Crown of Crimson (Underworld Gods 2)

“Can you do anything, Rasmus?” I ask him.

He grows tense beneath my grip. “I’m trying. It takes a lot of concentration and…”

And I’m pretty sure his storm isn’t a match for what Death can produce on sheer emotion alone. Then again, Rasmus has surprised me so far.

Hold on, Alku says.

I tighten my grip and we suddenly dive down toward the earth, until it looks like we’re going to smash into the desert-like land. Then the unicorn veers suddenly and the ground gives way to a gaping gorge, a rushing black river hundreds of feet below.

“Oh fuck, the Gorge of Despair,” Rasmus says. “We’ll be sitting ducks in there.”

Does he have a better idea? Alku asks snidely as we dive deeper and deeper into the narrow canyon, leveling out just a few feet above the water. The rapids here are frothing, the water so dark that I get this awful feeling I’m staring into space, an abyss of nothing, or perhaps an entrance to an even worse world.

At least down here, we aren’t lightning rods, Alku adds. It flaps its wings, causing the water to ripple as we soar over it.

I glance up at the sky, just a narrow slot of darkness now high above the canyon walls. We’re going further into the storm but as long as we’re flying along the bottom of the gorge, we should be okay.

I should hope so, Alku says. If we can get as far as the Hiisi Forest without being hit by lightning, we can take shelter there. Wait it out.

“Wait it out? For how long?”

Until the storm subsides.

“But Death is causing the storm. What if he’s angry forever?”

Alku doesn’t respond to that.

“This is because of Death,” Rasmus comments gruffly. “Should have figured. Looks like you really did a number on him Hanna.”

“You’re the one who stole his bride right before his wedding!” I point out. “You think he wouldn’t be pissed?”

“Again, I rescued you. I saved you. I didn’t steal you. You came with me completely on your own accord. Perhaps it’s your own fault that Death is that worked up. What did you do, make the God fall in love with you?”

I snort. “If by love, you mean go from wanting to kill and torture me to not wanting to kill and torture me as much, then yes.”

No way in hell am I mentioning anything else. Rasmus doesn’t have to know just how close I willingly got to Death. My mind starts to go back to the last time we had sex, but I have to stop myself from getting too deep because the last thing I need is for Alku to pick up on that too.

“Look,” I say to the both of them. “I’m all for hiding out from the storm, but I need to get back to my father. Each moment I’m here and he’s in the Upper World, he’s vulnerable. As am I.”

You’re going to have to take things as they come, dear, Alku says. I’m not making any promises that we’ll even get out of this alive.

Great.

Even with Alku going insanely fast, it still feels like hours pass until the walls of the gorge begin to lower and trees appear in the distance, their crowns whipped by the wind. The river gets wider, the rapids calming, and then Alku is flying to the right, shooting into the forest. We go until its giant wings can’t navigate around the cedars and narrow brush and we come to a sudden stop.

The movement throws both Rasmus and I off the unicorn’s back and we go flying through the air, landing in a heap on the mossy ground.

I’m winded and barely able to catch my breath as Rasmus grabs my arm and tries to haul me to my feet. Though the trees are providing some protection from the storm, branches are falling down around us, the wind tearing through violently, and the air smells like an electrical burn.

“We need to take shelter,” Rasmus yells over the din and leads me over to a fallen cedar that must be ten feet in diameter and a hundred feet long. The upturned roots curve over like an arch, providing some protection, and he pulls me down so we’re sitting tucked away into the tree, as if we’re sheltering at the mouth of a cave.

“Wait a minute,” I cry out, searching the forest. “Where’s Alku?”

One minute the unicorn was depositing us here, the next it’s gone. We’re completely alone in the forest.

“Maybe it was tired of doing me a favor,” Rasmus mumbles. “At least it got us this far.”

I glance at Rasmus, seeing his face for the first time since I left Shadow’s End. He looks older somehow, his cheekbones more prominent, and there’s something about his face that stirs something in me, some vague recognition, not of him but of someone else. He also looks wired, his eyes shining. The adrenaline must be pouring through him.