“Vanish us!” I yelled to Aisha, hurrying closer to her.
“Okay!” she screamed.
Aisha vanished… but River and I didn’t.
In the split second before she’d used her vanishing powers, something long, hot and intensely sticky had wound around my leg, holding me back. When I gazed down, it was to see a colossal white-as-snow tongue extending from the mouth of one of the hunkris beneath us. It wrapped like a snake around my leg. I couldn’t even thin myself, or I would drop River. And Aisha had vanished.
River swore as the hunkri jerked us downward with its tongue.
A blade. I need a blade. I fumbled for a belt, but remembered I had none. Everything we’d traveled with, we’d left on the cliff’s edge.
“Ben!”
Oh, thank God. Aisha reappeared. She shrieked as she saw the tongue around my ankle.
“Take River!” I shouted, even as the hunkri closed the distance between us.
“No, Ben, I can try—”
“There’s no time!” I roared. “Take her!”
I practically flung River at Aisha in my panic. The jinni thankfully caught her in the air. Then, overpowered by the hunkri’s strength, I was pulled right down into its rapidly expanding toothless jaws, mouth and neck. Almost like an anaconda, the creature expanded to accommodate my size and the next thing I knew, I’d been sucked right inside, down its slimy throat, and found myself in the chamber of its gut.
Oh. My. God.
Can this night get any worse?
Ben
I tried to thin myself, but horrifyingly, I couldn’t pass through the walls of its gut. I didn’t know why. Was it because I was covered with too much of the creature’s gut grime? Or was there something special about its constitution that prevented me from passing through it?
Whatever the case, I was certain I was going to puke inside this hunkri. Murky-looking stomach juices sloshed around as the hunkri hurtled through the sky. A disgusting gaseous smell overwhelmed me. I had to try to escape through its mouth, but gazing up, I couldn’t see an exit. It was like the roof of its mouth had sealed over me, locking me inside.
I pounded with my fists against the side of the creature, hoping to make it feel as sick as I was feeling. It didn’t seem to hamper its flight at all. If anything, it felt like it was speeding faster.
Where is Aisha?
I’d been hoping she could hurl a curse at the creature after catching River. No luck there. I prayed the girls were all right and hadn’t been claimed by the other monster.
Without warning, the hunkri’s stomach contracted. I was tipped upside down on my head. Its mouth opened and then I was falling, through its neck, jaws, until my body hit a sharp, rocky surface.
Before I could even orientate myself enough to attempt escape, the hunkri’s wide, powerful webbed feet kicked me right in the gut, sending me rolling until I slipped over… a ledge.
The next thing I was aware of was heat. Heat unlike anything I’d experienced before. I had plunged into a thick, gritty liquid of some sort. I couldn’t breathe. I waded through it, fighting to reach the surface. As I opened my eyes…
Oh, wow. No wonder I feel hot.
Bright red lava bubbled around me. Charred black walls surrounded me on all sides. The hunkri had kicked me into a crater filled with molten lava. Directly above was an opening—where the lava no doubt would spurt—and beyond that was the dark sky.
This is… something.
My whole body was blazing with fire. But unlike the burning sensation I’d experienced earlier, back in the Drizans’ palace, this was unpleasant. Intensely unpleasant. Like someone was stabbing me with daggers all over my body. And it was getting more unpleasant by the minute. I might be a fire fae—whatever that meant—but was there only so much of an element that a fae could take?
A bubble of lava nearby exploded in my face. Then came a deep splash. As if I wasn’t in enough hot water already, the hunkri had just dived into the pool and resurfaced next to me. Grabbing hold of my head, it submerged me again in the lava.
Ugh, get off me, you bastard. What was it trying to do? I’m not interested in bath time with you.
I managed to resurface, but the creature only grabbed me and pushed me down again. I could imagine how comical this would look to any onlooker, this lively game of whack-a-mole, but humor was the last thing on my brain as I fell short of breath. I managed to distance myself enough to resurface and gasp in more than three seconds of air before it hammered me down again. It was like it wanted to cook me or something. Since it didn’t have teeth… was it trying to cook me into a homogenous mush and then eat me?
Instead of continuing the foolery of attempting to distance myself from it, I decided to move right up to it. How I wished that I possessed the claws of a vampire in that moment. Gripping hold of the webbed hand that descended to bash me down again, I dug my fingers into it, holding it in place, before kicking sharply upward at its thin elbow joint. Bone cracked, followed by an obnoxious scream.
It flailed and let go of me, allowing me to rise to the surface.
“Ben!” River’s voice echoed down from above.
I gaped upward to see her hovering with Aisha high above the opening of the crater. At least they were okay. They’d found the hunkri’s trail. My head pounding with a migraine like no other, I shot upward. But not for long. Even with a broken arm, the hunkri wasn’t letting go of its meal so easily. It lunged for me again with its tongue, this time gripping me by the waist.
My vision was becoming blurry. It felt like my brain was overheating. I had to… get out of… this heat. Whatever strength I had remaining ebbed out of me as the hunkri dragged me back down. I was slowing down. Shutting down.
“Ben!” River screamed. “Do something, Aisha!”
River.
