In order to save the world from eternal night, Red must find a way to unlock the dormant power of the Sun Goddess running through her veins without killing herself and everyone she loves.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
One by one, we were marched through the blistering snow and towards a jagged crack in the mountain.
Compared to the majestic retinue of Kirin, our party of four was a sorry sight. Rana and Sebastian had both slumped into their human forms, their hair mussed and snow-sodden, blood and dirt clinging to their armour in sticky patches. Gretchen and I fared slightly better, but we were evidently exhausted from the effort of healing everyone's wounds. My legs felt janky, like I was a puppet being dragged along by a cruel mistress, and the witch had to clasp her charred hands behind her back to keep them from shaking.
Sebastian lingered on the threshold of light and dark, a shudder rolling through his wiry frame as he tried to peer into the cave. I felt an echo of that foreboding as I recalled my last trip through the mountains, already wondering if I would ever see the sun again. Even so, I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight, hoping to reassure him with the unspoken lie that everything was going to be okay. His chin touched his shoulder, red eyes sliding towards mine, and my heart melted at the softening of his mouth as he fought fear and tried to smile back.
The lead Kirin planted its hoof in the middle of his back and shoved him inside. I cried out with indignant rage, rushing in after him. Sebastian dusted off his jacket with a scowl, rising to his full height, but when his gaze slid over me the violence in his eyes lost its edge.
"I'm fine," he muttered, glaring at the slate-grey beast. It snorted in response, a decidedly derisive sound, and shoved past him.
The distant sound of running water gurgled through the tunnel as we followed the sloping path. At first it felt warmer inside, being out of the snow long enough for our body heat to dry the clothes on our backs, but it didn't take long for a new, insidious cold to leech out from the rock, pressing down upon us with the phantom weight of the mountain overhead. I swallowed hard, the sound explosively loud in the dreadful quiet of shuffling limbs and shuddering breaths, unable to shake the sense that we were slowly being digested by a giant golem.
It wasn't until we reached a fork in the road, however, and they started to push all four of us down a different path, that I truly started to panic. Eddy sensed my distress and shoved her nose into my hand, looking up at me with eyes like fossilised amber.
Trust me, they seemed to say. And sure enough, we were all alive, though this wasn't the welcome party I'd been hoping for.
There was no mistaking that we were prisoners.
"We have to go alone," Gretchen said, her voice husky and strained. "I suspect we must pass some kind of test before we can enter their kingdom."
"Absolutely not," Rana hissed. "Bad things happen when we split up."
The Kirin behind us lowered their antlers, barring the exit. Rana bared her teeth, talons flicking free, and the Kirin made a low, threatening rumble. Sebastian surreptitiously reached into his jacket for a throwing knife.
