Evie
I gasp for air as my head bounces out of the water, and into the cold air that feels like it burns my lungs. The river pulls me too fast down it, way too fast for me to be able to swim or control where I’m going. The current pushes me around as I try to look for anything. My head goes under again with the current, and I try to move my arms to get my head above the water again when my arm hits something, cutting me, and I feel pain reel through my arm as I feel a snap. I struggle in the river, more water filling my lungs as I try to swim up. An arm hooks around my waist suddenly, pulling me up, and I gasp again, sucking in air.
“Hold on to me, love. I got you,” Nix’s voice says next to my ear, his warm breath relaxing me. I turn in his arms, seeing a yellow vest jacket that is full of air on his chest, holding him above the water. I wrap my legs around his chest, and my hands on his bag straps on his shoulders as the river rushes us down towards the waterfall. My arm stings with the pain of the movement, but I don’t have time to think about it as I stare at him. There isn’t anything to grab onto, or anyone around us either. Where are Trex and Connor?
“Thanks,” I mumble to him, and he rests his forehead against mine. I give him a confused look, which he only grins at as water splashes against us.
“We are about to fall off a waterfall, and likely die. I want to hold the hottest girl in the world before that happens. It will give me a good memory to die with,” he explains with a cheeky grin.
“Charmer,” I mutter with a laugh, and lean forward, pressing my lips to his cold ones. He groans, kissing me back gently. The kiss seems like a goodbye, a sweet seductive one, and he moves away only seconds before we fall off the edge of the waterfall. I have to let go, only seeing his green eyes blazing as he reaches for me, but the water takes me, instead.
* * *
I cough as I blink my eyes open, seeing nothing but the top of a cave which has gaps that light everything up, and hearing the rushing water in the distance. I can feel the little wet rocks I’m lying on, the gravel sticks to my fingers as I sit up, crying out when I put weight on my left arm to get myself up, and remember hurting it in the river. I look around, seeing the waterfall, and nothing other than the beach we are on. Where are the Protectors?
“Are you hurt?” Trex’s gruff voice comes from behind me, and I turn around to see him picking himself up off the ground. I spot Connor on the ground near us, but Trex spots him, too, and goes over to wake him.
“I’m fine, nothing I can’t heal myself,” I reply, slowly pulling up my sleeve to show my white rune.
“Good, get on with it. I’m going to wake Connor up, and find Nix. He can’t be far,” Trex tells me firmly. I don’t argue with him, knowing I need to fix my arm to be able to fight, and get us to the gate. I call my rune, feeling the healing power slam into my arm, and slowly healing it. My wrist snaps back into place, and I bite back a scream.
“Blue, shit, I wish I had my rune powers to do that for you,” Connor says, getting to my side. I give him a tight smile as I finish healing my arm and cutting off my power, then falling on my butt, worn out. Connor offers me a hand once I get my breath back, and I get up, looking around. I can see the yellow light of the gate behind us, just out of these rocks and the small stream of water that flows towards it.
“We need to follow the stream and get to the gate,” I point at it with my newly fixed arm and Connor looks at where I’m pointing.
“I think we should dry off first and have a rest,” Connor replies, giving me a worried look like he thinks I need to rest like a weak girl or something.
“No, I want to get to the next level. There have been way too many things looking and waiting for us on this level of hell. I’m ready to leave,” I tell him firmly.
“It’s a good plan,” Trex says from my right, and I frown at him as he walks over with Nix at his side.
“You’re agreeing with me? Seriously?” I ask with a laugh that even surprises me.
“Don’t count on it often, but this time, yes,” he says as he crosses his arms. Nix pushes his hair off his face, showing me the long cut on his cheek that is bleeding.
“Grab the bags and weapons. I’m going to heal Nix’s face,” I tell them, and they nod, doing as I asked. Nix smirks as I place my hand on his face, covering the cut.
“You just wanted to touch me again, didn’t you?” Nix asks, and I shake my head.
“Shut up, and stay still,” I mutter to him with a small smile, and call my white rune by simply closing my eyes this time. I don’t need to touch it, I still have some of the power connected to me.
“I made you smile, that’s enough for me, love,” he states, and I open my eyes to see him staring down at me with his own smile. He has a really sexy smile, too, and the memory of his lips makes me want to test kissing him again.
“Your cheek is healed,” I say, clearing my throat, and stepping back. I look over at Trex and Connor talking quietly, and to the stream of water.
“We are ready,” I say.
“What about the demon?” Trex asks.
