The blonde took her own hands off her ears, a sheepish smile on her face.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
I was about to thank the ancients that it had not been something worse than that, but then I heard the floor cracking beneath my feet.
I looked down. Suddenly, this seemed like the worst place on earth to be. A huge rift began to open in the snow and ice, and my body went numb to think of falling from here. Before I could run, the loud thud was back and the cracking sound amplified with it. I could not even hear myself scream over the sound. Before I knew it my lungs were in my throat and I was falling.
The only sound that filled my ears then was the sound of Rio, Kewyn and I screaming our heads off. A black cloak fluttered beside me, but I clamped my eyes shut. Though the kin was not making a sound out loud, I was sure that inside he was screaming louder than all of us put together.
I flinched as ice fell around me. It was only a matter of time until we hit bottom. I hoped to all the powers of the gods that I would not die here. Somehow, there had always been a way to survive – even if it meant swimming or battling an ugly beast. Why would this place be different than the others before it? There had to be something to save us from this freefall.
I tried to open my eyes again, but I shut them immediately. I was spinning too fast to see anything. All I could do is pray that I would land on my head and death would be swift.
As I finally resigned myself to a gruesome splatter death at the bottom of this insane tower, the familiar sensation of an arm wrapping around my middle made me open my eyes. Unfortunately, now all I could see was Levent’s shirt. Maybe that was a good thing.
I did not try to talk to him. I instead concentrated on the warmth of his chest against my cheek. The wind began to hit us even harder, and I tried my best not to be sick. This was it, it had to be. It felt like we were falling so fast.
“Look,” Levent said.
I opened my eyes in time to see us halted about two feet above the ground. The wind stopped and we fell, quite unharmed, to the ground below. The kin put me down, but I could not feel my legs. I promptly crumpled to the ground, wiping the tears from my face.