Don’t look down. Don’t look down.
The chant wasn’t helping. My heart fluttered in my chest, and all I could do was cringe and stare into the endless blackness. It seemed eager to reach out, grab me, and haul me inside.
I was going to fall and I’d keep going until I reached the center of the Earth, where lava would burn me to a crisp like a scrap of tissue over a fire.
“Keep going,” Jarik said, joining me on the ledge.
“How about shifting? I’m up for a ride right about now.”
“It would be nearly impossible on such a narrow surface. And I can’t risk you falling while trying to climb onto my back.” He nudged my side. “Go. Work your way around to the other side.” He waved. “There’s a tunnel over there.”
Squinting, I could almost make out a black arched entrance, but it had to be at least two-hundred feet away. Two-hundred feet of scurrying along tiny ledge, that is.
“Okay.” My face scrunched with a mix of terror and anxiety, I shifted my feet over. Again. Slowly making my way along the ledge. It was all I could do to suppress my memories of being stuck on the rollercoaster. The wind gusting shaking my car. The crew down below saying it might take hours to fix things. The other kids laughing and pointing at my tears.
“I don’t think it’s wide enough for the spiders,” Jarik said. “Too many legs to maintain their balance.”
It was hard to see being perched on a narrow strip of stone as a bonus, but I’d take it.
A spider peeked through the opening in the wall. Spying us moving away from it, it thrust its spiky, clawed legs forward and butt-skidded down the gravel slope.
Overeager to sink its teeth into our flesh, it gained momentum and couldn’t stop. It tumbled over the edge and fell away, into the blackness.
No thud when it landed, which reinforced my belief the hole went on forever.
One spider down, about six left to go. Could I dare hope the others would be equally careless?
Another spider appeared in the opening. Seeing no friend-spider clutching us with glee, it must’ve realized what happened—did they somehow silently communicate?—because it hovered on the lip, rather than hurry down the slope. Its mouth opened and it shot out a long strand of gooey string that smacked against the cavern ceiling and remained stuck in place.
These guys were clever. With the string wrapped around its front legs, spidey leapt forward and swung across the black opening like an action figure from hell. It was nowhere near as cute as Spider Man, however. Scrambling up its spitty rope, it reached the ceiling, where it proceeded to scramble toward us, its legs evidently as sticky as its spit, because it didn’t fall while crawling upside down.
More spiders did the same, hurling drooly ropes toward the ceiling, scampering up them, then using the ceiling to make their way toward us in spider formation.
“They’re going to get us,” I said hoarsely. My skin itched, as if their claws had clamped onto me already.
“Keep going. You can do it.” He squeezed my shoulder and nudged me along. “Get to the other side.”
We’d barely made any progress.
Maybe I wasn’t made for adventure. My first real challenge outside a sedate summer dig, and I could feel my anxiety building, my will floundering.
I was about to give up.
The escapades of Indiana Jones seemed exciting when watched on a screen, but in real life, they sucked. It would be so much easier—and safer—to hang out at the university and teach kids about dusty ancient Egyptian tombs.
Halfway around, Jarik grinned. “Not much further.”
So he said. It felt like we had a lifetime of inching along left to go.
“You’re doing awesome,” he added.
Awesome was debatable, since it was all I could do to shift my feet sideways and not remain frozen in place as spider bait.
The spiders had reached the top of the wall above us, about twenty feet away, and they paused, staring at us, an arachnid SWAT team ready to descend.
Mission: Eat the dragon and the girl.
Just six of them staring down at us. Unlucky spider number seven was currently on vacation in the lava.
I wanted to cringe. Scream. Rush back through the hole, down the halls of the dungeon, find a way back up to the castle lobby, and rush outside.
Jarik’s supposed death wraiths couldn’t be any worse than demonic spiders.
Hold on.
My feet stalling on the ledge, I frowned. Did I really want to give up already?
Jarik held my hand tight. He kept squeezing it and shooting me encouraging glances.
“We’re going to make it,” he said, reinforcing again his confidence in us.
He wasn’t suggesting we should stop and let the spiders bite us. Or jump to our death. No, he believed we could make it to the other side of the cavern.
He believed in me.
How could I do anything less?
I’d be silly to give up this easy.
I gathered up the reins of my terror and cracked them like I rode a chariot from hell. Trembling legs straightened, I made sure my feet were solidly placed on the ledge. As confidence gushed through me, my spine stiffened. I lifted my chin. And I found a core of strength I must’ve kept hidden deep inside me. Enough strength to get through this.
Jarik and me. Together.
Glaring at the spiders, I shook my fist. “Dare you to touch me,” I shouted. “Come close, and I’ll squash you.”
“Don’t piss them off,” Jarik murmured, but his eyes gleamed with pride.
“They don’t understand me, do they?”
He shrugged. “Let’s not wait around to find out.”
Almost there. Only about forty feet of ledge left to travel. And, yay, an arched opening waited for us, with blackness extending beyond this cavern. But I could make out a dirt subfloor. I’d take a dark tunnel over this black hole to Mordor, because I was fresh out of rings.