No. I can’t go back into the bath. Not back beneath the surface.
With a guttural roar I hoped would rouse the rest of me, just as the hunkri had drawn me a few feet above the lava, I grabbed hold of its frilled skin flap behind its ears. Planting both feet against the side of its head, I leveraged the stance to pull hard, tearing the frill from its head in one place.
Again it flailed, and this time appeared to be in more pain. A surprising amount of pain for a small tear.
I shot up and as I flew away, looked more closely at my captor. I realized that it hadn’t been the rip that had caused it to release me, but a leaden spear sticking out of its chest… That would explain it.
Aisha drifted down toward me on her own, licking her lower lip in satisfaction as she eyed the hunkri.
“Thanks for that,” I rasped. “Though I could have used that help a bit sooner. Where’s River?”
She led me out of the crater and pointed toward a cluster of rocks where River was standing, arms wrapped tensely around her waist.
I wanted to pick her up, but reminded myself I would need to wait a while before touching River again, unless I wanted a fried fiancée.
Aisha picked up River and together we soared to find a safer place to recover. We found another ledge nearby. After the jinni doused me with showers of water and ice, my head became clearer, the pain in my skin and brain ebbing away.
“Talk about hot,” River said, once she was finally able to touch me again. She stretched her palm over my forehead.
“Won’t find hotter than me, baby…” I muttered. Ouch. My throat still felt so parched. Leaning back against the wall, I breathed in deeply, rubbing my temples. Then in a panic I asked, “Do you still have the letter?” I feared that it could’ve slipped from her pocket during the struggle.
River’s hand shot down into her pocket and, to my relief, she pulled it out. I took it from her and unfolded it, to make sure it hadn’t been damaged, and in doing so realised that the message had changed already… even though we hadn’t completed the second task yet.
“Don’t ever get cocky, sugar dust.”
Cocky. It took a few moments just to get over my own anger at
being called cocky after what she’d just put me through. I bet she’d foreseen all this: Aisha getting lost, the hunkris happening to pass our way on just that very night. Of course she would’ve.
But, reading the note again after I’d calmed my temper, I guessed what she was trying to say was that even now I had procured this fae body, I could never take it for granted. I also supposed that, truth be told, I had sunk into thinking that securing this fae body would be the be-all and end-all. This was her not-so-subtle reminder that I was in no way invincible.
Well, she’d accomplished what she’d wanted to achieve. I couldn’t deny that. This little hunkri incident would stay plastered to my brain for a long, long time.
River
I was still recovering from the shock alongside Ben. All I wanted was to get out of this horrible, frightening place as soon as possible, get done with whatever the damn oracle wanted us to do, and return to The Shade. I prayed that we were nearing the last of her nasty surprises.
Morning arrived; at least now we had the sun. We decided that Ben should rest a little more before continuing our search for Dagger Mountain, but Aisha said that we should move from these mountains—something I could not agree more with. Even though Aisha said night-time was the most dangerous time to be outside in The Dunes, I did not want to run any risks. She took us to an oasis instead. A real oasis, much larger than I had expected it to be. It was like a mini jungle in the midst of the desert: luscious trees, bushes and flowers, and even a reservoir of water.
Ben’s skin was still rough from the trauma, grit from the lava still clinging to him in places. I imagined this cool water would have been soothing as he slid inside.
“While you’re resting here,” Aisha said, “I think I should get a headstart in looking for the mountain. I’ll be back soon.”
“Wait,” Ben said. “Will we be safe here without you?”
“You’ll be okay. As I said, I won’t be long.”
With that, she flew away. Ben shrugged at me. “We’ll have to hope she’s right.”
I perched myself on the edge of the lake, refreshing my feet in the water. I watched as Ben began to swim up and down, his powerful body quickly crossing the reservoir.
Then he swam back to me.
“Aren’t you coming in?”
I hadn’t been planning to go fully in, but finding myself with this unexpected private time with Ben, there was nothing more I wanted in that moment.
Stripping to my underwear, I folded my top and pants and placed them securely on the branch of a tree before approaching the water. I slipped into the water, my bare stomach brushing against Ben’s abdomen as he pulled me to him. I rested my arms over his shoulders, my fingers grazing the water’s surface as he kissed me.
“We should get this grit off you,” I murmured.
Leaving him, I swam to the bank and looked around for anything that I could use as a scrubber. I was leery of plucking any plants or leaves though, in case they were poisonous.
“Guess I’ll have to use my nails,” I said, swimming back to him and grinning.
“Good thing you don’t have claws, then,” he said.
He extended his right arm to me where he had a cluster of the black, gritty substance. I began to gently scratch away at it, trying not to scratch his actual skin. The stuff was stuck fast, but slowly it began to crumble, revealing smooth skin beneath—or at least, as smooth as a man could feel.
“Thank you,” Ben said, smiling as I announced that I’d finished. He gathered me to him. “And how much do I owe you for that?”
“Hm, you could just… not get yourself killed again? Would that be too much to ask?”
“That depends on the oracle’s next task.”
Ugh. What will she ask for next?
Ben’s mouth closed around the base of my throat, where he sucked gently at my skin. “But for now, you have me to yourself. And I have you.”
