hole we were heading into. I tried to adjust my eyesight, but it was as if we were nothing more than humans trying to survive an endless trial of horrors that promised to end us.

My body was drained, and I didn’t have the added strength from Ember. I hadn’t even been this exhausted when Knox was endlessly chasing me around the Nine Realms.

“I can’t see shit,” Esme grumbled.

“Me either,” I admitted, leaning my head against the cave wall, unwilling to move from the cold slate seat that felt like a feather bed to my weary body.

The second my eyelids drifted closed, light glowed around us, which forced them back open. I laughed softly, but it was dipped in sarcasm and laced with anger over the fact that we wouldn’t be able to rest. Strange markings covered the walls and glowed crimson. It looked like we’d stepped into a gentlemen’s club, and they had added the red lights to set the mood. The only thing I was in the mood for was a solid nap.

“Can you read those?” I asked, but Esme snorted, shaking her head.

“We could ask our friend the carnivorous bird.” She sat up, jerking a thumb back at the thing that was still trying to wedge its way into the cave. The entrance shook, and I gazed back over my shoulder, glaring at the dust dropping from the ceiling.

“I may not understand what they say, but in my experience, red is never a good thing,” she muttered, moving down a few more steps, stopping to wait for me to catch up.

Bracing my hand against the wall, I stood and slowly made my way down to her. Esme found it hilarious that I could hardly move, but I snorted because her ass hadn’t been holding us up, and she knew it.

At the bottom of the steps, we found ourselves inside a cavern with icicle-like stalactites that dipped into water, which flooded the floor and flowed deeper into the tight channel of the cave. The glowing red runes didn’t carry past the stairs, but the walls glowed a soft blueish-green color, as if the algae itself was giving off light.

Smaller stalagmites poked their sharp tips from the water that made me vacillate entering the waterway. Toward the walls of the cave, the stalagmites and stalactites met, forming columns. Above us, cave pearls dropped liquid from their smooth surfaces and added a constant dripping noise that echoed through the space we were in.

Slowly, I entered the water as we cautiously forged our way forward. The farther we went, the eerier it became. Neither one of us spoke, too busy watching the cave ceiling that looked as if a nebula was stolen from the galaxy and captured within its walls. The whole place seemed to pulse and change colors as it expanded around us.

“That is something else,” I whispered, afraid to make too much noise in the space we occupied.

“It’s beautiful,” Esme admitted. “Which means it will probably eat us.”

I chuckled, but something brushed against my calf. “Mother fucker, what now?”

My eyes focused on the water around me as I took another step forward, only to find nothing to step on, and I ended up sinking under the surface. Because why not have uneven ground? Was that too much to ask for? I pushed off the bottom, breaking the surface in time to watch Esme leap toward me.

I barely avoided having her land on top of me. Reaching out, I grabbed her arms and yanked her toward the side of the cave with me. We managed to reach it just as the water started to pick up speed around us, but the column was slick with algae. My grip faltered over the wet slimy column, and the quickly rushing water swept us away before I could make another grab for it. Esme’s hold on me may have been solid, but it was still an added burden when fighting the water. If we survived this shit, I was teaching her how to fucking swim.

“I hate this fucking idea,” Esme sputtered, spitting water from her mouth.

“It’s a little late now to turn back.”

“Do you hear that?” she asked, forcing me to strain to hear what she was talking about.

We allowed the current to direct us since we didn’t have another choice, and the flow started to pick up speed. Before I could grasp on to anything, we were being spit out over a small waterfall, which dropped us into a large pool that flowed blindly through the dimly lit cave like a lazy river.

That was when I heard what Esme had been talking about, and my heart stopped. The water that was washing us through the cave system was emptying into a giant whirlpool. I blanched, closing my eyes before I started kicking us toward the only ledge available to escape the rushing water trying to suck us into an abyss.

“Swim!” I screamed. Esme kicked her feet, adding power to my strokes. Her hold shifted to my waist, so I had both arms free, and I swam as hard as I could toward the small ledge even though my body had almost nothing left to give. “We aren’t going to make it!” I yelled as I continued to fight against the current that threatened to drink us down into the unforgiving cyclone of water. Esme climbed my body, her survival instinct strong enough to overcome her panic.

I wasn’t powerful enough to get us both there, though. One of her hands touched the edge as the other gripped my clothing, but then something slammed into my head, sending us careening away from safety. I blinked past the pain, trying to hold off unconsciousness, but the last thing I heard was her panicked screams and the sound of rushing water.

---