Page 80 of The High Mountain Court

Before she knew what was happening, Hale reached out for her. Cupping her face in both his hands, he pulled her mouth to his. Remy clung to him as he worshipped her with that slow, reverent kiss.

Hale pulled away just enough to rest his forehead on her own. Holding her eyes with that deep silver stare he whispered, “Thank you, Remy.”

Mouth opening and shutting, she knew what that kiss was. It was a potential goodbye.

She pushed against the urge to grab him and kiss again, to convince him to leave this foolish quest now before it separated them forever, before they never got the chance to see what a thousand more kisses could turn into.

Her heart leapt out of her ribcage, screaming for her to tell him everything. Say all the words locked tightly in her chest.

But she let him go.

With a heavy breath she steadied herself and said, “Good luck,” as he stepped one foot into the glowing, poisonous lake.

* * *

She should have told him everything. She should have poured out the contents of her heart into him, not her stores of red magic. The second he entered the water, she regretted it.

As soon as his foot entered the glowing green water, he dove headfirst in. He wasted no time with quick, powerful strokes and rapid fluttering kicks. He was fast. Good. Maybe he would make it to the other side.

Remy watched with bated breath, stroke after stroke. Each time his arm raised above the water, the color in it had faded, the tone of his muscles withered. Hale paused, lifting his head, and wailed.

Remy gasped. His hair was falling out, face sinking in. The poison was sucking the life out of him, withering him into a corpse.

“Don’t stop!” she screamed to him. The sight of Hale paralyzed her whole body in horror save for her drumming heart.

Hale kept moving, his muscles weaker, his pace slower, but he kept moving. He was more than halfway now. He could make it.

It was then Remy saw it in the water: a shadow. The large black form moved under the water toward the struggling prince. Fear gripped her tight as she grabbed a discarded knife by her feet. The creature emerged, only eyes and tail popping above the surface. It was a black scaly creature unlike anything she had ever seen.

“On your right!” she shouted, throwing the blade.

It flew wide. Damn.

“Look out!” Her echoes bounced around the cavernous lake.

The creature was only a body’s length away from him now. Remy scanned her feet, grabbing a spear from the trove of discarded weapons. She wished she had brought her bow now as she hurled the spear. This one struck the beast in the back, but the point glanced off its thick scales.

The creature’s gaping maw opened, displaying several rows of sharp white teeth. The flailing swimmer who turned to face the beast was no longer the prince she knew. His skin sucked to his bones, he looked like a week-old cadaver. He was so close to the island. He needed to get out of the water and get to the antidote. But the beast at his side trapped him.

Remy rained down weaponry, knives, axes, rocks toward the beast as it launched itself forward. Hale held up his dagger and swiped the beast’s muzzle. The creature screeched and drew back, only to lash out again. Its whip-like tale swept out in a punishing blow that Hale managed to duck. The tail whooshed in the other direction, knocking the dagger out of Hale’s hand. Remy threw another blade, and finally it stabbed right in the creature’s yellow eye. It shrieked again, eye oozing an amber goo, rotten teeth gnashing, as it turned its one remaining eye to the skeletal figure struggling before it.

Hale feinted to his left, and the beast followed. Bringing up the scythe in his right hand, Hale slammed it into the beast’s scaly snout. The creature jolted as the scythe hooked its jaws together, dropping in a splash below the surface.

Remy breathed for the first time in over a minute.

Hale moved in small, floundering kicks. His hand reached out and grasped the edge of the island. He hoisted his emaciated torso onto the rock just as two more pairs of yellow eyes appeared above the green surface of the water.

“Hale!” Remy screeched, shredding her voice, as the black water snakes launched toward his legs.

One of the scaly beasts reared its lean body out of the water like an asp readying to strike. Hale held up a bony arm, trying to dodge out of the way, but he had no strength or weapons left. The beast snapped down on his raised forearm, crunching it as it yanked him below the surface.

“No!” Remy screamed so loudly that rocks crumbled from the ceiling.

Without a second thought, she was shucking off her shirt and shoes. As she ran to the shores of the lake, she unsheathed her dagger.

Leaping into the water, Remy wished she had saved some of her red witch magic for herself. She begged the Gods that there was enough magic still left in her to keep her protected. Hale and the two beasts had not breached the surface, though the green waters by the island still stirred.

She had to hurry.

She prayed that those years being tossed in gigantic waves had taught Hale how to hold his breath. Remy was a weak swimmer, but she pushed with a supernatural force toward that swirling water. Gods, she hoped that no more beasts called this lake home.

Maybe it was her red magic, maybe it was her blood, but something within her spooked the beasts. As though sensing her imminent approach under the water, they released Hale. His unconscious body floated to the surface.

He was dead.

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