Across the Winter Sea: a Clean Adventure Fantasy: The Fearless Saga Book 2 by Cowan Kate

Author:Cowan, Kate
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ogawa Ink
Published: 2023-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

The cave loomed like a mouth yawning open, a shadow cut into the flat, rocky face of the mountain. The open land between the safety of trees and the cavern felt insurmountable—a dangerous no-man's land.

Shen and I stood in the shadows of the trees, watching it.

"That's it."

Shen gave me a look. "You went inside?"

I rolled my eyes. "No. I just... Know. I can feel it."

"So can I," Shen muttered, but he was hesitant. The pull of the Pool was impossible to deny. It called to me, and a need as deep as the blood in my veins was trying to answer. I wasn’t sure how I’d torn myself away from this feeling before.

Shen stretched, flexing his arms and rolling his neck.

He gave me a look, and then he vanished.

In a plume of dark smoke, he was just gone. My mouth dropped open in shock.

"I—Shen?" I gasped, dumbfounded. "What the —"

He reappeared before me, smiling. "Gods, I’ve missed this."

"You missed—what the hell was that?"

"Speed, Aerona."

"You ran that fast?"

He laughed quietly. "Yes. Watch."

He vanished again, this time reappearing up the tree, crouching in the branches. "It’s handy for killing demons," he noted, dropping back to the ground beside me. "They’re fast, you know. Very fast."

"You’re superhuman again," I mused. "So we don’t need to worry about the demons inside."

"Not quite. This Pool must be small or weakened by the other Pools being cut off; I don’t feel like I’m at full power. We should still be careful."

We both looked toward the cave, waiting to see if anything moved.

When nothing did, we exchanged a glance and made a silent agreement.

In unison, we unsheathed our weapons: my twin swords, and his two daggers. Side by side, Shen positioned himself at the front—I couldn’t even argue with superhuman strength—and we walked toward the cavern.

"So how did you find this place?" Shen asked quietly as we paused at the mouth of the cave.

"I tracked one of the demi-demon's trails’ here."

We stepped inside, our footfalls beginning to echo on the rocky floor.

"It could have killed you."

"But it didn’t, did it?"

With a sigh and a shake of his head, Shen didn't reply. We searched on, passing heaps of bones, scraps of material, an animal skull, and something that looked like a nest of twigs and dirt tucked into a corner.

"It was weird, though," I muttered, mostly just wanting to fill the eerie silence of the cave. "At one point, the demi-demon tried to attack me. I had climbed this tree to get away, and it was like it looked at me and decided... I don’t know what."

Halting in his tracks, Shen stared at me. "What?"

"Yeah. Weird, right? It was almost like I willed it not to see me."

Brow furrowed, I glanced back to see Shen looking at me like I'd grown a third eye. I didn’t blame him; I did sound insane.

I ignored him, turning my attention back to the echoing, massive cave around us and the secrets its shadows held.

Something glinted in the corner of my eye, flashing silver.

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