“Azi will portal to the gate, he knows that’s where we will be heading,” I tell them, and walk ahead, knowing they will follow. I walk down the stream quietly for a while, drinking some of the water from my bag, and eating another breakfast bar and some crisps from my bag. Unfortunately, only one bag of crisps survived the journey and the rest are too wet to eat. Trex catches up to my side, with the others behind us, and I give him a questioning look.
“I’m sorry,” Trex bites out, looking like it was difficult for him to say it.
“What for?” I ask.
“For not listening to you, and running out to those demons. It was stupid, and my mother taught me to say sorry for doing stupid shit. So, here I am,” he admits, and it’s the first time that I don’t find Trex to be a total asshole. Colour me shocked.
“Apology accepted, I expect you back to your dickhead self any time now,” I say, making him laugh. He has one of those deep, sexy chuckles that could get any girl into bed, and I find I want to hear it more.
“Sure.”
“What are the princesses like then? What’s your fiancé like?” I ask, curious about who we are going after, and needing to remind myself that he is going to be married.
“They are triplets, Emily, Esther, and my fiancé, Erica,” he explains, walking around a large rock as I go the other way and comes back to me. “Erica has black hair, blue eyes, and she is sweet . . . like her sisters are, too. That’s why we have a trial coming up to decide a new queen, it’s a fair way to choose a queen without just choosing the eldest like most do. Their mother died while we were under attack by demons, and our king died a few years later because of a great injury he got when he defended the children from another attack.”
“So, there are no other royals?” I ask.
“They are all of the royal family we have left, and we need them. Every race has its strongest, and the royals are the strongest of our blood,”
“Wait, did you describe your fiancé as ‘sweet’?” I ask, taking in all of his history lesson. Of all the words I expected him to call his fiancé, sweet wasn’t it, and I notice how he talks about the royal family’s past, rather than saying nice things about the woman he is meant to be in love with.
“Yes, ‘sweet’,” he replies, “Why, what’s wrong with sweet?”
“I just didn’t think sweet would be your type, that’s all,” I shrug.
“What do you think my type is then?” he asks.
“Not sweet, that’s for sure,” I say, and stop, seeing the gate, and Azi a few feet in front of us. He walks over, and when he gets closer, I start to see that he doesn’t look happy when he gets closer.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, walking to his side.
“Come and see,” he nods his head behind him, and I run up the little hill then pause.
“Crap,” I mutter, seeing the massive gap in-between us and the gate on the other side. There is a rock in the middle, which I think I could jump to, and the wooden bridge is hanging down the side of it. There’s a river underneath, and parts of the cliff are falling into it. Someone doesn’t want us following them to hell, that’s for sure.
“I found a bridge across, about three miles that way but I can’t portal for a bit. I’ve used up too much energy,” he points to the left as he explains. Three miles? That will take ages. “I’m going to tell the others,” Azi says and walks over to Trex and Nix who are sitting near the stream, going through their bags. Connor comes to my side, and something in his eyes makes me think he knows I’m going to do something a little bit insane.
“Want to do something crazy?” I ask Connor, who frowns at me, as I keep an eye on the others.
“Like what?” he enquires.
“Jumping onto that rock, and then to the other side,” I whisper, and he shakes his head, but he can’t stop me as I run and jump, slamming onto the edge of the rock, and using what’s left of the wooden bridge to pull myself up.
“Now or never, Connor!” I shout, seeing Azi and the others looking around and spotting where I am. Connor shakes his head, stepping back and running, jumping at the last second and landing pretty much in the same space I did. I grab his hand, pulling him up as the others get to the cliff and see what we have done. I ignore them, looking at the other side of the cliff right by the gate.
“Don’t do it, Vi, I swear to the damn devil I will spank your ass if you do,” Azi shouts at me from the other side, as I unclip my daggers from my belt, and hold them at my sides. If anything, the idea of him trying to spank me just makes me want to jump more.
“Connor, fucking stop her!” Trex shouts from where he is standing next to Azi, and I look up at Connor. He is dripping with water like me, but it sticks to his leather outfit, making his gold hair stick around his face, and his gold eyes are ablaze with mischief.
“Let’s have some fun,” I wink at him, and he laughs lifting his two daggers in the air and twirling them.
“Ladies first,” he waves a hand towards the massive cliff that is falling apart, but it’s the only way to get where we want to, quickly.
“I’m no lady,” I laugh, but run forward. I run fast towards the cliff and jump, lifting my hands with the daggers in the air and slamming them into the soft rock wall, sliding down a bit but managing to save it. Well, save myself.
“You are both fucking crazy!” I hear Trex shout, just as Connor lands next to me.
“All the best people are! Good luck on the long way around boys!” I shout back and pull one of my daggers out, lifting it up, and slamming it into the soft rock above my head and pulling myself up. No one ever said anything easy wasn’t crazy.