The bugs had stopped and stared down at us. At me, in particular, as if they could understand English. Why not? Nothing was going like I’d expected since I’d decided to rescue Tanya and Jenny and jumped into the hole in the back of the cave.
It made sense I’d encounter spiders who understood every word I said.
Inching closer, the spiders gnashed their front claws.
I scrambled faster along the ledge, with Jarik right behind.
The spiders tracked us, moving when we moved, stopping when we paused to take a breath.
“Why aren’t they attacking?” I asked.
“No idea.” He waved to the opening we approached. “Go.”
We reached the end of the narrow strip of stone. I gaped at the three empty feet between us and a cave entrance leading to what I hoped was a safer location.
“Jump,” Jarik yelled, nudging my back.
“It’s too far,” I whispered, gaping at the drop off. “I’ll fall.”
“You won’t. You can do it.”
How could he still believe in me when I could barely believe in myself?
Taking a deep breath and gathering up my crumbling will, I crouched and then burst forward, right leg outstretched, chest thrust ahead like the first runner breaking through a finish line tape.
My feet landed on solid ground, and I yelped in excitement. No crowd cheered for me in my fictitious road race, but, damn, the soil felt wonderful beneath my hands and knees.
Jarik landed easily beside me and helped me stand. He nudged me forward. “No stopping now.” Urgency tightened his voice.
A quick look back told me the spiders were jumping into the tunnel.
“Run!” he said hoarsely.
Holding hands, we raced through a dark, damp cave.
A bluish light bloomed ahead. Would we make it? Wherever it was?
My breath coming fast, and my pulse pounding in my throat, we rushed toward the next opening. Anything was better than what awaited us in this cave.
The rising clicks of the spider’s claws on the ca
ve ceiling told me they’d climbed and were gaining fast.
But when we reached the opening, we came to an abrupt stop.
A cavernous valley waited for us.
Overhead, tiny bluish-green lights shone down, providing daylight in place of the sun. To our left, water burst through a second, larger hole in the cliff and tumbled in misty falls down at least one-hundred feet, landing in a river very far below. Thick forests grew on either side of the river, and ahead, on the opposite side of the valley, a mountain rose to a tall peak.
If I hadn’t been scared for my life, I would’ve stood in awe, taking in this amazing place Jarik called home.
But our death rushed toward us, fangs dripping and claws extended.
Chapter Ten
Jarik
No choice but to shift.
If we tried to go over the side, the spiders would climb down the cliffs quicker than we could. And I hadn’t told PJ about their venomous bite. Once they latched on to someone with their claws, they’d sink their fangs in deep and inject a chemical that made the body rot from the inside out.
The falls precluded escaping to our left. Up would only bring us to the top of the cavern, where the spiders would confidently follow. And there were no handholds to our right.
We could jump, but the drop was guaranteed to kill us. I didn’t dare risk PJ. What if we missed hitting the river? Let alone the fact that there was no way to gauge the river’s depth. It could be shallow.
“The second I’m a dragon, climb onto my back,” I said.
Biting her lower lip and staring back into the tunnel with wide eyes, PJ nodded.
“Not much room,” I said. “But I’ll make it work.”
I bent over and rippled my skin. My groan chuffed out as my scales exploded from my flesh. Molecules deep inside my body went through a sequence older than time, a distant memory that allowed my kind to change into mighty beasts. My wings burst through my spine and settled along my back, and my lungs shuddered at the pain. As my neck extended, and my face bones popped into position, I tipped my head back and roared away the sharp agony brought on by the changing.
PJ scrambled up my leg and settled between two of my back spikes, with her legs straddling my ribs, her hands gripping the base of my wings. “Go,” she shouted, tapping my shoulder. “They’re right behind us!”
As the spiders scrambled down the sides of the tunnel and along the dirt floor, their claws reaching for PJ, I sprang forward and stretched out my wings. With a roar, I spun, and flames of frustration shot from my throat, blasting into the spiders. They cowered, even while their armor protected them from my fire. At least they wouldn’t be able to come after us easily, because their webbing was not impervious to my flames, and I was confident I’d scorched the glands that secreted the gummy silk from a hole just below their mouths.
I roared again, my furious voice echoing in the valley. An overwhelming urge to keep my mate safe had grown inside me since the moment I met her. Yet I was no closer to providing her with the protection she needed than I’d been when she landed on top of me outside the city.
But that would change once we’d located the dragonstone heart.
“What’s that?”
From the corner of my eye, I caught PJ pointing.
A small, gleaming building sat on the other side of the valley, a short distance up the river embankment. The Norans had been built into the base of a mountain that soared all the way to the roof of the cavern. Could this be where they’d hidden the dragonstone heart? A sense of promise deep inside me pulled me in that direction.
“Ugh, don’t like heights,” PJ said in a trembling voice.
She didn’t like heights?
To make this easier for her, I soared so close to the river, the tips of my claws skimming the water.
“Now that we’re flying almost at ground level, I can open my eyes and look around. This place is awesome,” PJ said, her hushed voice barely discernable above the swoosh of my wings. “It’s beautiful.” Leaning forward, she patted my back. “So are you. You saved us.”
