Facing the Fae [BOOK TWO]

Chapter 13

She didn't think, only acting on instinct fuelled by pure terror.

She turned and ran the other way. Only, in her haste and blurred fright, she forget she was trying to run up a set of stairs—extremely steep, metal stairs. Not only that, but she was in near darkness.

So, it shouldn't have come as a surprise when she tripped. Nevertheless, as she started sailing backwards, fumbling to get a grip on something that would stop the fall, she choked on a scream, her voice broken by the air whooshing out of her lungs. Each step felt like a dagger in her back, the pain crippling.

She was falling... flailing...

Until she stopped.

The wind was knocked out of her, as all the momentum came to cease. Surely, she'd broken a rib during the fall. Gasping, she tried to wheeze a normal breath. It was near impossible.

Breathe, she told herself. Breathe. In. Out.

Though she felt like an idiot for talking to herself, she kept repeating it—because it was working. Slowly but surely, she found she was able to breathe again. Drawing a hand to her racing heart, she risked a glance around.

No visibility. Everything around her was dark.

Now she had a new reason to panic. She'd fallen... she didn't even know how long. She didn't know how the find the stairs, let alone get back up them to the door. And she was trapped, in complete darkness... with a dragon.

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

Except, try as she might, it wasn't working. The pain of falling was forgotten as she fought down terror that threatened to suffocate her.

Stuck. A dragon. A fire-breathing, man-eating dragon. In the dark.

She should be trying to find an escape, she knew that. Except hindsight was twenty/twenty. Fear had frozen her completely—she was helpless.

Abruptly, an odd sense of peace fell over her. She was going to die down here, there was no other way this was going to pan out. No one was going to hear her cries for help. Oddly though, she found she was fine with that.

Besides, death by dragon. A year ago, she'd have laughed at the idea, calling it preposterous. At least in the afterlife she'd have a story to tell.

Laughing dryly, she crawled up to her hands and knees.

Only to regret it.

She'd definitely broken a rib. Or a couple.

Nevertheless, she tried her best to ignore the pain as best as she could, standing slowly. It was a struggle but she managed—

Behind her, she heard a snort, the sound akin to rumble of a volcano. Like the whinny of a mare, only as vicious as thunder. Rebecca froze. It felt as though a gust of air went right by her. A wave of smouldering heat followed. Her skin broke out in goose bumps despite the burning sensation.

Right behind her—that's where it was coming from. How close was it to her? More worrying, how many of them were hidden?

The rattle of chains was as loud as an explosion. Over and over, they hit the ground. In the darkness, everything seemed to echo and it felt like a circle of clangs forming around her, she felt trapped. If she didn't move they'd bury her.