Page 58 of Bonded to the Fallen Shadow King

The sound pulsed under my skin as I leaped to the next section, pushing myself harder. I had to find Rhielle.

Two more platforms, and I’d reach the tower, if I could make it that far. No. No if. Ihadto.

I sprang to the next plank, and the wood splintered beneath my feet. I swung my arms to keep my balance, and once again the discs nearly pulled me over. Just as I regained my balance, a massive leech, bigger than a wolf, struck from below. Its body slicked the wood as it wriggled toward me. A huge ring of teeth flashed in its open mouth.

I nearly froze, but I had no time to waste. I needed it to leave me alone.

“Fuck you, get back!” I threw both arms forward, the discs vibrating as they struck its body. I swung again, and the leech shrieked out a high-pitched wail. One disc squelched through its mouth, and teeth scattered across the wood as the leech fell.

I leaped past it, heart pounding. Adrenaline pumped through my body, helping keep the pain at bay, though my legs were becoming increasingly weighed down. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could push myself this way. My hips and thighs ached, but I tightened my core and launched myself onto the next platform, and then kept going down yet another path toward the tower.

Landing on stone, I rolled to the center of the final black platform. My breath came in ragged, shallow pants, but I forced myself to stand and stagger forward. I adjusted the straps on my wrists where the leather had bit in deep, and noticed my skin had been chafed raw. Beneath the sheer sleeves of the dress, numerous bruises marked my arms, but I’d made it. The cold gray tower stretched above me, massive and daunting. I didn’t see any enemies or threats.

I dragged myself through a massive archway and into the tower. The air was somehow more damp, cold, thick, and horrid inside.

Eight columns took up the circular path to the roof. Kaylen had climbed the column straight across from me in front of another archway. She was about five feet from the top but seemed to be stuck and struggling. Ceana and Deallan were on columns flanking her, Deallan about a foot shy of Kaylen, and Ceana only halfway up.

Someone groaned, and I jerked around and found a pale Rhielle, leaning against the stone wall, clutching her ankle and breathing with rapid gasps. Her ankle was swollen and purple with an odd series of bloody grooves down one side. Dark veins snaked up from the wounds toward her thigh. Clearly she couldn’t climb.

My heart skipped a beat.

“What are you doing?” Rhielle’s rasped. The bright pink of her eyes had dimmed, and her beautiful hair was snarled and matted with slime and ichor, as if one of the leeches had rolled over her.

She lifted her chin toward the ceiling. “Get your ass up there, Briar! Don’t let that bitch be the first to win.”

ChapterNineteen

Briar

Ishook my head and rushed to Rhielle’s side. “No. Let me help—”

“Go!” She tried to shove me away, but it was barely a tap. “I can protect myself, I promise, but the other girls are in more danger than me.”

My heart twisted at the thought of leaving her, but she was right. We needed to slow down the fucking labyrinth. “Fine, but I’m coming back for you. Just hold on.”

I turned my gaze upward, examining the columns. They rose easily twenty feet, if not more, to a wide ledge similar to the flooring, which ran the perimeter of the top of the tower like a rooftop landing with open air in the center.

My heart sank. We had to climb up there with these fucking discs and in a heavy dress. At every turn, the Council members and Fate seemed even more monstrous than before.

Kaylen’s silver eyes met mine. Her face was slick with sweat as she clung to her column. She seemed stuck. Ceana was still moving slowly, her hand tapping each section before she inched higher. Deallan’s limbs jerked with impatience as she yanked herself upward, her eyes burning bright with determination.

The discs hung from their wrists, dragging them down and making them struggle to climb upwards.

There had to be some sort of trick to it that would prove our smarts. With the weighted dresses and the discs, climbing would be hard enough. I skirted the floor ledge, careful to stay away from the pit in the middle, to the column on the other side of Deallan and looked. The columns were about two feet apart from each other, with about a three-inch gap between the tower floor ledge and each column, but the giant hole they circled would be deadly to fall into. Sure enough, crabs, leeches, and lobsters milled about below in the watery pit, squelching and disgusting. Below the floor ledge, the columns shone with something sleek and greasy.

My leg throbbed in sync with my racing pulse, and my mind hazed.

Shaking my head, I glanced at the columns again. Something was off.

“Be careful.” Rhielle’s words were strained. “The columns bite.”

“What?” I narrowed my eyes, taking in the gray, coarse surface. The column appeared thick with a strange scalelike texture carved into the stone, but I couldn’t see any hints of a mouth.

The mechanicalclicksounded again, even deeper than the last. My skin prickled, and I staggered back in horror as four or five mouths opened at irregular intervals along each column, showing off needle-sharp teeth that hooked inward.

Kaylen screamed, but she held tight. Her body swung wildly, and she barely regained her footing as she moved to the side of a mouth. Ceana shrieked and clung to her column. Her movements were frantic as she dodged the biting mouths. Deallan wasn’t so lucky. She cried out as one of the mouths caught her hand. “Let go!” she howled as blood gushed from the mouth, which loosened just enough to draw in more of her hand. The crunch of bone made my stomach heave.

She needed help, and Kaylen and Ceana were screaming.

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