Queen of the Fae (Dragon's Gift The Dark Fae #3) - Linsey Hall Page 0,51
incision that marked a word at the edge of the stone, understanding flashed in my mind.
I gasped and jerked my hand away.
“What is it?” Tarron demanded.
“That word said danger.”
“You can read it?” Aeri asked. “With your Dragon Blood?”
While it was possible that we could maybe magic ourselves into speaking another language, it wasn’t likely that we could do a good enough job to interpret complicated passages. Mind and knowledge magics were harder.
“No. I think Hestia, one of the goddesses who guards this place, gave me the ability to read ancient Greek.” I could still remember the warm magic that had filled my mind when she’d touched my arm.
“Well, give it a go,” Aeri said impatiently.
I drew in a deep breath of too-warm air and touched the words, starting with the ones at the top. Understanding flowed into my mind, my brain trying to keep up with the surge of information.
It was freaking weird.
“Well?” Aeri prodded.
“Hold your horses.” I got to the end of the inscription, then frowned. I looked up at the path. “It says that the one that glows with light is the proper path.”
“None of them glow,” Tarron said.
“Is there another interpretation for light?” Aeri asked.
“I don’t think so.” I ran my fingertips over the inscription again, but nothing new came to me.
Damn. That was a bit of a mystery.
I stood and walked toward the paths, inspecting them. Each one looked equivalently dark.
Until I reached the last one.
Glittering gold fireflies flew in the bushes in the distance, about fifty yards up. I hadn’t seen them before. Perhaps they’d come out with the sun setting?
I looked back at Tarron and Aeri. “Come check this out.”
They walked over.
A smile tugged up at the corner of his lips when he spotted the fireflies. “That must be it.”
Aeri ran back to the other trailheads and peered up each one for a few seconds. She returned. “Yep. Only one with fireflies. I say we do it.”
I nodded, then started up the path. I took the lead, moving at a swift jog that felt like hell but was the only option. Sweat dripped, sticky and awful, and I winced at the burn in my lungs.
The trees thinned and more boulders took their place the higher we got. The breeze was a bit stronger up there, thank fates, but it was still hot as hell with the flame clouds overhead. I prayed they wouldn’t suddenly drop.
When we reached a passage through a section of towering boulders, I slowed. Tension prickled the air, along with the feeling of eyes on me.
“Does it feel like we’re being watched?” Aeri asked.
I nodded. “Sure does.”
We slowed to a walk, our footsteps silent. More than anything, we needed to be able to sense when danger was coming. Between the lions and snakes, whatever was watching us had to be bad.
“Alert to the right,” Tarron murmured. “I don’t see it, but I hear it.”
Tension crawled along my skin as we walked.
Tumbled boulders towered on either side of us, forcing us into a path from which there was no escape. We’d have to go forward or back, and lions could definitely come from those directions. Snakes, too. Even worse, the boulders around us formed huge shadowy nooks and crannies for a creature to hide.
My skin tightened as I walked, eerie awareness making every movement huge and every sound as loud as a gun firing.
When I heard the snuffling breath right by my ear, I stiffened, stopping dead in my tracks.
I stood next to a huge boulder, shoulder high and massive.
“Don’t move,” Tarron murmured.
I didn’t need to look to know what was right by my head. I did anyway, carefully turning my eyes toward the snuffling warm breath.
A lion’s huge nose was right by my ears, his golden eyes glued to mine. A majestic mane surrounded his big head, and he growled low in his throat.
My heart felt like it shot right out of my chest as I watched him. His huge fangs had to be as long as my hand, and his breath smelled of dead bodies.
Probably because he’d just eaten some and was hungry for more.
Please kill me before you start to eat me.
No. That was a bad attitude.
The enormous claws that curled over the edge of the rock could disembowel me in a second.
I winced.
But he was truly magnificent. So terrifying that my mind buzzed, going blank. The only thought that drifted through was I’d rather face down Angry Ahabi.