Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Deidre
All Father, save us… Of all the ways I thought things might go if worse came to worst, this was not on my list.
Never did I think Kane would come for me himself. He’s a king, so certainly he would have sent guards or trackers… Anyone other than himself.
Crispin and I never planned on how to fight a dragon!
Another roar.
This one so close hot breath lifted my hair.
If I didn’t act fast, I was as good as dead.
As Kane’s head lunged closer, I spun and ran farther into the cave, hoping he really was too big to follow in his current form. That might at least buy us some time.
Holding up my hands, I focused on the dirt around the wooden beams we had built in the ceiling. With extreme force, Kane smashed against the mountain, trying to fit his gigantic head into the mouth of the cavern.
With shaking limbs, I ignored the raging beast. Calling to the roots webbed around the ceiling, I split the wooden beams, causing all the boulders Crispin had set to fall and block the entrance.
A shudder rolled through the cave as we descended into darkness. Dirt and rocks sprayed my head. Coughing, I stumbled back, reaching out to find my husband.
A soft glow illuminated the shadows, and then Crispin's arm was around me.
“We're halfway there,” he whispered, kissing the back of my head and turning me around. With one hand, he cupped my cheek. “That was the hard part, and we survived.”
I glanced at the red drenching the front of his shirt. “We should check that.”
“Not yet,” he said. “Grab a pack. Kane may not fit through that hole, but he may be able to remove the rubble and follow us—we need to be deep within the cavern system before that happens.”
Holding the lantern with one hand, my husband grabbed one pack and slung it over his shoulder, and then I grabbed the other. Along with supplies, there was a short sword, one that I could swing easily. The handle was made from wood, so I could extend and control it better.
I gripped the sword belt and wrapped it around my waist, my fingers trembling to buckle it closed. Crispin gently pushed my hand away and looped the belt buckle, securing it tightly.
“Are we really going to make it?” The shaking continued through my teeth, through my spine, through my thoughts.
Sliding his hand to the back of my neck, Crispin tilted my head up toward him. “Stay focused, and we will survive.”
Crispin had been more than a husband but a best friend. I stepped on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his, savoring his touch, terrified that this would be the last time we would ever kiss.
His mouth met mine in a sweet response and then too quickly pulled away.
Kane roared outside, slamming into the cave as if he could force his way inside.
“Will he be able to get through?” I asked.
“No. I don't think so. We need to move to the first chamber. Do you have the map?”
I nodded and then opened the satchel to pull out the parchment we had so carefully created. It had taken us almost six months to map the cavern system, and that was only the safe areas. There were many stony paths we dared not travel in.
“Okay, stay close.” Crispin held up the lantern and we began walking.
Even though we were surrounded by darkness, this cave system had become familiar to us. We'd spent many hours checking different exits and a few nights sleeping under the stalactite-covered sky.
This complex cavern system was another reason my grandfather had picked this valley. He had thought of everything. Not just making sure we weren't near any villages or that we had fresh water, but that there were multiple escape routes.
I wondered how he was. It had been a year since he brought us here.
As we walked, I replayed that day, remembering everything he sacrificed for me.
Every time Grandfather traveled to sell goods, he was searching for a safe haven for me, knowing that if he helped me escape, he would be thrown in jail or worse.
I would never know what repercussions happened or what he would have told my parents or the priests.
Not like any of them would care.
When Kane never showed up on my sixteenth birthday, the priests figured it was just because fae didn't go by our time, and then a year passed and another. Then the rumors started, many believing Kane had seen me and found me unworthy of being his bride.
I reached up to my right eye, tracing the star-shaped pattern around it.
It had been a blessing and a curse. Once the priests realized Kane might never come for me, the reins and noose around my neck slowly loosened just enough for me to slip away under the cover of night.
Though I didn't know if I ever would have left on my own if Crispin hadn’t agreed to come with me.
He walked ahead, steady, his feet true.
Crispin, son of one of the temple guards, had been one of the few children to never make fun of me, and as we grew up, I often imagined what it would have been like if I hadn’t been born with this birthmark–the only thing signifying me as the “child of prophecy.”
