Page 8 of Gilded Curses

Where is Sahira? Closing his eyes, he opened them again in the hopes that would help, but he still struggled to see her.

She’d been standing beside him in the tunnel, but he couldn’t tell if she was still there. He shifted his sword into one hand and reached for her.

Instead of finding her, someone grasped his hand and started shaking it profusely. He immediately knew it wasn’t her, as coldness instead of warmth seeped into him.

Instinctively, Orin spun with his sword and swung it at whoever dared to touch him. They released him, and his blade clashed against rock, as it missed its target and bounced off the ground. Baring his teeth, Orin snarled at whatever was out there.

“Whoa!” someone yelled in an accent that sounded French as they grasped his wrist and jerked it down when he tried to lift his sword. “There will be none of that here. We’re a peaceful race.”

“There’s nothing peaceful about anything in this realm,” Orin grated through his teeth.

“Relax, dark fae. We mean you no harm. You’re safe here.”

The deep voice was meant to reassure, but Orin wasn’t soothed by it as he yanked his wrist free and swung out with his sword again. He felt the soft give of flesh before the blade encountered more rocks.

A scuffle from his right side alerted him something was happening there too. The cheers and applause died off as the fight continued.

“Sahira!” he shouted.

“We’ve got the demon,” someone called out with the same accented tones. “I’m not sure for how long.”

“Sahira!”

“I’m okay,” Sahira gasped.

Hands grasped at Orin, pulling on his clothes and yanking at his weapon as something heavy pounced on his back. He staggered forward and nearly went down but remained on his feet.

He could draw the shadows around him and vanish, but he had to find Sahira and the others first. Besides, though he was still having trouble seeing, he sensed a lot of bodies around him and might not be able to slip away. He had to see before he could make that decision.

“Give them a chance to adjust!” the voice that greeted them called out. “They can’t see, and they’ve been through so much. Once they can see, they’ll know they’re safe.”

The dozens of hands suddenly released Orin, and feet scuffled away. The weight on his back eased, and he started to spin with his sword to lash out at whatever was there but stopped himself.

He didn’t know where Sahira was and couldn’t take the chance of cutting her by accident. Orin edged toward where he last heard her voice but didn’t connect with her.

Finally, his vision cleared enough that the tunnel came into view. Standing at the end of the tunnel, the children stood with their lower lips trembling. They stared at the seven of them as if they were the monsters and not whatever had been screwing with them for far too long.

Specks of blood spotted the rocks in front of him, and a man, dressed all in white, slumped near the tunnel entrance. Two women bent over him, examining the vivid red stain spreading across his back.

Turning, he discovered Sahira standing beside him. Her eyes must have adjusted too, as she looked completely shell-shocked while her attention remained riveted on whatever lay on the other side of him.

Next to her, Elsa was just as captivated. More immortals in white were moving away from Zeth as the demon rose from where he knelt on the ground.

Satisfied that, for now, nothing behind him could become a threat, Orin turned to take in his surroundings. Since Sahira arrived in this Cursed Realm, he’d been changing into a more emotional, less callous dark fae like he preferred to be.

However, even that once distant, dark fae version of himself couldn’t have hidden his amazement over the land sprawling before him. He’d never seen anything like it.

CHAPTER NINE

A cobblestone road rose and fell in waves before them as it wound up and down hills surrounded by countless wildflowers. Those flowers were every possible color of the rainbow, and then some as they glistened beneath the sun’s rays.

Specks of gold covered those flowers and sparkled in the light. The white cobblestone also glistened with the same golden glitter.

And the flowers and cobblestones weren’t the only things with flecks of gold in them. The few thousand immortals surrounding them also glistened with specks of gold.

The sun shining on their faces emphasized their different colored complexions, from the palest of ivory to the deepest of blacks. Their skin tone varied greatly, but they all looked like someone had ground up a gold bar and tossed handfuls of the remains over them.

Those remains had settled to cling to their hair and skin. When he glanced back at the children, golden flecks also speckled them.