The moment we crossed it, a gust of wind slammed into us. The strength of it knocked me off balance. My feet slipped against the icy ground and I found myself falling into that crack, my mouth opening on a scream. As I started to fall, I couldn't help but think, not this again. As if being pushed off one of the castle's towers wasn't enough, now I was being blown down between two mountains, likely to be crushed the further down I went. Why did this stuff always happen to me? I couldn't even bring myself to scream properly. Instead, the sound caught in my throat and came out as a humiliating gurgle.
Two strong hands each grabbed a hold of my wrists and held. Unfortunately, though, the gloves I’d borrowed from someone else earlier that morning were caught up in their grasps as well. The momentum of my fall and the tightness of their fingers only managed to slip the gloves loose and I continued downward. One fucking disaster after another—it was the story of my life.
The princes exchanged a look as I slipped further into the trench. Then they shocked me by releasing their holds on the mountain. They dove after me at the same time. Mouth gaping. Eyes wide. A true scream found its way past my throat. What were they thinking? Now all of us were going to die!
The sharp sound of my surprise and terror echoed around the three of us long after I’d closed my lips again. My scream ricocheted up the trench’s walls as we fell.
Down.
Down.
And down some more.
Of course, neither of the guys screamed. They moved like arrows through the air, diving like it was a competition to see who got to me first. They didn’t peel their arms away from their sides until they managed to get within reach and then their limbs shot out, arms wrapping around me as the light dimmed around us and their bodies were all I could see or feel. And that was when we finally crashed into the top of a mass of trees.
Even as cushioned as I was by Roan and Orion’s bodies, as a unit, the three of us slammed into branch after branch. Every instance jarred me and, at one point, I felt a branch slap me in the side of the head. I saw stars dancing before my eyes as we descended into the maddening, painful brush. Roan and Orion held me tighter as they grunted, taking their fair share of hits as we came to a crashing halt onto the icy ground below the trees.
When I was sure we were stopped for good and it appeared that we were all still alive—I could feel their harsh breathing above my head—I opened my eyes. It was dark. Inky blackness spread out in every direction. With only slivers of actual light from above there to outline the two men wrapped around me. I pulled my head back slightly and sighed when I realized that as close as they were, I could still make out their features.
Roan opened his mouth on a low groan. My body—when I tried to move it—agreed with him completely. Nothing felt severely damaged, but I was going to be sore for a long time following this for sure.
"Are you guys okay?" I asked. I pushed up between them into a sitting position so I could get a better look around.
Roan cursed and I felt hands on me. “I’ll need a healing spell for this damnable pain in my back,” Roan admitted. “I think I landed on a fucking ice mound. Let me check you over first.”
I shoved his hands away and reached for him instead. “What’s wrong with your back?” I demanded, trying to roll him away from me so I could see. He winced as he sat up straighter. His eyes tracked my every movement as Orion did the same on my other side.
“I landed wrong. Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I’m sore,” I replied, “but I don’t think it’s anything more than bruising.”
He stared at me for a moment before he slowly got to his feet. Despite what he’d said about his back, I noticed that one hand was covering his side as well. I narrowed my gaze on that hand, wondering what he was hiding. “You’re sure?” he demanded as his eyes ran over me with a desperation I wasn't used to, as though the simple thought of me being injured was more than he could bear.
"You cushioned my fall," I said carefully.
"Not really.” Orion grunted as he shifted beside me and I turned immediately toward him to make sure he wasn’t hurt. “If anything, the trees did that, but we should have been going much faster considering how far we fell. We should be a lot more hurt than we are.”
“Speak for yourself,” Roan muttered.
I pivoted my head back, but before I could say anything, Orion grasped me about my hips and lifted me onto his lap, his breath hissing through his teeth as he moved, letting me know that he was injured somehow too. “I am,” he replied after a moment. “We should have broken bones.”
“I didn’t use magic, did you?” Roan asked.
Orion shook his head. “No. If I didn’t do it and you didn’t—that leaves Cress.” His eyes focused on my face mere inches from his. "Did you feel any magic move through you? Any kind of energy?"
“No.” I shook my head. I hadn’t felt anything but the wind as it’d rushed around us and in the crevices of space between our entangled limbs. “Now, what’s wrong with you?”
"Just a bruised rib, nothing to worry about. I'll be fine before we get to the Court of Frost, I promise," he replied, dropping a kiss on my forehead.
"Can't you heal it or something?" I kept my focus on him and when he blanched as I leaned too close, I decided to push off his lap. I got gingerly to my feet, testing out my legs and arms. Surprisingly, Orion was right—I truly didn’t feel any worse for wear despite the fall. Banging through the trees should have left me with more wounds, shouldn’t it have?
“I could,” Orion replied, answering my question about healing. “But we’re still in the pass, technically. Any magic I use will be at less than half the potency and it’ll leave me dangerously low otherwise. We’re not safe here.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that I didn’t care. He needed to be healed. I didn’t like seeing him in pain. I didn’t like seeing either of them in pain. Before I could get a word out, however, Roan reached out and grabbed my arm. “We need to move,” he said, his voice dipping low as his head came up and he scanned the area. Orion got to his feet immediately, his eyes following the same path as Roan’s. I tried looking around as well, but beyond the nearest trees, I saw nothing but darkness.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “I don’t see anything.”
"The forest has its own dangers," Orion warned quietly. His arm, too, came out and latched onto the arm opposite the one that Roan had. “He’s right, we need to move.”
“Won’t the others notice that we’ve fallen?” I asked. “If we stay put, shouldn’t it be easier to find us?” If they wanted to find us, a dark thought intruded. I was sure Ariana and Sorrell would be happy to be rid of me, but they would surely come for Roan and Orion, right?
Roan shook his head in response to my verbal question. “It's either freeze to death out here while we figure out where we are, or we can set up camp for the night and see where we are in the morning once this storm has passed. It shouldn't be too much further to the castle, but if we get turned around, we could be walking in the wrong direction, and in this weather, getting lost is not something you want to do."