22. Lira
22
LIRA
M y toes dug into the front of my boot, and I threw my weight forward. My knees crashed into the platform, and pain exploded while my hands felt like they were on fire.
Lorne had almost gotten to his knees, reaching for the chain as if to prevent me from falling, but with his injury, we would have both dropped had I not overcorrected.
Chest heaving, I gritted my teeth and regulated my breathing, though it was hard. My eyes burned, and I blinked back tears. I didn’t want to cry in front of the Unseelie, despite the fact that my reaction was just because of the suffering.
“What was that?” Lorne rasped, but with how his voice broke, his question was almost inaudible. “You almost killed us .”
Us.
Of course he’d only save my ass to keep himself from dying. Any other time, he would’ve gladly pushed me off. I had to remember how these people operated. They were nothing like my family back home. “If you’d touched the chain, you’d understand why.”
I glanced at the two pairs left with us. They were moving as quickly as possible, but the soles of their boots had already melted off, and they weren’t even on the other side yet. What had looked so easy wasn’t, and their movements were jerky and uneasy.
I looked at my palms and winced at their toasty-pink color from where I’d gripped the chain.
He turned back to the chain. Since we’d arrived, the fire had gotten larger, the flame tips heating the metal. “Blighted abyss. The longer we stay down here, the higher the flames will go, making the climb over harder. They’re punishing us for already struggling.”
“We’d better get moving.” Even as I said the words, every cell within me wanted to never touch that chain again. I spun and noted that the first two platforms were no longer visible, already encased in the foggy gas, with the third one about two feet above it and the one we’d just jumped off two feet below us.
There were no choices other than to continue forward or die.
Death wasn’t an option. I wasn’t ready to give up and accept that fate. I believed there was more to my life than this … or I hoped so with every cell of my body.
My hands burned at the thought of touching the chain again, and I wanted to chastise them. If they hurt now, I didn’t want to know how they’d feel when we started the climb.
“Rip off the bottom of your shirt and tie it around your hands for protection. If it begins smoking, we need to suck it up and keep moving forward.” Even though we’d still feel the heat through the fabric, it should prevent massive burns .
“Why would it smoke?” His brows furrowed. “Do human clothes catch fire?”
For the first time since, well, ever , I wanted to thank the fae for their differences. I ripped the bottom of my shirt, turning it into a crop top. “Yes. If the fire’s hot enough to burn the bottom of boots, it will burn clothes.”
Even as we talked, the chains lowered a little, putting them deeper into the flames. I ripped the material in two and tied a piece around each hand. Lorne followed my lead, and soon, we were as ready to climb as we’d ever be.
Lorne straightened his shoulders and glanced at me.
I nodded, and dread pooled in my stomach with each step closer to the chain we took. At the edge, I watched as Bran and Dougal jumped over the top of the incline, black blood dripping from their hands and feet. I didn’t need to know why; we’d be bearing similar wounds soon, if not worse.
We reached for the chains, and the heat seared through the material. Thankfully, it wasn’t my skin like the first time, but the heat made the burn that marred my palms worse. As we climbed, the heat from the flames caused sweat to bead on my brow and chest.
This was worse than summer in Georgia, which spoke volumes. We moved at a slow pace, pausing each time Lorne had to use his injured leg to move up to the next level. In the moment that we waited, I shifted back and forth between my left and right side, hoping that would prevent the soles of my boots from melting as quickly.
The women finally reached the top, Moira’s bottom lip quivering. Hers and Rona’s skin looked black on the bottoms of their feet, where the chains had melted away the soles of their boots.
They climbed over the top, their faces purple with exhaustion and pain. They faced us but began descending, moving quicker.
Lorne grunted. “My blasted boots have already melted through,” he gritted out, bringing my attention back to him.
Holy shit. This wasn’t good.
The last thing I wanted to do was lose progress, but I went down a little past Lorne’s ass, put my right hand underneath it, and pushed up. Lorne took the step he’d been struggling with, and I smelled the putrid stench of whatever the bottom of our boots was made out of burning.
We moved up a few chains, and when we got back to where his injured foot needed to bear his weight, I shoved his ass again.
Tears clouded my vision as my hands felt like they were on fire and my feet became hotter. Between that and the way the flames charred my skin, I had to look like a burned chicken nugget. My skin tightened, making me feel like I was getting close to being well done.
My right arm ached from shoving Lorne upward, but after what felt like years, we reached the top of the incline.
