Page 30

The shadowy, monstrous horror that is warping Dimitar’s human body dissolves, and I fall back into my physical body. I’m not sure if it’s a better alternative. My scar from where Dimitar’s claws nearly ripped me in half burns. It’s tearing me apart inch by inch, my skin stretching and popping open. Blood pours down my exposed chest in alarming waves.

The pain. It’s too much. It tries to suck me under again. Shadows wrap around my mind, trying to bring me back to that horrible memory. But I can’t. Tori is calling me. She needs me.

Monument Park takes form in between flashes of horror. Alasdair looks away from me, his chest pumping as he beholds Astoria’s statue. His hand is no longer on my neck and instead swirls in a fine black mist that billows around him. He breathes it in with a wet, clicking sound.

I seize the window of opportunity. My threads coil under me, and I launch myself through the air away from him. Threads erupt from my rings to weave an orb around me. I slam into the ground and burrow deep into the earth, my threads acting like digging claws. The darkness swallows me, and I go down, down, down into the safety of darkness.

My chest heaves, but I need to slow my breathing fast. I only have so much air. My teeth clack when I snap my jaw shut and attempt to force myself to breathe through my nose. But it’s useless. My breath explodes out of my mouth and I collapse in the soft glow of my rings’ magic.

My stomach twists, and pain pricks in the back of my throat. Tori is up there. She was screaming for me, and I left her. That monster was feeding on her, and I took advantage of it to get free. I need to go back. I need to free her. But how? Getting caught will just give that monster more ammunition against her.

My mind races, and I send my threads out to scour the surrounding earth for anything that could help. There’s nothing but bones, partially rotted cursed bodies, and dirt all around. Nothing can help me. I’m trapped underground with no plan, no backup, and no Tori.

Cold sweat slicks me, and my chest struggles to intake air. I’m going to be buried alive. I’m going to die. I’m going to fail Tori. My heart… my heart…

My gold threads fade away and darkness swallows me whole. A great weight crushes me, and I sink down deeper and deeper…

The darkness changes, the weight lifting. I’m floating, the pain of existence drifting away. A light ahead flickers, calling to me. I glide closer, the light growing until it begins to take form. A body. I reach for it, my bare fingers splayed. Warmth floods me. Tori. She’s lying on the soft, dark ground, her coppery hair fanned around her. Her skin glows like the face of the moon.

But there’s something wrong. Her body is twisted oddly, her chest ripped open to reveal her pumping heart and inflating lungs. Her cloudy green eyes land on me, and tears slide down my face. I stretch towards her. Tor…

My hand is stopped short by something invisible. Some sort of wall. I run my hands over it, trying to find a weakness, searching for an opening. My fingers curl around an edge. I reach my arm through the hole, stretching as much as I can. Tor!

She chokes on blood, and red rivulets pour from her eyes. Her fingers tremble but, slowly, she extends her hand to me. Her lips move, the sound of her voice delayed as if she’s eons away from me. Lucas…

With an agonized cry, she stretches her arm out, and our hands clasp. I pull, dragging her out inch by inch until she comes to an abrupt stop with only her head and one shoulder free.

Then I see it. The same tether I sensed before. It’s hooked around her ribs, keeping Tori where she is.

A shadow ripples from Tori’s chest. Like a snake, it slithers up her body to our joined hands. I gasp when it curls around my wrist, following the length of my arm. Then it’s gone, and two massive clawed paws land on either side of me.

A growl warps the space, my body rippling as if I’m made of water. Jaws appear from the darkness and stretch open above me. Teeth close around us, but the canines don’t puncture us, and the creature adds its tremendous strength to my efforts in pulling Astoria out of her invisible prison. My rings pulse in time with Tori’s exposed heart, and I claw along her body until I grip the slimy tether. I rip at it with all my strength, my rings growing brighter and brighter as I do.

The line frays with a bone-rattling screech, sludge burning from my hands in sickening tendrils of smoke. The hook releases with a hiss, the line withdrawing back into the hole. It’s like a cobra, coiled and weaving its wide head. It sways, as if waiting for a moment to sink into her once again, and I tighten around Tor, curling my body over hers protectively inside the jaws of the creature that seems to be helping.

The massive paws push off the wall, and we float away.

Tori shifts in my hold. I loosen my grip just enough to gaze down at her. Without the tether hooked into her, the milky white film over Tori’s green eyes fades, the light of her irises finally burning through. Her body convulses as she drags a finger through her bloody tears. With a steady hand, she draws an ancient rune on my exposed chest over my beating heart. The symbol pulses, sinking in until the image throbs within my skull.

The creature releases us from its jaws, and Tori strokes my face with the same aching tenderness after we made love last night. I love you, Lucas.

Pain tightens my chest as panic surges. You are not dying! My yell echoes in the darkness, taunting me.

Please, Lucas. Run…

Tori struggles to breathe, her eyes closing. Jinx’s familiar voice warps in my mind. I will keep her safe, but you have to go back.

I shake my head furiously. I won’t leave her!

You don’t have a choice.

Then something powerful collides with my heart, the force of it tearing Tori from my arms as I’m hurled away into the darkness.

My heart pulses, and I heave a mighty gasp as I return to consciousness. Dirt sucks into my lungs, and I wetly hack and choke. A low groan oozes out of me. The weight of the ground is near-crushing. I can’t bring my hand up to rub at my sore chest. Was that a dream?

My rings warm, and threads slither up my body to take the burden of the ground’s weight. I heave a sigh that turns into a cough. I spit to clear my mouth and only succeed in making mud that then smears across my face.

A quick check with my threads confirms that Alasdair hasn’t found me yet. Maybe there is still a god out there looking out for me. Or maybe it’s just Jinx. Bet she would love to be a god.