Chalice of Life

by R. A. Rock

  The spell still had them.

  What should she do?

  Tess considered.

  “Well,” she said softly to herself. “If I can wake Ethan, then he can break the spell on the others with his magic.”

  And that was the only reason she was waking him first. Because it made logical sense.

  “Ethan,” she said, waving her hands in front of his face. “Wake up. It’s just a spell.”

  Ethan was in heaven. The human version of it, anyway. Not actually in Etherean because that place wasn’t nearly as fun as the humans imagined it to be.

  Ethan was in bed. His favorite place to be. And he had a woman under him. His favorite place to have a woman. And she was moaning, just the way he liked his women to moan.

  Needless to say, they were both naked and things were getting hot. Like he said before. He was in heaven.

  “Hunter,” she said, breathless. “I need you.”

  He hadn’t let himself imagine what Tess might be like in bed. But now that he had her there, her voice was a lot throatier than expected. He loved it.

  And he was going to enjoy this. So much.

  He nudged a thigh between her legs, and she took a deep breath, catching a whiff of her raspberry-scented hair. Her skin was warm and smooth and he was going to kiss every inch of it. Oh, he couldn’t wait.

  Then she looked up at him and spoke.

  And her voice was neither throaty, nor filled with desire.

  “Ethan,” she said, waving her hands in front of his face. “Wake up. It’s just a spell.”

  “What?” he said, dazed with lust and completely confused. “What are you talking about? Aren’t we going to—”

  “Ethan,” she said again, her voice more urgent. “You have to wake up. Whatever you’re doing, it’s not real.”

  Ethan stared down at her. This wasn’t real?

  He had to honestly say he didn’t give a shit whether it was real or not. He wanted to do this. With her. Right now.

  She stared up at him and he could tell that it was Tessa’s real face looking at him because her expression was no longer adoring but worried.

  “Damn it,” he said, getting up. He didn’t worry about being naked, since it wasn’t real anyway. His desire disappeared. A moment later, he could see where he really was.

  “Ethan, thank goodness,” Tess said, her face relieved. “You must have been having a good dream. You really didn’t want to wake up.”

  Ethan gave her a grumpy look. “Yeah, well. You interrupted me. So it wasn’t that good.”

  She lifted her eyebrows and laughed. “I don’t want to know.”

  “No,” he said, his tone curt. “You don’t.

  Then he walked over to Finn and Jayde and snapped his fingers. They both startled out of their dreams instantly.

  Finn groaned. “First our worst fears and now our wildest dreams? The King is such an asshole.”

  “Aw,” Jayde complained. “Back to this? I prefer the dream world to reality.”

  Tess gave her a look.

  “Just kidding,” she said, glancing around at Tess, Finn, and Ethan. “Sort of. I was getting the Nobel Prize for finding the Holy Grail.”

  Ethan patted her on the back. “First, we have to find it before we can make that dream a reality.”

  “True,” Jayde said, smiling at him.

  “You know there’s no Nobel Prize for archeology, right?” Ethan said, not sure if he wanted to burst her bubble.

  She chuckled. “I know. I was getting the Nobel Peace Prize because finding the Holy Grail somehow brought about world peace.”

  “Wow,” Ethan said, not sure what to say. His own dream seemed a little self-serving compared to Jayde’s. But he supposed that was usual. Being selfish. Thinking only of his own pleasure. He shook his head to clear it of the images of Tess in his bed. Imagining her that way wasn’t going to make his job easier.

  They were getting the Chalice together.

  That was all.

  And even if he could tempt Tess into his bed, he wouldn’t, right? Because that would be a bad idea. Very selfish, no matter how much he would make sure she enjoyed herself. It would be especially bad because he didn’t care about her and she didn’t care about him and they would just be having empty sex—pleasurable but in the end unfulfilling.

  Somehow, he didn’t want that anymore.

  Didn’t want that with her.

  Empty sex.