He pulled me toward the opposite end of the pool, where there was a small covering of leaves, sheltering a patch of water like a canopy. When we ducked into it, it gave a beautiful sense of privacy.
Settling into one corner, we went still, gazing into each other’s eyes. Now we were alone, and his body felt so tense against mine.
I bit my lower lip, my desire for him making me tingle all over. I moved for his right ear, catching his lobe between my lips before breathing, “I want you.”
His right hand sank into my hair and he pulled my head back so he could meet my eyes again. His expression had gone quite serious, his green eyes hooded and intense. I shivered as he claimed my lips passionately, his fingers moving up my back to the clasp of my bra. He caught the bra’s catch, and I was breathless as he slowly let it fall. Then his hands slid to my waist and he eased off my underpants. Fire leapt in his eyes as he took me in, every part of me, unhurriedly, as though time held no value. I reached for his undergarments and gently loosened and pushed them away. My heart pounded as he was suddenly just as bare as me, the only thing between us a small passage of water. A passage he closed quickly.
My abdomen quivered as it pressed against his. Our bodies molded together, his hands and lips continuing to caress and explore. It felt like the blood in my veins had been replaced with molten lava.
“You’re a goddess, River,” he whispered, drawing a breath.
I threaded my fingers through his hair before wrapping my legs around his hips. I closed my eyes. “Ben,” I breathed. I wish you would just… that we could just…
“Guys!”
Aisha’s voice blasted through the canopy like a foghorn, shattering our illusion of privacy into a thousand pieces. Ben and I froze, our chests heaving, staring at each other, our wide eyes filled with the same expression: disappointment. Agonizing disappointment. She had to return just now? We’d been looking for that mountain for almost half a day so far, and just when… Has she found it already?
It killed me to detach myself from him. We were forced to scramble around in the water looking for our underwear. Luckily the water was clear, and we spotted them at the bottom. Ben retrieved them and we quickly put them on before swimming back out into view.
Aisha was hovering overhead, eyes darting around for us.
“Oh, there you are,” she yelled down, her face glistening with sweat, beaming and triumphant. “I found it!”
“Uh, that’s great,” Ben said. I didn’t think he could sound more unenthusiastic if he tried. His lips and cheeks were still flushed, as I was sure mine were.
“Well, get your clothes on already,” Aisha scolded with a roll of her eyes. “Let’s go!”
Ben
Aisha. She was both a gift and a curse. At any other moment, I would have been thrilled that she had found the mountain so soon. But it just had to be at that moment.
Once River and I were dressed, Aisha transported us away from the oasis and when we reappeared again, we were standing at the foot of a giant blackish mountain, whose single peak was as sharp as a dagger. A haze of thick mist rotated around the top of it.
“Dagger Mountain,” Aisha said, with a flourish of her hand. “I knew it wasn’t far from that oasis.”
“Okay.” I heaved a sigh of relief. “So we’ve completed Hortencia’s second objective to reach the mountain. Let’s check the note.”
River removed it from her back pocket and unfolded it. A new message was already waiting for us there.
“Climb to the top, take your lover with you, and be sure to remain in your physical form. Remember, failing to obey my instructions precisely will result in me disappearing and never assisting you again.”
Assisting. But is that really what you’re doing here?
My gaze panned to the top of the mountain.
“That’s really… really high,” River said nervously, as she craned her neck to look too.
“In case you haven’t guessed from the smoke,” Aisha added, “this is actually another volcano.”
Great.
“Do you have any ide
a why the oracle would want me to climb up there with River?” I asked the jinni.
She shrugged, shaking her head. “No clue. I don’t even know exactly what’s at the top; I’ve never been up there in my life. Never had reason to. I’ll keep watch while you’re up there, though. Good luck.”
Grimacing, I helped River onto my back. Then I drifted upward, my eyes fixed at the top.
“Do you really think this’ll be the last thing the oracle will ask us to do?” River’s voice was higher pitched than normal.
“No clue.” Anything was possible with Hortencia. Literally, anything.
We fell into silence as I continued to fly upward, until River broke out into a violent coughing fit. I paused in the air, craning my neck to look back at her. “You okay, baby?”
She was coughing too much to even answer my question.
“Hey,” I said, tensing. I guided her off my back and into my arms. I held her in front of me, leaning her backside against the rocks as I examined her. Her coughing was only becoming worse. “It’s this smoke,” I breathed. We’d just broached the borders of the dark cloud.
Casting aside all thoughts of the oracle’s precise instructions, I immediately hurtled back down the mountain. The lower we sank, the more River’s coughing died down. Finally, she was able to talk normally. “Yeah,” she said, clutching her throat. “It must have been the smoke.”
Being half human, River was clearly more susceptible than me, who hadn’t been bothered by it.
“Right.” I clenched my jaw, eyes darting upward to the mountain’s peak, and then down to the ground where Aisha was hovering. “I’m returning you to the ground.”
Fear filled her eyes. “But, Ben, Hortencia said—”
“I know what Hortencia said.” Cutting short a debate, I flew her back down to the ground and planted her on the sand.
A Bridge of Stars Page 11