Origin of Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Protector #3)(35)

I swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

We were close enough to see his ghostly brains and sightless eyes. Though we passed him, his head didn’t turn to look at us. A shudder ran over me. Apparently the brain injury had wounded even his ghostly brain.

We were a few feet away when one horrible whisper slid across the back of my neck. “Run.”

Fear poured ice water over my skin.

I’d never been more convinced in my life that I should do as I was told. The one word was desperate, terrified.

I glanced at Ares, heart in my throat, then took off, sprinting down the corridor. Running toward our doom.





Chapter Ten





The ground trembled beneath my feet, creaking and groaning. I sprinted harder, racing through the tunnel with Ares at my side. We followed the train tracks deeper into the mine.

The ground in front of me dropped away, a huge section disappearing into the depths of the earth. I lunged left, avoiding the deep crevasse. Another section of ground dropped away.

I leapt onto the wooden slats of the train tracks. It was like a suspension bridge across the disappearing ground. I leapt from wooden slat to wooden slat. Some crazy part of my brain reminded me that they were called ties. Not really useful info at this point, but apparently I was crazy.

“Faster!” Ares shouted from behind me.

All around us, sections of ground dropped away. The train track remained, the wooden ties held together by the iron rails. I leapt from tie to tie as the earth fell away around me.

Suddenly, what had happened to the ghost was obvious. He had fallen, his skull crushing against the ground far below.

Shit. That would be us.

As the ground fell away, the train track bridge became too long. My heart thundered. The track wasn’t built for this—it was going to snap. And we were going to fall.

I inanely wished for a jet pack, but it was beyond my conjuring capabilities. So I called upon my magic, ready to create another bow and an arrow with a grappling hook end. It’d worked once, so I just prayed it would work again.

But the bridge snapped. All thoughts of conjuring fled as I fell. My stomach jumped into my throat as I reached out for the wooden railway ties. My fingertips slid off the rough wooden surface of one tie, but I managed to grip the next as the train track bent toward the newly formed cliff wall like the broken rope bridge from Indiana Jones.

I’d always thought that scene was insane. Now I was living it.

The cliff wall in front of us was jagged, with little ridges where one could stand.

“The metal will snap!” Ares roared from below me.

I glanced down. He clung to the ties below me as we swung through the air. Above us, the iron railroad ties were bending as the bridge drooped.

“You’ll have to jump for the cliff!” Ares shouted.

We were close enough that I just might manage to grab onto one of the little ledges.

The metal shrieked as the train track bent too far. I scrambled to find footing on one of the railroad ties beneath me. As soon as I did, I pushed off and jumped for the cliff.

As I sailed through the air, it hit me how impossible this was. Even in the movies, people didn’t succeed at this. Ares flew by me, strong enough and fast enough that he defied reality.

I reached out, stretching for the little cliff. My fingertips brushed the stone surface, but didn’t find purchase. My throat closed with terror.

Until Ares’s hand wrapped around my wrist, jerking me to a stop.

I panted, dangling above the endless drop. Ares dragged me up. I scrambled onto the shallow ledge, clinging to the rock in front of me. To my left, the train track snapped and plummeted into the darkness below.

Sweat ran down my back as I pressed my face against the cliff wall. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Ares panted, his back pressed against the cliff.

The ledge that we stood upon was only a couple feet wide. I looked up. The main part of the tunnel path was about twenty feet above us. Fortunately, there were little ledges like this one that we could use to ascend.

“If we’re careful, we can climb up,” Ares said.

I nodded, my muscles shaking as adrenaline poured through my veins. “That was insane.”

“We got lucky that the tracks didn’t snap sooner.”

“And that you’ve got crazy vampire strength and speed.” I’d have gone splat without him. Why was it that the desert always lent itself to Wile E. Coyote antics? I drew in a shuddery breath. “Ready to climb?”

“I’ll go first.”

I followed Ares up the cliffside, clinging to the rock ledges. When we reached the top, I flopped onto my stomach, gasping. I gave myself a few seconds, then sat up and looked back down the tunnel, the way we’d come. A huge portion of the ground was missing, plummeted into the earth. The ghost with the crushed skull stood on the other side, watching us.

I waved.

He didn’t wave back. The earth that had fallen away began to knit itself back together, magic putting everything back to rights. Within moments, the ground looked normal, as if it’d never broken apart at all.

“Hider’s Haven has some serious protective enchantments.” I turned to look at Ares, who was getting to his feet.

“That won’t be the worst of it.”

I stood, joining him. We set off down the path. I kept my eyes glued to the ground in front of us, heart in my throat. The train track continued, stretching deep into the mountains. I inspected the walls to try to figure out what had been mined here, but I saw no traces of valuable stone or metal. An empty railway car shoved up against the side of the tunnel revealed no goodies either.