Page 58 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom
The current surged faster, frothing and snapping at us like it had something to prove. Whitecaps foamed around partially submerged boulders, spinning debris in dizzying eddies. The river narrowed and the banks rose on either side; steep, jagged, closing in like a throat about to swallow us whole.
Something roared up ahead.
It wasn’t the chatter of the baby bear murder cult, or even the wind.
This sound was deeper. Hungrier.
A low, guttural growl that rumbled through the water itself, shaking my body, reverberating through my ribs.
My heart stopped.
I turned, straining to see through the mist curling off the surface. The sound grew, swelling into something monstrous. I didn’t need to see it to know what it was.
Waterfall.
“Oh, shit,” I breathed.
And then the world dropped out from beneath me.
My stomach launched into my throat. For a heartbeat, I was weightless. Then we hit the plunge.
Twelve feet. Maybe, fifteen. Not high enough to kill us, but enough to make the world tilt sideways. Again.
With a massive splash, we crashed into the pool below, the impact jarring every bone as I went under. A deeper cold crawled into my muscles and clenched. I kicked hard, lungs screaming.
We surfaced in a deep, clear lagoon, the water glowing faintly with an eerie violet shimmer, like moonlight trapped beneath the surface. I swam to shore, limbs aching and heavy, then collapsed onto the hard sand, coughing and laughing all at once.
We were alive. Barely.
Sadie crawled up beside me, strings of red hair splayed across her cheeks, grinning like, well, a redcap high on adrenaline. “That was amazing.”
“You’re insane,” I wheezed, tasting river water on my lips.
“You keep saying that like it’s an insult.”
A moment later, Damon splashed onto the shore, dragging himself up like a half-drowned cat. He glared at us, his wet hair plastered to his face. “I regret every life choice that led me here. Next time, I’m letting the woodland creatures win.”
“You should be thanking us. That was character development.”
And their arguing commenced.
Vareck landed last, wings folding neatly behind him. His boots barely disturbed the sand.
Silently, he offered me a hand.
I hesitated, then met his eyes and took it. His palm was dry, warm, and grounding. His grip lingered just a second longer than necessary as he pulled me up without speaking a word.
Far away, but not far enough, the chitters started up again. Too close for comfort.
We didn’t talk about it.
We just moved.
The path beyond the lagoon, opposite the way we came, sloped upward. The air felt thicker here. Humid and somehow charged.
Vareck walked ahead, silent but tense, like he was holding back something sharp. His wings had vanished again, tucked away. Damon trailed behind, dripping and scowling, his soaked shirt clinging to his back. Sadie strolled beside me like this was just another day in Seattle and not a hell realm where we were continuously sidestepping our impending doom.
“You know, this place isn’t so bad for the right kind of person. If there were a consistent portal in and out of here, I could see it becoming a popular vacation spot for adrenaline junkies.”
