AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Crystal. I don’t want him. You have nothing to worry about!” I shout back at her. “You’re welcome to him! Now stay away from my friend.”
“Your friend?” She laughs, looking over my shoulder at Arty, who is silent. “You’re so clueless. So fucking clueless. It’s pathetic. You’re right, I shouldn’t be worried about you. You’re going to die soon.”
She storms off and I watch her go, wondering what the hell she meant by that.
CHAPTER 12
I barely get to lie down in bed, hardly closing my eyes, before I sense magic around me. At first, I didn’t recognise magic, the salt-like taste that surrounds me, but I do now. When I open my eyes, there’s nothing but mist, and I’m floating within it like it’s a cloud. It only lasts seconds before I slam hard onto a rock floor that’s freezing cold, making me flinch as my bare legs and arms touch it. They took us to another test in our sleep, and my shorts and thin top are doing nothing to keep me warm against the bitter cold wind that blows around me. I shiver from head to toe while I force my stiff, cold hands to work as I climb to my feet.
“Oh, my fucking god,” I whisper in horror. I’m on some kind of island of red rocks with whirlwinds and channels of air above making such a loud noise that I can’t think straight. I crawl forwards, looking down to see I’m on a ledge and I’m very, very high in the sky. The island is floating in the clouds, and distantly below, I can see mountains and maybe the outline of the castle. My breaths come out in harsh pants as I crawl back, sweat trickling down my spine. The air test. The third test of the race.
I look up and around, seeing the remaining girls are all on ledges at the bottom of this place. It’s a giant circle, with tall, thick stone walls stretching up around all the edges. Swirls of wind are blowing in different directions, and they almost look like they’re tunnels. Right at the very top is a rock shaped like a star, and within it, something glimmers like water. A portal. That’s the way out. It’s really, really high up. I look around for Arty, and I see her waving at me, but she’s four ledges away, and getting to her is out of the question. I’m on my own.
For a moment, I meet the eyes of several of the other girls, and they all look absolutely petrified. I feel the same. The fire test was more of a puzzle, the water test was pure instinct, and this…it’s a test of bravery and guts. They want their queen to reach for the stars and get there no matter what. I should have listened to them when they said the tests just get worse.
Rocks break off below me, crumbling into the air. The island is breaking away. Great, I’m on a timer too. My body feels like it’s locked in place, and I find it hard to move. Hard to breathe. How the fuck am I to get out of here? I look back at the wall, realising I can definitely climb it, as it has several deep holes. I rub my face, standing up and shaking as I touch the ice-cold stone, my purple hair whipping around my shoulders in the wind.
My dragon markings seem to glow as I glance at them, almost like the dragons behind the marks are telling me to get fucking moving. I can’t die here. I won’t die here. They might see me as weak, as someone who they can throw into this test and watch to see if I can make it, but I’ll show them. I will make it. I blow out a breath, rolling my shoulders before finding my first space in the rock to pull myself up, and begin to make a plan. The rock ledge shakes slightly from side to side, and my time is running out.
My heart is racing hard in my chest. I need to move. Now. The ledges are going to go soon. I look up the wall, seeing another ledge above, but it’s far from the wall, and I’ll have to jump for it. It’s my best chance. I can’t see any other way. But first of all, I need to climb. My hands are sweaty, far too sweaty, and I’m nervous as I begin climbing. The last time I did rock climbing, I was eleven and my grandmother took me to a place in Maryport. I fell off and gave up, and we went to the aquarium instead and had chips for dinner. At eleven, I knew I wouldn’t enjoy rock climbing, despite my grandmother’s suggestions of learning it as a fun skill.
Digging my feet into the gaps, I pull myself up. Three more times, I climb until I’m too far away from the ledge for my fall to not hurt. Until there is no other way but up. The other girls start to climb, clearly having the same idea as me. I look over at the girl next to me, her black hair short and curly, just as she grabs the wrong spot. The rock gives way, and time seems to slow as she falls backwards, desperately reaching out with her hands for anything to save her. Her scream echoes into silence as she falls. Sickness rises in my throat as I imagine her splattered across the mountain range below, but I push down the image, push down the fear of that ending for me, knowing that I can’t lose focus. I need to keep going.
I keep climbing upwards. I climb up using all my strength, pushing myself until my body burns with the strength I need to hold on. I get as close to the ledge as I possibly can, a bit higher than it so there’s more chance of this working, but even then, jumping is risky. There is nothing below to catch me if I miss. It’s all or nothing. I blow out a breath and jump, slamming hard onto the rock, digging my hands into anything that I can find. The rock is pretty smooth, but it tilts towards the ground, making it a bit easier for me to climb, pushing my body on top of it as it flattens out. I roll onto my back, panting, looking up and realising there are no other ledges around, and I don’t know how I’m meant to go any further.
