Elizabeth white's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

The doors sealed the hunters behind them. Elizabeth stood in the dark tunnel, breathing hard. She still held the golden rose and the small journal against her chest. But relief did not come. She had escaped her cabin, her only home. Now she had nowhere safe to sit and plan her claim. "We can't stop here," Ember said. "The tunnel branches ahead. One path goes nowhere good." The wolf loped forward, then froze. Its blue eyes fixed on a fork in the stone. To the left, plain rock. To the right, a black path. Purple light glowed from cracked stones. Twisting shadows crawled along its edges. Far up the dark path stood the shape of an ice castle, spires sharp as teeth. "That leads to the old queen's seat," Ember said. His grin was gone. "Nobody walks that road anymore. It's cursed." Elizabeth stepped toward the dark path. The rose in her hand warmed and glowed brighter. It pulled her forward. "The rose answers to my blood," she said. "It's showing me the way to the throne." "It's showing you a trap," said a new voice. Elizabeth spun. A figure sat on a low ledge above the fork. She had blue-gray skin and long purple hair tied high. Her green dress spread across the stone. Red lips curved as she watched them. An ice troll, calm as if she had waited hours. "I felt the gate open," the troll said. "Both doors at once. I had to see the girl who did it." She rose and stepped down. "I am Rosalia. I keep these tunnels. And I know a hunted queen when one stumbles into mine." Elizabeth kept the knife close. "Are you friend or enemy?" "Neither yet." Rosalia looked at the dark path, then back. "That road kills the unready. But there is a chamber below, warm and hidden. No elf or shifter finds it. You could rest. You could plan." She tilted her head. "For a price." "What price?" "When you take the throne, remember the troll who sheltered you." Rosalia's smile widened. "My people were forgotten in the old war too." Ember touched Elizabeth's arm. "We don't know her." "We don't know anywhere," Elizabeth said. She had no cabin. She had no map. She had a rose that pointed at a cursed road she was not ready to walk. She looked at Rosalia. "Show me the chamber. If you lie, my wolf smells it." Rosalia laughed and turned toward the plain left path. "Then follow. Bring your fire-boy." Elizabeth followed her into the safe tunnel. The dark road glowed behind her, waiting. She had lost her home. Now she had a shelter, a bargain, and a third face bound to her claim. She opened the journal and wrote one line by the rose's gold light. A troll wants a place in my throne.