Entrapment (Thor's Dragon Rider #3) - Katrina Cope Page 0,3

mouth shut, willing my rising stomach contents to settle. At least Elan isn’t being slammed into me. Minutes seem to turn into hours as we swing smoothly from side to side. Unable to see anything to keep my mind occupied, my eyes droop with weariness, and my mind drifts into vagueness, eventually giving in to the pull of sleep.

Nightmares riddle every strand of a dream, carrying with them my concern over Thor and what happened to him, the future of Asgard, and what will become of Elan and me. Eventually, a peace takes over my dreams, only to be jerked away when a warm breeze brushes against my face. At first, I think Elan has expelled a hot breath over me until I open my eyes. Elan is facing the opposite direction, her scales glowing a deep orange-red. My eyes widen with fascination that quickly turns to dread as I scan our surroundings. The bag has fallen away, revealing a landscape made in my worst nightmare. I didn’t know a place like that existed in the land of the living.

“Am I dead?” The words were a whisper tickling my circled lips.

Elan bends to look at me, her golden eyes glowing eerily with red. Nope. This is definitely happening.

Bile leaks into my mouth. A dark sky looms overhead, smothering ominous tall black mountains dripping with waterfalls of burning orange lava. Only the orange embers' glow illuminates the sky and surrounding land—arid, rocky ground, more mountainous than flat, with glowing orange rivers.

Residential structures are cut into the largest mountains in the distance, with lava waterfalls falling from all sides. A gust of hot breeze brushes my face, and I back up to Elan, pressing my body against her scales, taking comfort in their hard spikiness.

An eruption sounds not far away, and a blowhole of lava shoots several feet high, firing out splotches of orange clumps. A golden membranous wing loops around me, and I press into Elan’s side. Being a dragon, she would have some natural resistance to the heat and burning magma.

The surroundings have distracted me from the lava monster's swooping hand, and it gathers us up and plunges us deep into a hole. Then the hand opens, leaving us on the black rock floor. I don’t know whether that is a blessing or a curse until I realize it's placing us in a cave, sheltering us from most of the exploding lava pits. A big gaping hole lines one side of the cave, giving us a view of a large lava river flowing directly from our doorstep.

Elan’s protective wing wrapped around me furls as the large hand pulls out of the entrance at the top of the cave, exposing the glowing pits substituting for eyes as the monster peers down at us as though we are the size of small rodents.

This monster is enormous. I'm not surprised Thor had a hard time fighting it on his own. The glowing eyes pull away, and the ground rumbles underneath us at the tempo of its large footsteps.

My eyes remain wide as I survey our surroundings, my arms protectively crossing over my chest. “Where are we, Elan?”

I don't know. But from what I've heard, it looks a lot like Muspelheim, the land of the fire giants.

I approach the lava river and peer over the edge. “It’s not Helheim? It looks like part of the underworld, a place fit only for the dead.”

The scales above her eyes bunch into a frown. I'm not sure. But wherever we are, it doesn't look friendly.

Beads of sweat gather on my forehead and neck, and I yank at the long dark strands of my hair, tucking the wisps behind my ear. The ground shakes in even vibrations again, and I gaze up at the hole, shaped almost like a wide chimney, to see the glowing red eyes of the lava monster have returned.

A feeling of hopelessness swamps me as I gaze into the glowing red pits fixed on us, seemingly fascinated by the captives in its enclosure.

I mutter to Elan, “It's certainly diligent in watching us and making sure we can’t leave. However, even if it wasn't watching, the only escape route is through that hole or past the lava river.” Keeping my voice low and my eyes fixed on the lava monster’s, I ask, “What do you think your chances are of flying past the peering lava monster?”

Sadness fills Elan’s eyes. I don't like my chances. The lava monster’s hand nearly takes up the whole of the