At least now, we’d be going down, which would help our momentum. As we threw our legs over the edge, something dripped into my eyes, giving everything a golden hue.
When I glanced at Lorne, I saw black blood oozing from cracks in his face, confirming I had to be bleeding as well.
The flames were only a foot from our faces.
I took a moment to look behind me and realized the platform we were on was already a foot below the next one.
We were running out of time.
“We need to hurry,” I rasped, my face throbbing from barely moving my lips to speak. My mouth was so dry, and I desperately wanted to drink water and soak in a tub—two things I would be able to do only once we were finished with this stupid game. “The platform is already descending.”
Lorne clenched his teeth, and we tried moving faster. My arms were tired, especially the right one, since I’d used it to help push Lorne. That arm shook, then gave out, causing my bare stomach to press on a link. An intense burning sensation engulfed me, and I jerked my feet up, causing the bottom of one shoe to rake off so that my bare skin was on the chains.
I hissed, trying to move so that no part of my skin burned, but no matter what I did, my foot touched the chain. A sharp, throbbing burn engulfed me. I positioned all my weight on the other foot, but the bottom of my sole heated, warning me that I was about to have no protection there either.
For a moment, falling to my death sounded appealing. The impact would be hard and solid, ending my suffering … unless the wildlings hadn’t actually placed us high, which meant the nightmare gas would provide a slow, painful death on top of the burns.
I wouldn’t give Eldrin the satisfaction.
Peeking over my shoulder, I realized we couldn’t jump down yet. We needed to get halfway down this massive, slanted wall before we could land on our feet without risking worse injuries than we had now.
Lorne groaned, but he quickened his descent. I noticed the way his legs shook, which I hated. I needed him to hold on, but he’d been dealing with the burning of his feet longer than I had since he struggled to move his body as easily.
“We just need to get halfway down, and then we can jump.” I cringed, thinking of him jumping with his blistered feet and injured leg, but it would be better than letting the skin melt from our bodies—if we could wait until then .
As we climbed down, dark spots edged into my vision. The torture was so severe that my stomach churned, and bile inched up my throat. If I thought I’d experienced injuries before, they’d been nothing like now.
My tears thickened so much that all I saw was a blur, and vomit lurched into my mouth and spilled from me. It hit the flames, and the fire roared higher, the tips of the flames reaching my hands.
I yelped, and unable to hold on any longer, I let go. With my last bit of strength, I pushed with my legs, hoping like hell that we cleared the rest of the chains below us.
As my body tumbled, the chain yanked on Lorne. He hissed as he couldn’t hold on, and we both fell backward. The air blew my blonde hair forward into my face so that I couldn’t see anything.
Within seconds, I landed on something solid and hard, knocking the breath out of me. Lorne landed beside me, and he didn’t move either. For a moment, I lay there, trying to clear my vision, but even though we weren’t touching the chains anymore, the burning continued to blaze throughout my body.
Move, Lira. Eiric’s voice popped into my head, even though that wasn’t possible. On Earth, she was my voice of reason whenever I wanted to give up, and the sound had my heart aching in a completely different way.
Dammit, I missed her so much it hurt to breathe.
Don’t make me find a way to you just so I can bring you back to life and kill you myself. Get on your feet and move. I need you to come back home to us.
A sob built in my chest, making my body ache worse. I can’t come back to you. I don’t have a way.
If anyone can figure it out, it’s you, Lira. Her voice turned sterner than I’d ever heard it. Now get up and find a way to survive. We need you back with us.
My gaze immediately found the spot where Tavish sat, and somehow, I could see him clearly through the chaos like he was the only one who mattered. Our gazes connected, and realization tingled through me, along with the chill of what felt like magic retreating from me.
He mouthed the words, Get up and survive. I need you to win.
A pleasant warmth spread through my chest. That wasn’t my mind pushing me on—it was him. A little bit of adrenaline pumped through me, taking the edge off the pain.
I will , I mouthed back, not wanting to disappoint him. I forced myself to sit up as the need to be with him again surged through me. My skin felt as if it might rip off, but I forced myself to push through the pain. I turned my head and swore I’d been turned into beef jerky—all dried out and wrinkled. “Lorne, can you keep going, or would you rather keep lying there and die?” I asked, knowing there was one thing that drove him—pride.
He bared his teeth. “No, we’re going to prove to them that an injured Unseelie and a sunscorched can make it through this.”
I stood and reached for his hand to help him.
