further into the void. I choked from the mud pieces, coughing brutally, and quickly lifted my other hand to grab the wrist of the person holding me. I knew immediately who it was by the size of it—far, far too big.
“Athon!” I shrieked in terror. “Get me out of here!”
“We are trying, you fool!” King Athon grunted quietly, his face pinching in discomfort. “Your father’s tying a rope around my waist now. Just hang on and try not to squirm. The ground is crumbling around me fast.”
I screamed, “They’re going to pull us back?”
“Yes. Calm down, Princess. You need to stay calm.”
King Athon snarled as the edge of the crack broke off again, throwing his torso over the side. My entire body hit free fall for a few feet before it jolted to a stop again, the shifter king retaining his hold on me. His other arm swung down and grabbed my other wrist now that he was dangling halfway over the side.
The King of Shifters glared down at me, his hanging long white hair swaying slightly between us. “Does trouble just follow you wherever you go?”
“Not until I met you,” I growled.
Solid black eyes stayed locked with mine. “You are not leaving your father’s side from now on until we leave this Fae damned place. Do you understand?”
“Just get me out of here, and I will do it,” I griped. “My hands are starting to sweat. I’m going to slip!”
“Be quiet, elf. They are starting to pull.” King Athon’s dark forehead crinkled. “And stop your Fae damned wiggling! You are not helping the issue.”
“Sorry.” My legs stopped swimming in the air. A wet drop hit my forehead. “Did you just spit on me?”
“For the love of Fae, you are an imbecile.”
I hissed under my breath. Another drop hit me. “Well, what is it then? Your stinky sweat?”
“It is rain,” King Athon sniped. “You have heard of it, yes?”
“Oh. Why aren’t we moving yet if they’re pulling?” I glanced down and then swiftly looked back up. “They should hurry.”
“Shall I go ask them?” He sneered.
“Fae dammit all! I am not thinking straight. Quit being an asshole about it.” I dug my fingernails into his skin when I did start to slip. My panting breaths came even faster. “Tell them to hurry!”
King Athon grunted, but shouted, “She is slipping! Hurry up!” His words were so deep and loud that my ears rang.
There was no answer.
We waited a few more moments…
But only silence lingered.
King Athon’s dark brows furrowed, and he stated quietly, “Something has happened. I am going to pull you up, and then you are going to crawl up my body. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I replied evenly. A sudden calm surrounded my mind, with the fear that my father could be in trouble. “Pull me up.”
The shifter king put his grotesque muscles to work. He gripped my wrists even more brutally and curled his arms upward behind himself. I lifted in the air past his head, and he stopped for a moment.
He grunted softly. “I’m going to release your right arm. You need to grab onto my armpit and start pulling yourself up. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
He released my wrist.
I grabbed on tight to his arm. I used the wrist he still had ahold of to pull myself up to chin level, then jerked my free arm around the arm he now held out straight. His muscles held as I yanked one of my legs around that arm and was able to straddle it. The shifter king released my other wrist, and I started methodically climbing up his body despite the dirt raining down on us.
Near the top, I grabbed onto the rope that pulled tight with a tug and used my arms to pull myself out the rest of the way. I lifted to a crouch and kept moving, using the rope for support against the ground sliding under my feet, giving him room to save himself, too.
I glanced back as the rope jerked.
King Athon was out and standing to his feet. He gripped the rope tight between us, and said, “They tethered it somewhere. Keep going.”
We slowly made our way toward the mountain where the rope led, light rain sprinkling down on us, but it was starting to get dark. Once the ground was firm under our feet again, King Athon untied himself. We ran side-by-side at a fast clip and followed where the rope pointed us, to where the four other rulers had been last.
King Athon and I