With a groan, I climb to my feet and look for the others. Arty has somehow gotten higher than me, on a thick ledge, and she is waving down at me. No, not waving. She’s pointing at something, and I look around, my stomach dropping when I realise what the hell she’s thinking. There’s a current of air moving really fast nearby, a jump away, and it makes a spiralling tunnel that would take me high up straight up to another ledge. At least halfway to the star. But I would need to fly in it. Oh, my fuck. I’m going to die. I’m definitely going to die. There’s no way I’m surviving this. I have to just stay here on this ledge and maybe—
I hear another scream, someone else falling, and I gulp. I can’t stay here. I see Livia on the ledge above and Hope not far behind her. She runs and fearlessly jumps into one of the tunnels of air nearby her ledge, spreading her arms out. The air current pulls her up fast, spinning her around in circles, and she throws her arms back, leaping out of the air current and flawlessly landing with a thump on a high-up ledge. She looks down at me with a smirk before running and jumping across several of the ledges, getting higher and closer to the star.
If she can do it, I definitely can. Maybe not as perfectly and flawlessly as she made it look. I look at Arty, meeting her hazel eyes shining. I nod once at my friend. We have got to be brave, as my grandmother would tell me. She would tell me to jump rather than die pathetically when this ledge falls. I look down. Everything is falling away into the air. The whole place is going to go soon. I lift my head and, with a scream, I jump.
The air current picks me up in a sheer, cold embrace, the wind whistling down my ears and taking the air from my lungs. I spin over and over in the current, throwing my hands out to the side, smoothing myself out. This reminds me of flying with Emrys above the castle. This is no different, except for it lacks Emrys’s magic holding me up. It’s just a current of air. The air is so biting cold, so fast, that it’s hard to see where I am. I see the outline of the ledge, and I throw my arms back like Hope did, sending myself right out of the current into the air.
I scream, barely reaching my hands out in time to grip the rock before my body slips off the ledge. The sharp rocky edge cuts deep into my hands, making it slippery as I hold on, my legs dangling in the air. With a grunt, I barely manage to get enough traction to pull myself up on the ledge, sucking in air. Lifting my cut hands and realising I’ve just made everything a lot harder for climbing, I stand and look around for anyone else, Arty or Livia, even Hope, but I’m alone. I’ve lost them in this massive place. I hope they survived. Well, maybe not Hope. Finally, I spot Livia and her friend Florence a few ledges below, using the walls and jumping off them before trying to get to a current nearby.
I see three ledges above me, and I begin to jump up them one by one, not pausing as I hear more rocks crumbling and falling. The walls of the island are falling too, revealing bright blue skies. The sun just rose in the distance, the daylight bright. My ledges soon run out, leaving me with another risky current of air. Hope passes me in this air current, flying up quite high. I watch her go past before jumping in myself, following right behind her. I scream again, unable to help the fear response, and concentrate on where she is getting out. She certainly knows what she’s doing, and I’m following her.
The air current is harsher than the last, and it feels like it’s ripping my skin apart with every second, sucking the air out of my lungs, too. I can barely look down, but when I do, my heart leaps in my chest. It is such a long way down. The current swirls around in circles, almost like it’s a tornado, and I blink, almost missing Hope jumping out. I wait, counting the seconds until I’m where she was, before jumping and landing on a large rock.
I lift my head, seeing two small, narrow rock paths that lead to the star on the other side. It clearly has a portal within it. Now I’m this close. Through the portal, I can see the dragon kings waiting in front of a busy crowd. Emrys pats Arden’s shoulder, and Arden’s whole face lights up when he sees me. He grins and I find my stupid face actually smiling back.
Hope rolls her eyes at me. “I should push you off just for that stupid look on your face. You know they don’t actually care about you.”
Ignoring her, I climb to my feet and look at the thin pathway that’s between me and getting out of here. “We still have to get over that ledge, and arguing isn’t going to help us. So back the fuck off.”
“Says the bitch who followed me up here,” she bites out.
I resist the urge to throw one of the stones on the ground at her stupid face. I realise something that sours my tongue. I look at Hope. “If we hold hands, we can balance each other. It’ll be easier than walking that alone while this whole place is falling and shaking.
She purses her lips and narrows her eyes. “I don’t trust you. You might push me off. I’m not holding your hand and definitely not helping you.”
I narrow my eyes at her stubborn ass. “Fine. I don’t trust you either, but I know we both don’t want to die, and I’m willing to trust that. I’ll just wait for Arty to get up here, and we will watch you fall.”
“You think she’s getting up here?” she asks with a laugh. “She’s terrified of heights. She’s not going to survive that long without you holding her hand.”
“I wouldn’t bet against her,” I snap.
Hope rolls her eyes at me, looking across at the platform. I look around and down, minutes passing as I am looking for Arty, for Livia, for anyone but Hope to come. But I don’t see anyone near us. There’s another way in from the portal from the back, and she might have gone that way. It’s probably easier, but I can’t get back down to it.
