Wicked Rebellion (Darkwater Reformatory Book 3) Read online

  As I stared, I saw it, too. A flash of light as if someone stood on the other side holding a mirror, tipping it to pick up the sunlight and reflect it in our direction. But if there was someone there, the distance was too far to tell. Trees covered the point on that side, like here, and anyone standing there would blend in with the vegetation.

  “If we’re supposed to get across, how are we going to do it?” Kylie asked. She moved close to the edge and looked down. “We can’t climb or walk across that.” Her arm flicked out to the enormous valley in front of us. “It would take too long to get across.”

  “If we had our dragons, we could do it,” I said.

  Her face fell, and I swore tears filled her eyes. They pulled my sympathy to the surface, which could be her plan. Or maybe they were real, and this was Akimi, now as Kylie.

  It was too confusing to figure out.

  “Do we go back or try to find a way across?” I asked.

  A snap behind me sent me spinning toward the woods. Gleaming eyes stared out from the darkness, and a growl rumbled low in the creature’s throat. Dull thuds told me the beast was coming closer.

  My heart flipped and sweat trickled down my spine.

  “No going back,” Brodin said. He spun and strode along the length of the cliff, seeking a way across or down but returned to us with wide eyes. His arms splayed out. “I didn’t see anything that would help.”

  “Keep looking,” I said, running in the opposite direction. There had to be a way. Nothing had been obvious since we arrived on Darkwater, and this wouldn’t be either.

  Something drew my eye, and for a second, I thought I was seeing things, because it looked like a leaf was suspended in the air a few feet out from the cliff. With a branch or string nearby, this wasn’t possible. Except…

  Bending down on the edge of the cliff, I stretched my arm out, but I couldn’t reach the leaf.

  I didn’t have time for this. I needed to ignore the leaf. It was another magical mystery in the endless pit called Darkwater.

  Standing, I went to join my friends who were staring toward the woods, when something else caught my eye. A stick hung suspended about fifteen feet away from the cliff. Again, no strings or branches I could see, and I couldn’t make out anything solid beneath it.

  I must be out of my mind, but…

  I crept as close to the edge as I dared, inching forward while watching small stones and dirt tumble away from my feet and plunge over the cliff. Dropping to my knees, I reached down, expecting to find nothing.

  My hand impacted with something solid.

  “Guys,” I called, and they joined me. I pointed to the leaf and the stick. “There’s an invisible bridge or something like it here.”

  “And you think it goes all the way to the other side?” Shading her eyes, Kylie gazed across the enormous expanse. “The other side has to be a least a half a mile away.” She gulped. “And the ground is far enough down we’ll splat if you’re wrong.”

  I turned to the woods and shuddered when I found five sets of eyes looking our way. Growls rumbled in the woods. “You’re welcome to go back up the path if you want, but I’m going to try to cross this way.”

  “I’m in,” Brodin said. “But we can’t assume this bridge is a straight shot. That would be too simple.”

  “One way to find out,” I said. I stepped down off the cliff, and my foot impacted with a smooth, invisible surface. Dropping down onto my knees, I closed my eyes and felt around. “It’s narrow, maybe a foot wide.” I reached and found an underside. “And it’s about three inches thick. Feels solid, though, and…” I extended my arm. “It continues away from the cliff at least a foot from here, though it’s curving to the right. Good guess, Brodin.” Moving forward on my hands and knees, I started across the expanse. Terror clawed up my spine because it looked like I traveled on air.

  Brodin stayed behind me. “Keep going,” he hissed. “They’re leaving the woods.”

  Great. Would they follow us out onto the bridge?

  A glance over my shoulder showed Kylie standing on the edge of the cliff, her gaze flicking from us to the woods and back again. “I’m afraid of heights,” she said, wringing her hands.

  “You’re a freakin’ nymph,” I ground out. “When we met, you pulled us up high into a tree and then you plunged down and confronted Titan. How in the world could you do that if you’re afraid of heights?”

  She pinched her hands together, and stark fear filled her face. “Because I am.”