  But he didn’t want anything with Tess, he reminded himself. They were just doing this thing. Getting the Chalice. And that was it. He would go back to his old life. Or maybe start a new life. By himself. Like he always was.

  Yes. Of course.

  He ignored the part of his brain that was rioting against the idea that he would finish this and never see any of these people again.

  It wasn’t like they were really his friends, after all. He shouldn’t deceive himself as to what this was. No matter how much that little part of his brain was demanding that he make friends with them, that he get to know them. That he not go back to his lonely life.

  Enough, he thought, they needed to get the Chalice.

  “So, what’s next?” he asked.

  “I don’t want to know what’s next,” Jayde said with trepidation in her voice. “I’m kind of scared at what else this place is going to throw at us.”

  “There it goes,” Ethan said, feeling the spell deactivate as they all came back to full consciousness and let their dream worlds go.

  They walked farther down the tunnel and Ethan wondered if they would ever get to the Chalice. This damn tunnel seemed to go on forever. If only they could get somewhere.

  Suddenly, the tunnel broadened and the four of them were standing on the edge of a precipice. Ethan peeked over. No bottom that he could see.

  “This is where we drop something in and wait to hear it hit the bottom. And it doesn’t. And we surmise that it’s very far down. Yada, yada, yada.” Jayde waved one hand. “Can we just skip that? Obviously, we don’t want to fall in the big, black hole.”

  “There’s a bridge,” Ethan pointed out. “Doesn’t look very sturdy.”

  It was one of those suspension bridges that was made of rope with wooden planks to walk on and a rope handrail to hold on to as you crossed. All of the rope looked very ancient and Ethan wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that it was hundreds of years old.

  “Looks pretty dodgy, in fact,” Finn said, and Ethan gave him an amused half-smile.

  “So, who’s going first?” Ethan asked.

  They all looked at him.

  “Apparently, the immortal guinea pig is,” he said, stepping out onto it without hesitation. It was wobbly and Ethan was not at all sure it would hold his weight, but what choice did they have? He took a few steps across, making sure he had a good hold on the handrail. “Sakiwayo’s been crossing it, right?”

  “Correct,” Jayde confirmed. “That’s what he said. That he went across the bridge to get to the Grail.”

  The left handrail rope broke behind him as he took his first step, but the bridge still seemed all right, so he kept going. He switched so both his hands were holding on to the right handrail rope and continued his slow movements. He was almost to the middle of the bridge.

  “Careful, Hunter,” Tess said. Damn he liked it when she called him that.

  Ethan continued crossing, holding tightly to the handrail rope that remained. Now that he was out in the middle of the bridge, he could smell a strange stink coming from below him. He didn’t want to know what was rotting down there in the shadows. And he definitely didn’t want to go down there himself to see.

  There was a crack as the left support rope broke, and the planks he was standing on fell away from his feet. He sucked in a breath and held on tightly with his hands, managing to get his feet on the remaining rope. He made the mistake of looking down at what used to be the bridge. A lot of the planks had tumbled away into the blackness, but a few hung there, swinging back and forth.r />
  “Shit,” Finn said.

  Ethan’s heart pounded in his chest. He might be immortal, but he didn’t want to fall into the big black stinky hole any more than the others did. There was no going back now, though. He had already reached the point of no return, where it was a shorter distance to go to the other side than it was to turn around and go back. He kept going, his feet inching along, his hands keeping a death grip on the rope.

  Ethan locked his eyes on the other side, focusing on his goal, which was getting back to solid ground. He was almost to the other side. He was almost there. He was going to be okay.

  Ethan was so close to the other side, it would only take two more steps to be safe, when suddenly, the last support rope behind him snapped.

  He cried out in shock as the bridge beneath him dropped away, and he fell into the dark, black void.

  Chapter 48

  “Hunter,” Tess yelled when the bridge broke.

  But he was all right. Sort of.

