Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
“Well, let’s go.” Rynthea hikes her rucksack higher on her shoulders and starts the march forward, entering the crater. This time, Thane hands the sphere to me.
“You good holding on to it?”
“Sure.” I cradle it in my hands, following him down the steep hill.
“Careful,” Thane calls to me over his shoulder. “Watch your footing.”
“Okay.” I walk slowly, digging the heels of my boots into the dirt with each step to keep myself grounded. I hold the sphere close to my chest, my pulse thrumming, hope swelling in my chest. The hill levels out the farther down we go, but then I make the foolish mistake of looking up to see how close we are to the temple and my foot slips. I let out a sharp gasp and fall on one knee before completely rolling downhill.
“Zaira!” Thane shouts. I try to stop myself by digging my fingers into the dirt, but with every roll, my efforts to stop myself become more useless. I’m falling too hard, too fast. My head hits the ground several times. I hear a loud crack and squeeze my eyes shut. Then a hot, familiar grip wraps around the upper half of my body and brings me to an abrupt stop.
Groaning, I lie on the ground for a second, staring up at the hazy, milk-gray sky. I wait for the pain to flood my body…but nothing comes. That crack must have been a broken bone, right?
Seconds later, Thane and Rynthea are hovering above me.
“Are you okay?” Rynthea reaches for my hand with concern etched on her face.
“I… Yeah. I think so.” She lugs me up, and I stumble a bit. Thane presses his hand to the small of my back to keep me steady.
“Zaira?” Algar pants as he runs to meet up with us. “Thank Orvena Thane stopped your fall in time.”
“I’m okay, everyone. Really.”
“Does anything feel broken?” Thane asks, gently touching a knot on my forehead. I wince from the pressure.
“I don’t think so.” I give my arms a shake. My ribs don’t hurt. My legs seem stable. Nothing feels broken.
“You’re bleeding.” Rynthea takes off her rucksack and digs through it. She pulls out a clean white cloth and wipes my cheek with it. It stings, but I swallow the pain. Sighing, Rynthea hands the cloth to me. I wipe my cheek again, but that’s when I see it.
My heart drops to my stomach.
The sphere, now at my feet, isn’t glowing anymore.
A big crack snakes through it. Panicked, I bend down to pick it up.
“No.” I rub it four times and give the command drusako like Frevella instructed. We should still have some time left. “No, come on. Please,” I plead. “We’re so close!”
I look up at Thane, who is staring at the sphere, jaw locked.
“Gods damn it.” Rynthea huffs as Algar throws his hands to the top of his head with a panicked look in his eyes.
“I—I’m so sorry!” I cry. “This is all my fault.”
“No, it’s not.” Thane closes his eyes for a split second, exhaling before opening them again. “It’s mine. I handed you the sphere. I should’ve held on to it.”
“But I fell with it. I heard it crack.” I swallow to clear the emotion building up in my throat. We’re too damn close to the temple for me to cry now.
“It’s fine,” Rynthea assures us, holding her hands up and eyeing each of us, as if she’s taming children. “The temple shouldn’t be too far away. We can get there, take what we need, and go back the way we came to reach the shore. We’ll be fine. Let’s not lose hope now.”
“We won’t know which way to go or what’s coming for us,” I say, voice wavering.
“I’ll hear and smell anything before it attacks.” Rynthea straightens her back, but her words don’t fill me with much hope. We don’t know what’s ahead or which parts of the jungle to avoid. Rynthea scoffs. “We’ve made it for days across half of Thelanor without a magical sphere. What’s a few more steps?” She gestures to the bottom of the valley. “And we can see the temple. It can’t be that far away now. We can do this.”
No one speaks, but we don’t have to in order to read one another’s minds. Without the sphere to guide us, there is an even slimmer chance of making it through the rest of this jungle alive.
Thane clears his throat. “The minotaur is right.” Rynthea rolls her eyes at him, but he continues. “We have to press on. We’ll keep our ears up and our weapons close. We’ll take it slow. There’s still plenty of time to get what we need and make it back to the ship.”
Not if we’re attacked again, I think.
Thane takes the sphere from me and tucks it into his pocket.
“We press on,” he repeats, looking into my eyes. “For Analla.”