I had tried so hard to fight against my budding feelings for Crispin, but then, when Kane never showed, I allowed myself to feel and hope that maybe I would have a normal life, that the prophecy was nothing but the words of old men.
The lantern haloed around Crispin, highlighting the golden hues of his light-brown hair. In the summer, it would turn almost pure blond, and it highlighted the little flecks of gold in his blue eyes.
Eyes I'd spent all our days staring into.
We were going to make it.
I had to believe that. We were prepared. It didn't matter that Kane was a dragon or an immortal or commanded the shadows like it was part of him. He didn't have what Crispin and I did.
We had hope and trust in each other and a very thought-out plan.
The cavern curved deeper, the slow drip of water sounding from unseen places. Soon we would reach the first inner chamber, which was one of my favorite places due to all the stalagmites, amber-hued crystals, and glowing mushrooms.
Crispin stumbled, grabbing the wall for support.
“Are you okay?” I rushed to his side. “We really should stop.”
“Not yet,” he said, his breath a little labored. “Let's get to the first chamber.”
I nodded, knowing the first chamber was also the first fork with different caverns branching out, going in various directions. Even if the Deathless One followed us, he would have no idea where to go. Some of these tunnels went for miles, most of them dead ends.
We were lucky we never got stuck in here. That had been my fear for the first six months. That we would die trying to develop an escape route we may never need.
How ironic that would have been.
But Crispin never faltered.
Out of the thirteen elemental powers, I had been blessed with plant, and every time my feet entwined with the grass, energy coursed through my veins. He trusted I would sense the earth, feel where life began, and get us to the right area. It was hard to feel the roots underneath all this stone.
In here with all this stone, that warm feeling became a distant touch, and it made me yearn to run back outside.
The rocky incline opened into the main chamber. High ceilings flickered white and yellow, the lantern turning the area into a glowing crystal. Though there were very few life crystals in this place, the few that existed brightened like the sun.
From this chamber, there were five different paths. I held the map with both hands, even though I had it memorized, and followed the paths to our next turn.
“That one,” I said, pointing ahead to the tunnel second on the left. “Do you want to stop for a minute?”
Crispin shook his head. His cheeks were flushed red and tiny beads of sweat dotted his forehead. “No, we keep going.”
We moved toward the next opening, this one a little smaller than the others. There were no sounds in the cave other than a few drops of water and Crispin’s labored breaths.
Being a light bearer would have been great in a situation like this. I could just call the light into being. That wasn't my power, wasn't even Crispin's power.
We were deep within the system now, navigating around the turns, ignoring the different tunnels that branched off and led into areas we knew went nowhere.
This path would take us out toward a secluded mountain ridge, which would lead us to another safe spot, one where we had hidden enough supplies to get us farther away if needed.
“No.” Crispin held up the lantern and I stopped, realizing that I had been lost in my own thoughts.
“What's wrong?”
He didn’t need to reply… Once I looked ahead, I could see our doom clearly.
Crispin growled, pushing against the crumbled stone that had caved in. He put down the lantern. “Maybe I can move some of these rocks.”
A red hue surrounded him as the strength of a thousand men activated within him, his ability to wield force giving him unnatural power. He hauled stone after stone, attempting to clear the blocked path.
Even with his berserker strength, there was no removing this blockade.
“Crispin, stop,” I said, tugging on the back of his shirt.
“This can't be happening. This is our way out.” He punched one of the boulders, splitting it in half.
I moved beside him, doing my best not to let the panic show in my voice. “It must have happened when we collapsed the front entrance. We’ll get out another way.”
“Damn it!” He punched the rock again, and I flinched, not used to seeing Crispin so disheveled.
He had always been the stable one.
“Let's go back.” I picked up the lantern he had dropped. “This isn't the only way out.”
“But this was our best route.” He pressed his head against the rocks, breathing heavily. “All that time planning, and this happens!”
“I know.” I placed my hand on his back. “You had prepared us, right? We know of other ways out of the cavern system.”
“Yes, but we don’t have enough supplies to get us deeper into the forests.”
“It doesn't matter. We'll find a way. You always do.”