Queen of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms, #5)(59)
“Move back slowly, and go as far as you can, Aria. It cannot hear us. It hunts prey by tracking movement,” he warned. Rocks moved in front of us, which caused my head to turn slowly in the direction in which I’d heard the slide of rocks.
“What the hell is it?”
“It’s a wyrm,” he stated, as if I should know what the hell one was?
“What the hell is a wyrm?” I demanded through chattering teeth.
“If you don’t know, now isn’t the time for me to explain what is in the dark, damp cave with us.” I frowned as I strained my eyes, searching the darkness for the wyrm.
“Do you honestly expect me to trust you?” I challenged myself to keep my mind off not knowing what a wyrm could possibly be in this realm. I’d never heard of them, let alone anything that could hunt only by sound.
“I don’t care if you believe me or not, Aria.” His tone was clipped and sharp.
“Screw you and screw this,” I hissed as I began feeling behind me, only to place my hand on scales. “There is something behind us.”
“Not behind us. All around us,” he corrected. “You’re shaking.”
“Is now a bad time to tell you I’m claustrophobic?” I whispered through trembling lips. His snort was the only reply to my question. “What are we waiting for?”
“For the Karnavious brothers to figure out our current predicament and cause a distraction so we can escape without being ingested by the wyrm. You shouldn’t have run from me, princess. There are monsters in the forests that feed on our kind.”
My anger spiked at his insinuation that this was my fault. The balls of this bastard! “Did you honestly expect me to sit around and wait for you to murder me? Or do whatever it was you and those assholes intended?”
“It would’ve saved me from having to jump into a fucking cavern with a wyrm. There are things happening in this realm that you’re not aware of.”
“No shit? I totally didn’t catch that, Zyion!” After a moment, I actually asked what else, in case the coup wasn’t the worst shit happening. “Like what?” I protested emphatically, wondering if he was making up the wyrm to keep me pliant. It was clear that something was among us, but its nature was yet to be determined.
“That was your eldest brother Vane who attacked you today.” Pausing, I turned, feeling a twinge of regret that I wouldn’t be bonding with him after all. “What is actually worrisome, is that he knew how to bring you down and nullify your magic. According to my sources, he intended to stab you through the heart, then set you on fire to prove to the people in front of his father, and those gathered at the training field, that you’re not a Prometheus. If he’d succeeded, we’re uncertain your beast would survive the attack, or even rise. You’re not connected to your inner beast. I improvised with what I had in order to prevent Vane from succeeding.”
“Why does everyone want to kill me?” I asked irritably.
“You really can’t whisper worth shit, can you?” His question forced my eyes to roll.
“And them attacking Griffon?”
“The coup wasn’t in their plans until Hagen learned of the assassination plan. He wants the throne, and there’s nothing he won’t do to achieve his goal.”
“And your plan to save me was to have me kidnapped by dragons?”
“I did whatever the fuck I had to do to ensure you lived. If that makes me your villain, so fucking be it,” he growled as something slammed against the ground above us. The creature currently surrounding us shot into the air so rapidly that my mind didn’t process what had happened until Zyion’s arm wrapped around me and he jerked me back against the heat of his body.
“What are you doing?” I squeaked.
“You’re fucking trembling because you’re freezing. The temperature is about to drop without the wyrm’s body heat inside this cavern, and there’s no way we can climb out of the hole you got us into. That means we’re going through the tunnels to escape from it. Now, I’m going to need you to stop asking questions and fucking move. They can’t beat the bastard, which means we have moments to escape before he returns.”
“I’ll be fine once we leave this cavern. Let’s go.” The cold was unnerving, but so was the irritable prick behind me.
“Stay close to me, and if you hear anything moving? You need to freeze in place immediately.” Zyion turned away from me—or, I assumed that was what he did. Discerning anything was impossible in the pitch-black darkness we were trapped in. “We’re not dying here, princess. Understand? Few things can kill a phoenix, but wyrms happen to be on that very short list.” I seized the tunic he wore with a tight grasp. “Oh, look at you, good girl, you can listen,” he murmured with sarcasm dripping from his tone
“Don’t say that to me,” I grumbled irritably.
“Why? Is that what your dragon calls you when you’re beneath him?” he queried. His tone implied he knew what Knox said to me during our turbulent bouts together.
I chose to ignore him as we crept sideways through the damp tunnel. Scraping sounded behind us, which forced me to freeze in place. Warm air shot from whatever was in front of us, blasting into our faces. The horrific scent of it combined with the heated breath drifting over my back had my gag reflex kicking into overdrive. My fingers remained locked onto Zyion’s back, twisting his tunic as fear rocketed through my mind and forced a soft whimper from my throat. This was how I died. I felt the gravity of it in my bones.