Page 21 of The Fae King's Labyrinth

Standing, I gritted my teeth at the sudden pain. I muscled through the urge to collapse and straightened to my full, albeit diminutive height. Lifting my head, prepared to demand the two males’ attention, I discovered that I already had it.

“What are you doing?” Azulin demanded as he returned to my side. He didn’t touch me, but his hands hovered inches away from my arm.

“Standing—”

“You shouldn’t be standing.” The pooka reached out to steady me on my other side.

Azulin glared at him. “Don’t touch her.” The air crackled with gathering magic as the flame above my head flared brighter.

The pooka raised his hands in surrender and stepped back.

“Stop it,” I commanded. “Leave the pooka alone. He’s done nothing but help us. I don’t understand why you’re so against him, but I don’t need to know. What I do need is for you two to stop provoking each other.”

My ankle had begun throbbing in earnest now and I shifted my weight, swallowing down a yelp of pain. “I’m willing to shift again, and you may carry me if you believe that is best.” I shifted painfully again, trying to ease my weight off my throbbing ankle as much as possible. The idea of being carried by Azulin was growing more appealing by the second.

“I advise against it,” the pooka declared with uncharacteristic solemnity. “It will only strengthen the connection between you.”

“You said it was already past the point of no return,” Azulin glared at the pooka.

“It is possible to deepen the entanglement to the point you are inseparable.”

“What are you two talking about?” I demanded.

Before either of them could reply, the labyrinth groaned and began rumbling.

Without a word, I shifted. The pain was draining my energy to care beyond our need to survive. The two of them needed to stop arguing long enough to get us out of this mess.

Azulin scooped me up, tucking me securely against his chest, and the pooka started running.

∞∞∞

Azulin

I cradled Calypso’s small cat body close to my chest with one arm, supporting her along her torso, trying to avoid bumping her injured back leg. My magic sang happily at her magic’s closeness. In counterbalance, my conscience nagged me about being the reason she was hurt in the first place.

“Incoming wall!” the pooka warned. “Any sign of a turning?”

I peered through the gathering gloom ahead. “None that I can see. The smoke is making it hard to see.”

The pooka coughed. “And breathe. Is that brimstone I smell?”

I bit back a curse. “How did they capture two dragon shifters?”

“It might not be a dragon shifter.” The pooka kept pace with me as we plunged further into the smoke. “It could be something else.”

A glow began illuminating the floor ahead. “Wait!” I grabbed at the back of the pooka’s shirt, but I was too late. The floor dropped away, and suddenly we were sliding downward at a steep angle.

The pooka transformed, and I was joined by a rabbit as well as a cat. Catching the Pooka by the back of his neck, I tried to control our fall. Abruptly, I was scrambling for our lives as the passage dumped us out onto the edge of a lake of lava. Skidding across the uneven hot bricks, I rolled onto my side and then to my feet just in time to halt our skid just shy of the edge of the flames.

The pooka uttered some colorful language in his native tongue. I stumbled away from the edge of the heat as my hair and clothing began sizzling. Calypso burrowed deeper beneath my arm, hiding her face against my side.

I moved to put the pooka down, but he immediately protested. “My paws will burn!”

“Then transform into a man. Your boots will protect your feet.”

I held him out by the scruff of his neck and then dropped him. He transformed before his feet hit the ground, expression livid as he rubbed his neck.

“Never hold a rabbit that way. It chokes them.”

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