He paused like he was considering not taking it, but then he let out a breath and took my hand. I helped him to his feet, ignoring the way my body shook from the torture and how one foot felt melted into the platform.
When he got to his feet, his face twisted in agony, but we pivoted to see that the platform was now two feet above us.
This would be much trickier since we were both injured, and we wouldn’t have any slack to give. We had to work together perfectly, or we’d fall over the ledge.
“Go on the count of three,” I croaked. “Got it?”
“Yes, let’s proceed,” he snapped, but his voice was hoarser than mine.
“One, two,” I inhaled, bracing for what came next. “Three.”
Lorne used his good leg, and we stepped upward. I moved quicker than him, but not so fast that our chain tightened, and we stumbled to our knees onto the next platform.
My attention homed in on the one after it, where two walls were closing in toward each other, and not very slowly. Right now, there was enough room for about three of Lorne to go through abreast, but the gap closed with Moira and Rona limping around the corner at the end, almost a quarter of a mile down.
Crap. We weren’t out of the woods yet, especially with Lorne’s fresh injuries.
He’d already climbed to his feet when I straightened. I waited until he’d rolled his shoulders back, which he did whenever he was ready to move forward, like he was psyching himself up for the next threat.
This platform was only six inches lower than the next one, but that didn’t matter. We were still behind.
We moved in tandem, not even needing to discuss what we were doing, though it helped that I was limping almost as bad as him. We made it to the next obstacle course with the wall as wide as maybe two and a half of him.
“Run,” Lorne commanded.
My heart hammered, and I took off first, knowing I might have to tug him the rest of the way. Each time I landed on my left foot, fire exploded through me. I tried to run at a steady pace, but Lorne continued to move slower and slower.
The space between the walls was now about two of him, and we’d made it only a quarter of the way there.
“You need to run faster.” I glanced over my shoulder, and my eyes widened as I took in his state. A thick trail of blood followed him, and I could only imagine what his feet looked like underneath the boot … not that I wanted to know.
“We’re almost there.” I reached down and snagged the chain, yanking it. I needed him to go faster. I’d been so focused on the slanted wall that I hadn’t considered this .
“I’m trying,” Lorne grumbled.
I yanked on the chain harder.
The walls continued to close in around us.
He grunted, picking up his pace, but it wasn’t enough.
I was almost at the end, but Lorne was a full two feet behind me and moving slowly.
If I didn’t do something, he’d die.
I had to save him, especially since we’d been helping each other this time around. I wouldn’t leave someone behind when things got hard.
In a last-ditch effort, I rushed back to him and grabbed his hands. I ignored the warm liquid I felt on my hands from his.
The wall was almost on him, moving faster like we were out of time.
Not wanting to lose traction, I moved my hands to his wrists so they didn’t slip off, and I yanked harder than I ever had before.
The muscles in my back strained, and something felt like it ripped. A warm pulse shot through my body into my hands. Slicing pain throbbed through me, and the sound of something tearing tickled my mind.
My body shifted as I flexed, and our bodies sailed the last few feet, breaking us free of the closing walls. We fell onto our asses. Something strange shifted behind me, and I turned to see sparkly sea-green wings that reminded me of the water in the bathtub.
I blinked, trying to understand what was going on, but when my back tensed, the wings folded in toward my back … like they were mine.
Blighted abyss! I had wings .
Even though my blood was gold, seeing the wings made all this more real. My vision grew fuzzy, and I tried to understand what the hell was happening to me.
“Bless the gods,” Lorne whimpered. “I don’t understand how this is possible.”
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. Even though I was coming to terms with being fae, I hadn’t expected this . “I guess Seelie have wings too.” Now I was worried this would prevent him from working with me, the wings a big reminder that I was his enemy .
“Of course Seelie have wings. But that’s not what I’m referring to.” He pointed to his feet and rasped. “Look at this.”
I tore my gaze from my wings to see what he was talking about. He had his foot propped up on his leg, staring at the bottom.
The bottom of his foot wasn’t blistered anymore. It had a few faint scabs, but the severe injury was gone.
Holy shit.
“How did that happen?”
Then the platform we sat on creaked, the sound more rushed and frantic than the others .
He lunged to his feet. “Let’s get to the next platform.”
We hurried to the edge, and he readied to leap onto the next platform. I tried to move my wings, but they jerked, so we jumped together.
When we landed on the next platform, it made a popping noise and dropped with Lorne and me on it.