Taken by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #8)(31)

I’d just spied another tunnel up ahead when my foot slipped on some loose pebbles. “Whoa!” I cried as I slid down a steep slope. Conjuring a light, my heart leapt into my throat as I shot straight into a wide, bottomless fissure. I dropped a good thirty feet before I managed to activate the levitation spell, but I was falling too fast by then for it to fight gravity. A scream tore from my throat as I continued to plummet, and I frantically searched Fenris’s spell catalogue, trying to find something, anything that could help me before I crashed into the rocks below…

Strong claws clamped around my arms, and I looked up to see Broghan flapping his wings above me, a giant eagle now. He soared out of the fissure and deposited me safely on the other side. I collapsed, my body shaking from delayed reaction, and I laid my head on the cool ground, panting with fear and relief.

“Thank you,” I choked out when I finally had enough breath to speak. “I thought I was a goner.”

Broghan nuzzled my face—he was back in wolf cub form again. “Watch where you’re stepping,” he said. “You gave me a scare.”

I laughed. “Gave you a scare?” I asked, rubbing the top of his head. He curled up against me, and we lay there for a long moment, until my legs had stopped shaking and I was ready to move on again.

We spent the next couple of hours climbing up and down through the caves, until my stomach was gnawing at me with hunger and my limbs were beginning to ache with exhaustion. It had been a long time since I’d done this much physical activity, and I’d been growing out of shape to begin with. Too many parties and meetings, and not enough sparring with Rylan—I’d make sure to keep up my form, if I ever got out of here.

When I got out of here, I corrected myself. I couldn’t accept anything less.

We paused for another short break to tuck into the last of the provisions, and between the two of us, we polished them off pretty quickly. Eventually, we came upon another underground lake, where I gratefully refilled my now-empty canteen. As I drank directly from the lake, I spotted some eyeless, pinkish salamanders as big as eels swimming in the water. Using a spell Iannis had taught me on our last vacation, I snagged one from the lake, then flash-roasted it. Broghan wrinkled his nose at the smell, and turned up his nose when I offered him a bite, but I devoured the whole thing. It tasted a bit sour, but the texture and color were similar to shrimp. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine I was in the palace, enjoying a seafood dinner with Iannis.

Hopefully I could do that soon, if I ever found a way out of these blasted caves.



We hiked through the caves for several more hours before I grew too exhausted to continue, then made camp in a relatively flat and dry spot. There were no twigs or branches around to light a fire with, but Broghan changed into a bear, and I curled into his furry bulk as I slept. His big, warm body was a welcome contrast to the frigid stone floor of the cavern, and I was able to catch a few hours of sleep before we continued on.

“Is that a light?” Broghan asked as we trudged through yet another stalagmite-filled cavern. Looking up, I saw him flit into one of the three tunnels up ahead. “Yes, I think we’re almost there!”

The excitement in Broghan’s voice sent a surge of energy through me, and I jogged to catch up with him in the tunnel. We came through the other side into a much smaller cavern, and sure enough, a ray of light speared through the endless darkness. Following it, I saw that it came from a hole in the wall a good forty feet up. From the light coming through, it had to be daytime.

“Dammit,” I said as I levitated up there to examine the hole. “This is way too small.” I stuck my arm through the hole, and the sensation of wind caressing my fingers encouraged me further. “We have to figure out how to enlarge it.”

My magic was starting to run low, so instead of using a spell, I found a sharp rock on the cavern floor and began chipping away. However, without standing on anything but air, I didn’t have much leverage, so it was slow going. Luckily, the hole was being obstructed by encrusted bat dung and dirt rather than actual stone, or I would have been forced to use my magic to melt it away. Broghan turned into a dragon, then flew up to join me, using his sharp, steel-like claws to help me carve out the hole.

Finally, the opening was big enough for me to fit through, and I got onto my belly and wriggled out through the other side. But my relief was short-lived—the window we had opened was on the sheer, vertical side of a mountain. Terror gripped my throat as I stared at the verdant valleys far below—if I shimmied forward more than another foot or so, I would fall straight down and split my skull open on the rocky ground. And the winds here were far too high and unpredictable to risk the levitation spell.

“Hang on,” Broghan said as he crawled through the hole behind me. He launched himself into the air, and with a few flaps of his wings propelled himself upward, beyond my field of vision. I considered twisting around to see where he was going, but I didn’t want to accidentally fall off, so I waited anxiously.

A few moments later, Broghan soared back down, his dragon form ten times bigger than before. I ducked as his powerful wings blasted me in the face, and a small rock glanced off the back of my head.

“Climb on, quick!” Broghan ordered as I lifted my head. He pressed his body close enough to the mountainside that I could easily leap onto his back. But I was afraid that the blustery winds would carry me away before I landed, so instead I crawled carefully, gripping the tough membranes of his wings as I dragged myself across his big body. Several long, agonizing seconds later, I reached the depression between his wings and collapsed there, breathing hard from fear and exertion. I wasn’t usually afraid of heights, but it was a long way down from here.