  I rolled my eyes and got back to crawling, moving forward slower than a turtle, though just as cautious. By now, I’d moved about twenty feet from the edge. The clear surface slowly curved to the right, making me worry I’d find myself returning to the cliff and confronting whatever lurked in the forest.

  “You’ll have to decide for yourself,” Brodin said more reasonably than me. “Catch up and you might find it’s not so scary, because we’ll be with you while you crawl.”

  “Wait then,” she said. She sat on the edge of the cliff and dangled her legs over the side. Her feet made impact with the bridge.

  It trembled, and the area beneath me dropped away.

  Yelping, I slid forward on my hands and knees, rushing toward the ground.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Brodin grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked me back up to kneel in front of him on the flat surface. “Gotcha.”

  “Saving my skin again. At this rate, I’ll owe you for eternity.”

  “Don’t forget, I owe you.”

  He must be referring to the catacomb trial with the mini islands. We’d hopped from one to the next while they twisted and turned and even dropped away into the endless cavern beneath us. Similar incident to here, except then, I’d grabbed Brodin, keeping him from falling.

  “Now, we’re even,” I said.

  “You still have the promise I made in the dragon tower.”

  “I’m not calling it in yet.” I wasn’t sure I ever would. He’d give me whatever he could already. Why would I need to ask him for something he wouldn’t naturally offer?

  “Keep going,” Kylie said from behind Brodin. “Those things…”

  A glance that way made my blood freeze solid. Three creatures the size of horses, but with lion features, had crept from the woods. Their six legs had one claw each about the length of my forearm, matching the horn on its head. One growled, and its lips peeled back. The sunlight winked on the saliva dripping off its two-inch fangs. The one in the back shook its head, and its deep blue mane rippled. Spikes shot up on its back, and its tail flicked back and forth, showing off the spike on the end.

  The lead beast sauntered to the edge of the cliff.

  “Will it know about the clear bridge?” I whispered.

  “Probably,” Brodin said. “Which means we need to go faster.”

  “On it,” I said. “But ahead is down.”

  “Brace your hands in front of you to slow your fall. We don’t know what’s at the bottom.”

  I gritted my teeth hard, making my jaw ache. “I’m about to find out.”

  Edging forward, I placed my palms on the curved slope and crept downward. I’d only gone short distance when I realized if I sat on my butt, I could use my heels to slow my fall.

  “Faster,” Kylie cried. “Shit. Shit. They’re on the bridge.”

  “How could they possible follow?” I muttered, inching along. If I didn’t fall, wasn’t stomped on or ripped to shreds, and assuming my heart didn’t give out, this was going to take forever.

  “I think they can see where to walk,” she said. “Shit. I’m in the back. They’ll get me first.”

  When my feet started to slide, taking my butt along with them, being attacked was the least of my worries. As if the incline had been coated in grease, I picked up speed. Fear rocketed through me, and I gulped, taking in the huge drop below me. I’d fall and no one would know where to find me. I’d be gone forever. My sister, my parents, and my grandfather would wonder, but they’d
never know.

  “Tria,” Brodin called out behind me. “Slow down!”

  “I want to. I can’t!” Sweat broke out across my skin, and my pulse thundered. Digging my palms into the sides of the slope, I tried to slow my speed, but all I got from my effort were grooves in my hand that stung and bled.

  I flopped my legs over the side as I hit a bump and was projected into the air. Landing hard, my spine jolted, and my teeth snapped together. I cried out in pain. With my hands on fire, and my back spasming, I did all I could to break my pace, but momentum had grabbed onto me and was yanking me toward something I couldn’t control.

  The bridge leveled out, and my body came to a halt. Leaning forward, I pressed my forehead against the cold surface. My heart thudded louder than a jet engine, and I couldn’t catch my breath.

  Brodin caught up and put his arms around me, leaning over me, pulling me up to hold me secure. His warmth and comfort surrounded me, but it couldn’t break through the chills wracking my frame. “It’s okay. It’s over.”

