Page 13 of Wicked Prince of Shadows
With everything being so dark and leafless and with so few distinguishing features, it sometimes felt as if I was just walking in place.
Then, just when it seemed it would never stop, the forest thinned.
I stumbled through the last line of trees and stumbled to a halt, chest heaving.
There!
Relief and fear surged through me in equal measure.
The chasm yawned ahead, vast and unsettling, stretching wider than I had ever imagined. Despite the coolness, the air wavered around the dark abyss as if there were a heat wave. The sun was sliding into the horizon now, weaker and duller than before.
How long had I been out here? It was hard to tell how much time had passed.
I staggered forward, one hand on my aching ribs. Almost there. I could do it.
The terrible sounds of the behemoth and deathbeaks had faded completely, leaving only the whisper of wind through the dead trees behind me. I inched closer to the chasm, my bandaged feet throbbing with each step, my mouth dry and tasting of blood and ash. The portal was in the pit on the other side of the chasm. If I could just avoid looking down?—
Oh, bleeding hemlock!
I couldn’t help it. My throat tightened as my gaze snapped to the abyss as if it screamed my name. The darkness below seemed to swallow all light, stretching down so far I couldn't make out the bottom. My head swam, and I had to step back, swallowing bile. I wanted to vomit again, even though there was nothing in my stomach but nerves and terror.
That chasm was as if someone had combined the worst of my fear of heights and the ocean. Who knew what monstrosities lurked within?
Okay, no. This wasn’t helping.
Stop.
I closed my eyes, my fingers pressing hard against my arms and avoiding the burns. I forced myself to look across instead of down, scanning the far side for the pit and the portal. The Hollow King had dragged me up there to taunt me.
Oh, how poetic it was that he’d shown me and now—now if I could just get my fear under control, I’d find a way across and get back home partially in thanks to him.
That little spike of spite stabilized me. Yes, I could practically imagine the shock in those burning amber eyes of his when he realized I’d gotten through. I’d put that smug bastard right in his place and seal the passage back so he couldn’t get through ever again.
Hands on my waist, I scanned the far side. With everything being shades of charcoal, black, and grey, it was hard to pick anything out in particular, especially as the sun’s light lessened. The blood moon rising in the east offered precious little light. I had to find the pit and get across before it was completely dark.
There—a few hundred feet to the right—I spotted it. A depression in the ground shimmered with an oily darkness, different from the pure black of the chasm. That had to be it.
"Now I just need to get across," I muttered, my voice sounding thin and reedy in the empty air.
The chasm stretched wide here, at least sixty feet across. Even if my legs weren't shredded and my body exhausted, I'd never be able to jump that far. And how far away was it really? In the waning light, it was hard to see, and the edges were so uneven?—
I drew back, my eyes widening.
No…its edges were twitching.
Were those vines moving?
Something seized my ankle.
CHAPTER FIVE
Hot, thick, and slick, a vine coiled tight and yanked me forward. My knees slammed into the cracked ground. A scream ripped from my throat as a horrible rotting scent filled my lungs. “Help!”
I clawed for purchase, hands slapping against a nearby trunk. Burning sap splattered onto my palms and ran down my arms, searing, the stink acrid and sharp. My muscles screamed as I pulled, desperate, teeth gritted. The vine jerked me harder, grit and stone grinding against me.
Another vine shot from the darkness and wrapped around my leg, then my waist, constricting like a python. I screamed as it pulled me closer to the edge, my nails breaking as I clawed at the cracked earth. My bandaged feet offered no traction.
"No!" I shouted, twisting violently. The vines smelled like decay, rotted hair, and old blood, their surface slick with some foul substance. Though I tried to use my magic against them, they didn't respond.
