My slippers splashed in what I assumed was waste water. “Oh, my dress.” I groaned. It really had been so pretty.
“That’s the least of your concerns right now,” Penn said. “Rumor has it, fire lizards frequent these sewers.”
Right. Because no part of this could be easy.
“So keep an eye out,” Penn said.
We fell into silence as we made our way through the sewers, Penn scouting up ahead.
“Thanks for coming for us,” Shadow said. “Penn didn’t think you would.”
That stung, though it shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t care what the thief thought of me.
“Well, Penn thinks a lot of terrible things about me.”
“He doesn’t, you know.” She let out a soft laugh. “You bring out a side of him none of us have seen before, a playful side.”
My eyes bugged out of my head. “Playful?” I pointed ahead of us, even though Shadow couldn’t see me in the dark. “You call that playful?”
“You should’ve seen him before you arrived in Mosswood Forest,” Shadow said. “Wayfinder almost fainted on the spot when Penn asked you to dance at the festival.”
“Whatever the reason for the change in Penn, I can assure you, it had nothing to do with me.”
I felt Shadow’s hand on my shoulder, and she squeezed it. “You saved our lives. I owe you one.”
“Hurry up!” Penn shouted from far ahead, and we quickened our pace.
I wondered how long it would take the guards to sort out the mess we’d caused.
My insides twisted at what I’d done, setting all those criminals free, and once again, I wondered if this was another reason why I didn’t deserve to be queen.
I hit a hard wall of muscle and realized I’d run into Penn’s back.
“Why are we stopping?” I whispered, then felt something slither against my foot.
Oh, blood and earth. It never ended. Ever since I’d gotten kidnapped by the king of thieves, my life was one chaotic event after another.
“Did you feel that?” Penn asked over his shoulder.
I nodded, then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yes.”
Shadow sighed. “I don’t know if I can summon any more magic. I had a hard enough time fighting those guards. We’re tired. We’ve had no food and very little water, and Penn is still injured.”
A bright light filled the sewer, and I looked down to see brown water floating around my feet. Bile once again rose to my throat. My gaze trailed to the light in front of us, fire blazing from a lizard the size of my hand.
“It’s doesn’t look so bad,” I said.
Jasper had always warned me about fire lizards and how dangerous they were, but it actually looked kind of cute.
It hissed, and a fireball flew from its mouth toward my skirt, setting it ablaze. I shrieked and Penn used his hands to snuff it out before it could spread.
Never mind. Definitely not cute.
One by one, bright balls of light flickered on, little fires everywhere, until I realized we were surrounded by the creatures.
“You didn’t say the sewers were infested with these things,” I whispered behind me to Penn.
Shadow stepped forward, her knees bent as if she were ready for a fight. But I didn’t even know how you began to fight these things. Their flames flickered bright over their bodies despite the fact that they stood in water.
