Page 4 of Conflicted Fate
Fingers snatched at my arm, hauling me to my feet. Kiel was there, in front of me, his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear him over the noise.
“WHAT?”I shouted, but he shook his head. Even a foot apart, the power of the mountain coming apart drowned out anything else.
My eyes still worked, however, and I read his lips as he mouthed one singular word at me.
Shift.
There was already fur sprouting across his body. He was right, that would be our only way out, the only hope we had for escaping the oncoming tide of destruction.
The panicked scream I sent into my mind as I opened the connection between my wolf and me was answered immediately as the she-bitch came howling through like a tornado. She, too, could see what was coming for us and wanted to get out of its way.
CRACK.We were blasted several feet in the air as the ground nearby split open, huge chunks tumbling into the gorge we’d just crossed.
Two sets of wolf eyes met, and we were off in a twitch of muscle, four furred legs propelling us each forward at a speed no human could hope to match. It was no lope or run. It was a frantic, all-out sprint for a place of safety we weren’t even sure existed.
A boulder hurtled past us at deadly speed, smashing through a tree and continuing on, the boat-sized chunk of rock not even slowed by the impact. Wood shattered everywhere, spraying us with slivers that split fur and drew blood. But still, we ran on.
More boulders and rocks blasted past us as the landslide came on, an inexorable wave that wanted nothing more than to swallow up anything and everything in its way. I thrust aside a nauseous thought as more than one boulder flashed with silver, armor it had swallowed up from Lycaonus’ men. The dark stains on the rocks indicated their fate and a likely promise to us.
I somehow managed to run even faster after that, extorting my shifter body to new lengths. But it wouldn’t be enough. The very ground under us was beginning to split apart, the rock below crumbling, while the layer of dirt was dislodged, sliding downward.
A snarl burst from my throat, directed toward Kiel.We aren’t going to make it.
Yes, we are. Now, run!The answering growl didn’t sound as confident as he thought.
Kiel, too, knew we were doomed. There was no way we could escape the—
Something smashed into my hind legs. Losing balance, I slammed into the ground, bouncing over and rolling, the whiplash sending pain arcing through my entire spine as the boulder that had clipped me rolled past swiftly.
In a flash, Kiel was at my side.
Get up,he snarled as rocks and huge chunks of stone passed us.Now.
I struggled to my feet, my hind legs screaming in agony with each step.
Go. I can’t make it.
My snarls were met with an icy glare.No.
Slowly, I picked up the pace, forcing myself to ignore how torturous each step had become. It was either pain or death. There was no in between. Ihadto run.
Trees were being uprooted as the soft soil came apart in advance of the main wave. The entire ground shifting and sliding, while beneath it, the mountain continued to collapse. It was pointless, our running, but we did it anyway because neither of us wanted to quit. If we were going to die, it would be because the damn mountainearnedour deaths, not because we sat still and let it come. Screw that.
A boulder arced over both of us, smashing into the ground ahead, crumbling into a thousand smaller pieces, forcing us to dodge and split around it.
Down, down the mountain, we went, as fast as we could, but far too slow. I knew it. Kiel knew it. And now, the mountain had us.
Up ahead, the ground yawned open wide. One moment, it was grass and trees tumbling, and the next, just nothingness.
It swallowed us before we could even try to act.
Down. Not quite vertical. We bounced and jumped, trying to stay upright. Failing. I flipped and rolled, while a hugefilmoretree went sailing past into the darkness.
Then I hit something hard and was flung out into a darkness that had no floor, no bottom to it. My stomach surged into my throat as I spun wildly into a darkness that had no limits, no end.
I howled in impotent rage, just another part of a waterfall of dirt, trees, and mountain.
SPLASH!