Just from the spiders. We weren’t out of the Noran’s clutches yet.
“Your scales…You’d think they’d be sharp, but they’re not. They feel strong, but flexible.”
For maneuverability.
“Whoa! Look at those things.” She pointed again. “They look like crocs, only bigger and meaner.”
Along the shore, ridders basked in the light emitted by the mass of lunar bugs coating the ceiling. One ridder yawned, revealing long, razor-sharp teeth. Slow-moving, the creatures were harmless, unless their young was threatened or you stumbled into their territory.
“I assume we’re going to look for the heart in that building,” PJ said.
As I neared the other side of the valley, my pace slowed, and I lifted back, extending my hind legs forward. I dropped down onto the grassy bank, relieved there seemed to be no ridders lurking about. While tucking my wings close to my body, I lowered my front legs onto the ground.
PJ slipped off my back, and I shifted into a man.
“Your dragon is amazing,” she exclaimed, skipping up to me. “I love how he left those spiders in our dust. And I love flying on his back. I could do that all day. Well, as long as you don’t fly too high.”
“Love.”
Her lips curled up on one side, but her eyes held shadows I couldn’t decipher. “You should know I’m slow to trust. I was…burned.”
By Jim? Jealousy should be flowing through me like red, hot lava, but, instead, I just wanted to take PJ in my arms and hold her. Tell her that I was starting to care for her. A lot. That I’d never hurt her. That I wanted to protect her from everything bad in the world.
Even though I knew this was impossible if she remained here by my side, I’d try my hardest.
“I won’t push you,” I said.
She gave me a quick hug. “You’re special, you know that?”
I kissed the tip of her cute nose. “As are you.”
Smiling, she stepped back and waved to the building gleaming underneath the lunarlights. The Norans must’ve built it from jellar, a bright blue stone that reflected light like ocean mica. “Can I assume something’s telling you we need to go inside?”
I did feel pulled in that direction. “Indeed.”
We walked up the bank and then wove along a path with gardens on either side, arriving at the front of the three-story building that had been built into the hillside. Despite the small size of the facade, only a bit more than one elf story, it had two towers, one on each corner.
“Looks like a mini palace,” PJ said. “Without a moat in front for protection.”
“I believe the river full of ridders keeps everyone away, since they lined the banks as we flew. Anyone approaching on foot would have to get past them.”
“Probably right.”
We walked up a broad set of stone steps and approached two doors tall enough to accommodate giants.
“I assume we don’t need to knock.”
“I don’t imagine anyone has knocked on these doors for years.”
No lock, which was a nice change from the main entrance, especially since I’d heard no death wraiths. So far.
I pulled the knob, and the door eased open.
“Whoa,” PJ said, peeking inside. “This is unbelievable.” She stepped through the doorway, and I followed.
Light filtered in from windows placed high beside the entry door, making the world around us glow.
“Would you look at that?” PJ said. She shook her head. “It’s like we’ve stumbled into the elf national treasury. Or King Midas’ bank vault.”
“The most famous of the Phrygian kings?”
“The kings were just a myth.” Her brow narrowed as she gazed up at me. “Right?”
Smiling, I strode forward on the polished marble floor, stopping at the top of another set of stairs that descended down into a lowered area filled with more wealth than I’d seen in my life. And, with an older b
rother who took great joy in successfully building up our family’s vast fortune, that was saying something.
Heaping piles of coins. Towers of faceted jewels. Giant golden chalices overflowing with glistening necklaces, bracelets, rings, and tieras. Tall statues that appeared to be made completely from precious gems and gold, silver, and platinum.
“You can take whatever you want,” I said. “Stuff your pockets full, if it pleases you. Fill bags. The Norans are gone and no one else will care.”
She shrugged. “Thanks, but I’m not the raiding type. Something I don’t share with Indie. Discoveries are meant to be examined, enjoyed, but left with the cultures they belonged to. I’m happy enough to look at it and imagine where each piece came from and how it might’ve made its way here.”
I nodded slowly, because I felt the same. You couldn’t eat coins or jewelry. The true value in life was from relationships.
From love.
While it had only been a short time since I met her, I did love PJ. Perhaps I shouldn’t. If I was wise, I would’ve held myself back, but I couldn’t help it. While some might say the mating lust and the bond we’d formed had driven me to love her, the reason I’d fallen was due solely to this woman.
She was special.
I just hoped she’d come to feel the same about me.
Her eyes sparkled with humor when she glanced my way. “I don’t suppose there’s a gold lamp hidden here, though, is there? Then we could rub it and wish for the heart.”
I frowned. “A lamp?”
Her giggle rang out. “You know. Aladdin?”
A rumble went through my chest. “Is this another man who hurt you? I will hunt down this Aladdin and slay him, if you wish.”
Laughter burst out of her, and her eyes teared.
Unsure if she was happy or upset, I fretted like a grandmother trying to placate an adored child.
“I think you should leave Aladdin alone,” she eventually sputtered out. “Jasmine will come after you if you hurt him.”
CLAIMED BY A DRAGON: Fated Dragon Series (Book 3 of 3) (DRAGON MATED) Page 6