  “It’s not over,” I shrieked, waving my hand toward the long stretch we still had to cross. While it might only be a few thousand feet, it felt like a thousand miles. “It’s useless. Crawling is stupid.”

  “It’s not.”

  “We can’t do it.” Peering past him, I gulped as the three beasts carefully made their way behind us. Why didn’t they leap, grab us, and rip us to shreds?

  “I think their sole purpose is to drive us forward,” Brodin said near my ear, soft and low enough only I could hear.

  “Why?”

  He shrugged and squinted over his shoulder. “I imagine we’ll eventually find out.”

  “I hate this,” I said, my voice breaking. “I want to go home. I want this to end. How can I keep trying, over and over, when it seems that each time I get close, Bixby throws another roadblock in front of me?”

  “I’m here with you, and we’re gonna do it together. We can do it. We can get you home. And we can defeat Bixby.”

  I shuddered and leaned back into his embrace. “Damn you.”

  He snorted. “I’m right, though, and you know it.”

  “Yeah.” Turning my head, I tried to kiss him, but couldn’t reach.

  “We’ve got to keep going,” he said. “As nice as it is hanging out with you here, enjoying the view.”

  “We’re ants. Tiny things that mean nothing when compared to this vast world around us.”

  “Then we have to shout loud enough to be heard,” he said.

  “How?”

  “By winning.” Creases filled his face. “By never giving up. And by sticking with each other no matter what.”

  “Including her?” I asked, meaning Kylie.

  “I guess. We really won’t know except…if we don’t include her, worse things might happen.”

  “Can it get much worse?”

  His solemn gaze met mine. “It can, unfortunately.”

  If one of us lost. My breath whooshed out of me. “Okay. I’ll keep going.”

  “Knew you could do it.”

  “For now.”

  He reached forward and squeezed my hand. “For always.”

  I grumbled, but he was right. If I couldn’t do it for myself, I could do it for him. For Jacey and Rohnan. For my sister and the rest of my family.

  Even—a teeny, tiny bit—for Kylie.

  The dark blue lion creatures drove us forward, growling when we slowed but never coming close enough to claw. They watched. Their beady eyes focused on our every movement. Would my last moment be filled with their teeth ripping through my spine?

  Yet…when my gaze met that of the lead beast… I shook my head. It was silly to think I saw something familiar there. These creatures were trapped in the game with us. We each had our separate jobs. Ours was to survive to reach the end and theirs was to ensure we stayed on course. Or to eat us. It was still up for debate.

  Kylie sobbed until we let her go ahead of us, which entailed her climbing over me and Brodin. Once she settled in front of me, she sobbed, because being the pathfinder wasn’t any easier than holding back the beasts. She found her own mini hill and slid down, jarring at the bottom. We inched along with our legs dangling over the sides.

  “I can’t,” she whispered. “I know you don’t want to hear that, because you hate me and want me to fall.”

  “Actually, I don’t.” I wouldn’t wish that death on anyone. Sure, she did a horrible thing, but as far as I could tell, it hadn’t been self-serving. Being in a similar position gave me understanding.

  “You can do it,” I found myself saying. I might not like her, and I might believe she deserved to take the blame for her actions, but I could feel pity. And with that emotion, I could find compassion. “Not much farther.” I said it at least a hundred times as we inched our way above the huge valley.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “You’ve said that already.”

  “I don’t expect you to forgive me or to forget or hell, even to like me ever again, but I need to say it. Maybe one of these times it’ll sink in. Because it’s true. If I could’ve found a way out of delivering the dragons, I would have. You would have.”

  “I would not. I have a way out, but I’m choosing not to take it.”

  She shot me a dry look. “Would you choose not to take it if it meant your sister would die?”

  “I’m trying to avoid that.”

  “Ah.” She nodded. “So, they got to you, too? They’re very good at manipulating everyone around them to get what they need.”

  “This wasn’t Bixby.”

  She shrugged. “Someone else, then. Hardly matters. It’s someone more powerful than you who’s using you to fill their need at our expense.”

