Page 39 of Wilds of Wonder
My arms and legs flailed, my body banging against the sides of the hole. I tried to grasp for anything to stop my fall, but I was falling too fast, too furious. I braced my body for an impact that never came. I just kept falling down this dark hole as Driscoll’s screamed echoed around me.
So my death was going to be drawn out then. Fantastic. More time for me to think about all the ways this could have turned out differently. All the regrets I had. How much this was going to hurt.
And the bolt. I’d dropped it. Maybe it was for the best. We didn’t deliver it to Princess Poppy for safekeeping like we’d planned, but that didn’t really matter.
No one would find it down here. This mysterious shadow king wouldn’t be able to use it for whatever he was planning against the other courts.
That gave me some comfort. I could die knowing I’d made a difference in this world. That my life had meant something after all. Something more than what my mother had wanted it to mean.
Driscoll’s garbled screams continued to bounce off the walls of the hole, while I heard nothing from the bone collector. Maybe he’d already reached the bottom and was dead.
The thought didn’t fill me with nearly as much satisfaction as I wished it did. In fact, it didn’t fill me with any satisfaction at all.
Suddenly, my body slowed its descent. What in the bloody frost? Maybe I’d already died and it had happened so quickly I didn’t realize it. I was floating, suspended in the air by something. Then my feet were touching the ground, and I was standing in darkness. Not going splat. Okay, this had officially passed weird and gone to downright crazy.
Flickers of shimmery blue, red, green, and orange lit the space, but not enough that I could see much else.
“Hello?” Driscoll asked from somewhere beside me.
“Seriously?” I said. “I die and now I’m spending an eternity with you?”
“Is it Kick Driscoll When He’s Already Down Day?” Driscoll asked. “Because between you and Leoni, it really feels like it.” He went silent. “Wait a minute. Leoni?” he asked.
There was no response.
“Do you think she’s okay?” His voice had gone from sarcastic to frantic, and I wanted to make him feel better, but I couldn’t. I had no idea if Leoni had fallen with us. If she was okay.
“Quit talking,” a low voice said.
Maverick.
“Well, that confirms it,” I said. “I’ve definitely died and gone to the Underearth.”
I took a step forward, sticking out my hands and feeling my way through the dark. “Did anyone else get a weird sensation when you dropped down here? Like your body was suspended or something? We should be dead, right?”
Neither of them answered.
“Where is the bolt?” Maverick asked, the sound of his hands patting the ground echoing around us.
“Why isn’t it cold?” Driscoll asked. “I’m actually feeling a little hot.” His cloak whooshed through the air, and I assumed he was taking it off.
“The bolt,” Maverick said, voice growing frantic. “Where is the bolt?”
My pulse spiked, an icy dread filling me. “Okay, let’s all just calm down.”
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
A sizzle hit the silence, and suddenly a yellow light glowed brighter, illuminating the space where we stood. My gaze took in the area: it was like someone had collected all the elemental powers and splashed them around this cave. Vines writhed and wriggled along the walls and ground. Fire sizzled in jagged, red lines across the floor. Water glistened on the walls, the droplets falling in splats on the ground. Jagged spears of ice jutted up from the floor—and the wind. It whirled above us. It must’ve been what caught us when we’d fallen.
I’d never seen anything like it. “What is controlling this?” I asked, shooting unsure looks at the others, but their gazes were stuck on something else.
The bolt. Clutched tight in the wolf’s mouth. It stood in front of a tunnel, the only way out of this cave. For once it didn’t attack. Instead, it turned and ran.
“The bolt!” Maverick snatched up his satchel and ran after the wolf.
I shot a questioning look at Driscoll.
He heaved a sigh. “Let’s go.”