  They could see he was dangling from the remaining handrail rope that was still strung across the abyss, his muscles tense as he hung on.

  “Oh fuck,” Jayde said, watching and biting her lip.

  Tess held her breath while Ethan went, hand over hand, the last distance and climbed up. Safe.

  “Uh, the bridge is out,” he said with a smile.

  “No kidding,” Jayde said.

  “Well, I’m flying across,” Tess said, feeling relieved. “But Jayde, you and Finn have to go across like Ethan.”

  “I can’t,” Jayde said.

  “Why can’t I fly?” Finn said at the same time.

  “Your Starlight?” Tess said. “You can’t use it up to shift forms. Come on.”

  “Shadows take me,” he cursed.

  “Yeah, sorry,” Tess said, trying not to feel too triumphant. “I’ll go last.”

  “Come on, Jayde,” Ethan said. “You can do it.”

  Jayde made a very reluctant face and stepped toward the rope. She sat down on the edge of the cliff and took the rope in her hands. It was stretched across the possibly bottomless pit at about her shoulder height when she was sitting. Because the handrail had been at waist height.

  “It’s just like the monkey bars,” Ethan encouraged her from the other side. “I bet you were great at the monkey bars.”

  “What is he talking about?” Finn said quietly to Tess. “Like taverns? For monkeys?”

  “It’s playground equipment,” Jayde said, her voice tense. “For kids.”

  Then she slowly slipped off the edge and hung from the rope. Hand over hand, she went slowly across the void. At one point, her hand slipped and she hung for a moment by only her left hand. Her breath coming in shuddering gasps.

  “Grab the rope, Jayde,” Ethan said, his voice calm and soothing. “You can do it. Reach up. That’s it. You got this. Come on.”

  Tess never took her eyes off Jayde, feeling so scared for the little human. She would almost rather have done it herself than watch Jayde. Almost. When the small woman got close enough, she reached out and Ethan grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her safely onto the other side. They hugged briefly and then turned to face Finn and Tess.

  Finn kissed Tess briefly on the cheek and then sat down on the edge. He took the rope in his hands and swung down with confidence. You could tell he would rather have not done it, but he wasn’t scared.

  He went hand over hand across the rope, and Ethan and Jayde pulled him up onto the other side. She gave him a tight hug and Ethan slapped him on the back. Then they all stepped back from the edge and waited for Tess.

  Okay, no problem. She just had to fly across. Perfectly safe. Tess closed her eyes and shifted. As she felt her body lighten, she fluttered her wings and flew forward.

  But when she reached the void, she noticed something she hadn’t when she was big, though she should have thought of this. There was a huge draft coming from below. Of course. And it was strong. Especially for a faerie in tiny form. Tess hesitated at the edge, trying to figure out what to do.

  “What’s wrong?” Finn called out.

  “There’s a draft,” she shouted.

  “What?” he said. “I can’t hear you.”

  “A draft,” she yelled as loud as she could with her tiny voice.

  “A draft?”

  She nodded vigorously.

  “You should change back and come the way Jayde and I did,” he shouted.

  But she shook her head vigorously and he gave her a resigned look. There was no way she would be able to go across the way they had. And Finn knew it. She wasn’t good with heights. She had an inner ear issue that affected her balance when she was up high, according to the Healer. She wasn’t afraid. She just… couldn’t.

  She saw Finn explaining to the others the danger and why she wasn’t changing back to her large form. She hoped he wasn’t telling them she was afraid of heights. Because she wasn’t.

  Tess took in the situation and tried to figure out her best course of action. She decided to get up some speed and fly as hard and fast as she could across, hoping to not be smashed on the stalactites she could see hanging from the top of the cave. The issue was that she was going to be pushed up before she could get across. That was what she had to avoid.

  She backed up as far as she could, got low, and then flew as fast as possible toward the drop off. As soon as she hit the draft of air, she was batted right back to where she had started. Tess hit the wall pretty hard. But she shook her wings and tried again, with the same result.