  “Yeah, but we’re not the same.”

  Her lips thinned, and she paused before speaking. “Not yet. Give it time.”

  Kylie was wrong, and I fumed at her accusation. I would never consider killing Brodin. Not to save my sister and not to save myself. It wasn’t a trade of one life for another.

  I was going to save everyone.

  We moved closer to the cliff until it was only a hundred or so feet away. So close. I began to believe we were going to make it.

  The beasts kept pace, driving us forward but never reaching out to bite, though they could if they chose. We crawled.

  Kylie shimmied her way up a small hill and started gliding down the other side.

  I followed.

  She shot into the air but instead of landing on the bridge again, she tumbled toward the ground.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I leaped forward and jarred my chest on the rock-like surface. My hand scrambled along her arm as she fell, but I snagged her wrist and held on.

  Someone grunted behind me, but I didn’t stop to look. I had to keep Kylie from falling.

  My breathing wheezed in my throat, and my head pounded as the stress of the situation slammed against my brain like a hammer.

  “Let me go,” she hissed.

  Was she kidding? Her sharp gaze met mine, and I could see she wasn’t.

  “You don’t want to die,” I stuttered out.

  “Don’t I?”

  “You didn’t do this on purpose,” I said, realizing as soon as I said it that of course she hadn’t. She couldn’t see where we were going any more than Brodin and I could. She wouldn’t have known the bridge ended.

  “Do it,” she said. “Let go of me. It will be easy, and it’ll make things simpler for you.” Her gaze dropped to the ground, and couldn’t hold back her wince. “Looks like the drop will kill me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m done.” Pain leaked into her voice. “I can’t do anything right. The only friends I have hate me. And this way, Bixby can’t use me any longer. She can’t make me hurt the people I love.”

  “Do you mean your true one?” The person she’s been waiting her entire nymph life to find. As Akimi, she said she hoped that person could be found inside the c
atacombs.

  “There is no true one. It was a lie.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Her gaze met mine. “Don’t you know?”

  “I don’t. How can I?”

  She sighed, and her face closed off.

  “Is Bixby using you now?” Brodin asked, moving up behind me. His legs straddled mine, and he grabbed her arm, adding his strength to help hold Kylie.

  “Not…in this,” she said through gritted teeth. Cords stood out on her neck, and her arm trembled. “I hate this. Hate being the villain when she’s the one we should be fighting. Not each other.”

  “We are fighting her,” I said, but my words came out weak, because she was right. I focused my anger on Kylie, because I couldn’t do anything about my hatred for the Master Seeker and Bixby, or for my situation in general. Stress about my sister and the tight timeframe was eating me alive.

  “See?” she said as if she could read my thoughts on my face. Maybe she could. I’ve never been a good card player. I wasn’t a deceitful person; I preferred to be direct. There has never been a reason to school my expressions.

  “I’m not letting you go,” I said.

  “Do it unless you’re willing to let me back on the team, even if I’m considered the…I guess you could call it the weakest link in the chain connecting us. The chain wrapped around our wrists by Bixby.”

  And the Master Seeker. The weight of the blood bond manacles he secured on my body dragged me down. They’ve influenced everything I’ve done since making the vow.

  Maybe it was time to break free. I couldn’t end the blood bond, but that didn’t mean I had to blindly obey each trap’s rules.

  I just needed to figure out how we’d do it. And…we needed Kylie, maybe as more than the weak, fifth team member.

  As for her being Akimi or someone else, I’d watch and deal with it as we progressed through the course.

  “You can come back onto the team,” I said, and the joy on her face made me cringe, because this wasn’t a wholehearted welcome on my part. “On a…”

  “Trial basis. I get it.” Her lips thinned. “But I’ll take it.” The hint of a smile rose on her face as her gaze went from me to Brodin and back. “How about hauling me back up onto the bridge? We’ve got a game to figure out.” Her attention drifted to the beasts who had stopped and watched us. “We need to get ahead of them. Somehow.”