Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)(47)
Fingers snapped in front of my face, breaking my trance. Bishop. I instinctively reached up to my gaping mouth, sure that a gob of drool was trailing over my bottom lip. Please don’t tease me, I prayed.
“Come on, let’s go, before the daylight runs out!” Bishop exclaimed.
“Where?”
He playfully tucked me under one of his powerful arms like a football. “To kill some time.”
The way they had described Ratheus—desolate, medieval, decayed—I was expecting a world right out of Terminator, minus the cyborgs. So to say I was pleasantly surprised when we stepped outside would be the understatement of the century.
Standing on the edge of a plateau–like ledge, I saw that we were deep within a gorge in the mountains, the sky beyond a vibrant blue dotted with fluffy white clouds. A broad, densely wooded valley stretched out below, the lush green leaves of the trees signifying a warm climate. I could just make out a river snaking through the forest, dappled sunlight sparkling off its surface like a thousand tiny rolling diamonds. A crown of snow–capped peaks towered in the distance, protecting the valley from the outside world. It was more of a bowl than a valley.
Enthralled by those daunting peaks, I stepped forward without paying any notice to where I was until the ground suddenly disappeared from under my feet. A split second later a hand grabbed my arm and yanked me back. I glanced down at the tree tops several hundred feet below and realized I had unwittingly strolled off a cliff. Whipping around, I suctioned myself to the closest thing available. It turned out to be Caden’s torso.
“Have humans learned to fly in your world?” He chuckled, then slid an arm gently around my back and half carried, half dragged me away from the edge. The others didn’t even attempt to hide their amusement.
“You’re safe now, Evangeline,” Fiona said, chuckling.
I reluctantly unmolded myself from Caden, awkwardness taking over where paralyzing fear had left off. “Sorry,” I mumbled, peering up at him, hoping he didn’t think I had done that with the intention of copping a feel or something equally perverted.
The corners of his mouth curved up into a smile. He didn’t seem bothered.
“Let’s go!” Amelie urged gleefully. At some point between Bishop scooping me up and me stepping off the cliff, she had changed out of her old clothes and into a pair of jeans and a casual top. They all had, including Bishop, who was adjusting his striped gray and green shirt.
“You guys look … normal,” I said, grinning.
Amelie hugged herself. “This shirt is so soft. Like furry puppies … Thank you!” She instantly appeared in front of me to plant an affectionate kiss on my cheek before skipping along a natural path that curled down the side of the mountain, her silvery blonde curls bouncing.
“Does it look anything like your world?” Caden asked.
“Yes. I mean, I think so,” I answered, following the rest of them down the path. It was steep and full of loose rocks and altogether treacherous. “I’ve never seen mountains this big before, but I’m sure they exist.” I was having a hard time not stumbling while keeping up with their fast, careless pace.
“You’d better stick close to her, Caden. She’s liable to tumble right off the side of the mountain,” Fiona warned in that smoky voice of hers, adding, “And we can’t turn into bats and catch you.”
I grinned, shuddering. “Good. I hate those things.”
“You know what the best part about today is?” Bishop suddenly asked in a low, somber voice. He paused dramatically before yelling, “Rachel’s gone!” His voice boomed through the valley like a thunderclap. He took off, tearing down the path like a suicidal maniac, laughing hysterically. Fiona and Amelie trailed behind him, disappearing within seconds, leaving me alone with Caden.
I peered up from the corner of my eye, expecting to see a scowl of anger or annoyance with Bishop’s blatant contempt for his girlfriend. Instead, I saw a smile. “So … where is she?” I asked. Please say gone she’s forever!
The smile tightened. “Some sort of tournament she needed to judge.”
Is that disappointment or relief in his voice? I couldn’t tell.
We walked quietly along the rocky path, Caden content to match my snail’s pace as I cautiously stepped around the loose stones. Several times the stones slid under the weight of my foot, sending me skidding. Caden was always there to grab me and pull me back up.
“I’m sorry I’m so slow. I’m not normally this clumsy,” I mumbled nervously.
“Don’t worry. Just because we can run down rocky cliffs doesn’t mean we expect you to.”
The farther into the valley we went, the warmer the air became and the greener our surroundings. Now that I was looking upon the forest in daylight, I had to chuckle. There was no way anyone could mistake this place for Central Park, with its strange trees towering over us, some soaring well over a hundred feet with trunks at least two arm–lengths thick. It looked more like a primeval rainforest, untouched by anything but time. The floor was lush and green, blanketed with giant ferns and protruding tree roots coated in bright green moss and toadstools. Here and there, the trees allowed enough dappled sunlight in to nourish the tiny purple and white wildflowers scattering the forest floor, but otherwise it was shady and damp under the canopy.
I smiled as a butterfly fluttered past us on its way to one of those drifts of wildflowers, its vibrant yellow and orange wings contrasting beautifully with the verdant green backdrop. A family of crickets sang out happily somewhere in the depths of the woods. It was purely serene—hardly a world crawling with bloodthirsty monsters waiting to drink my blood.