Page 25 of The Fae King's Labyrinth

I lost my grip on Calypso when I hit the ground. She sprang from my arms, spitting and hissing as she scrambled for safety. The nearest shelter happened to be behind a boulder from a collapsed section of wall that had fallen from above. More chunks of stone and ash rained down as the passage we had been traveling along disintegrated around us.

Scrambling to my feet, I barely missed being crushed by a chunk of stone about double my size. I ached all over from the earlier fall. Nursing my side, I scanned the unfamiliar terrain for my companions.

Calypso hadn’t moved from her shelter, but the pooka was harder to spot.

A cavernous room spread out around us, dark and smoky; the air hung heavy with magic and the oppressive heat that dragon shifters produced in their draconic form. With the floor littered with rocks, boulders, and broken-up patches of stone slab, navigating was going to be difficult. A harsh cough came from behind me.

“Where’s the cat?” The pooka approached. The handkerchief around his neck was over his nose and mouth again. Despite it, he coughed again.

I didn’t blame him. With all the ash and smoke, my throat itched as well, and my lungs were already laboring more than usual. Coughing fits would soon follow.

“She is under a boulder over there.” Seeing the pooka’s widening eyes, I rushed to clarify. “She’s hiding. I dropped her when we fell. She seemed unharmed.” However, I was aware it could’ve only been pure adrenaline spurring her to foolish speed despite her injury. “Have you spotted the dragon shifter?”

A roar with an accompanying burst of flame and ash exploded above our heads and to the left.

Both the pooka and I ducked. Seeking shelter behind the boulder that had almost crushed me, I closed my eyes briefly as the wave of heat washed over us.

“So, is it worth trying to persuade him or her to—?”

I shook my head before the pooka even finished. “No. Let me collect Calypso, then I will attempt to open the portal.”

The pooka’s eyes widened as his attention moved upward. “Best get going on that. The dragon has spotted us. Duck!”

The pooka and I squashed ourselves back-to-back behind the boulder again. We barely pulled arms and feet out of reach before when the dragon blasted it and all the surroundings with an inferno of fire that made the air painful to breathe. I longed for a kerchief like the pooka’s that I could spell to filter the air for me.

In the midst of the blast, I heard Calypso cry out in pain.

A strangely intense anger swept through me. The vine on my right forearm throbbed. I didn’t have time to fully consider the implications of the strength of my response, but I knew for certain I couldn’t walk away from her fully after this. With a groan, I shoved myself off the boulder and into a crouch.

The moment the inferno cut off, I leaped for Calypso’s hiding place. Ignoring the smell and pain of the nearly molten rock singeing my palms, I scrambled over the debris toward where I had last seen her.

“Calypso,” I called. “Come to me. I’ll get us out of here.”

Her small soot-streaked cat face peered at me from a crevice beneath a precariously balanced boulder. The fire had completely missed her.

The dragon drew a great breath that pulled most of the air from the room. Calypso’s silvery eyes widened in horror as we both realized what that meant. Out in the open like I was, I was exposed, and the dragon’s next blast would catch me unprotected.

We were running out of time.

“Pooka!” I yelled as I dove for Calypso. She met me halfway, limping heavily despite her haste.

“Coming!”

Calypso launched her small body at me, and the moment my hands closed around her, I reached for my magic.

The familiar eagerness of my pre-curse magic responded to my command, and a portal immediately opened before us.

The dragon’s roar signaled the beginning of his blast. I stepped through the portal.

“Pooka!”

“Here!” He raced toward us and threw himself through the golden circle I had created.

I snapped it closed practically the moment his boots crossed the threshold. And not a moment too soon. A wall of heat burned across my face and my tunic began smoking. Calypso whimpered.

“About time,” the pooka declared. He lifted his head from where he lay sprawled at my feet. “Nothing like cutting things too close for comfort. I think you melted my boots.”

“Be thankful you have feet.” I grimaced as the curse fought me for control of my magic. Fearing I would lose the battle at any moment, I set Calypso on the ground.

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