  “Tess, you can’t fight it,” Finn suggested, calling across the gap. “You’re not going to fly through a draft that strong. Instead, get going fast, tuck your wings, and let it take you. Go with it.”

  Tess nodded. That was a good idea. She would try.

  She backed up again and got going as fast as she could, but this time as soon as she hit the draft, she tucked her wings and her arms and dove headfirst into it. The draft immediately lifted her, but because she was tucked, she had more control than when her wings were out.

  “Flutter,” Finn shouted and she knew what he meant.

  She should just pop her wings open, give herself a push forward, and then tuck again. That way she would move across without being buffeted too much. She couldn’t leave her wings open or she would be pushed straight up because of having so much horizontal surface area for the draft to catch on.

  Tess fluttered and tucked, fluttered and tucked. And she was getting across. But she was also going up and getting closer and closer to the stalactites. If the draft pushed her up into those, her tiny body would be smashed on the rock.

  “Tess, you’re going to have to fly your hardest,” Finn said. “Go with the draft but you have to get across at the same time.”

  Tess trusted his advice because he could see the big picture, whereas she couldn’t.

  She flew hard. As hard as she could. Until the muscles in her back were burning and she thought she couldn’t fly anymore. She glanced up and saw that the stalactites were approaching quickly. Then they were right there and she was about to hit. She redoubled her efforts, flying as hard as she could.

  And with a feeling of popping out, Tess was released from the draft and began to freefall. She tucked and did a somersault, then spread her wings again and flew down to where the others were waiting. She landed on Finn’s shoulder.

  “That was close,” Jayde said, her face worried. “Will these booby traps ever end?”

  “They have to at some point,” Ethan said rationally. “The Chalice is here somewhere.”

  They all turned away from the abyss as one, and Tess fluttered off of Finn’s shoulder into the air. And as the next trial came into view, they all stopped in awe.

  Tess flew in place, studying it.

  “What the hell is that?” Ethan said, grimacing.

  Finn snorted. “Maybe Cinderella forgot her staircase?”

  Chapter 49

  Ethan stared at their next trial.

  Thi
s Fae King was a ridiculous son of a bitch with way too much time on his hands, he decided.

  Before them was a glass staircase.

  “Fuck this,” he said, striding forward, ready to take the stairs two at a time. He suddenly found himself on his back on the rock floor of the tunnel.

  “Ow,” he said, putting his hand to his head where it had struck the floor. It came away with blood.

  “Let me look at that,” Tess said, fluttering over. Her tiny form was even more delicate and pretty than her usual one. Ethan noticed that her gossamer wings had rainbows shining in them. “Sit up.”

  Ethan got himself to a sitting position and Tess flew above his head.

  “It’s already healed,” she said, her tiny voice like a silver bell. “All good.”

  “What just happened?” Jayde said.

  “The glass. It’s slippery as hell. We can’t walk up.”

  “Then how in the name of Severance are we supposed to get up these stupid glass stairs?” Finn demanded.

  No one answered.

  “I’ll try flying,” Tess said, since she hadn’t shifted form yet. She flitted upward, using the updraft to help her since her wings were still tired from carrying her across the void.

  Soon, she was at the top of the staircase. There was a landing. And a door. It had a window and she flew over to it, peering out.

  Tessa’s breath caught in her throat.

  She could see the Kettle Stones, once more whole again.

  The staircase led out.

  She flew back down, changed form, and faced the others.

  “The staircase leads out, back to the Kettle Stones,” she said, feeling sorely tempted to just leave and be done with this wretched place.

  Nobody said anything.

  “It’s another trick,” Jayde said softly.

  “I don’t think so,” Ethan said. “It’s a chance to give up. To admit defeat. Before trying to get the Chalice kills you.”

  There was more silence as the thought of giving up crept over them and seeped into their bones.