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Staring back in the direction I’d come, I took a moment to settle my ragged breathing into something more sustainable, and then I turned around to reassess my position.

“The High King.”

The creature’s breath hit my nose before my eyes registered its presence, barely an inch away from my face; rancid, hot breath, like a draught coming up from a sewer.

My heart skipped a beat, and I felt the blood draining from my cheeks as the air was pushed out of my lungs.

“Where is the High King?”

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t find the strength to answer it.

Humanoid in its warped and twisted form, the creature would have stood at my height were it not for the massive hunch in its back. Naked beneath a tattered black robe, it had large breasts, thick thighs and long-nailed hands honed down into claws. Colourless eyes bulged out of its head, without lashes, as it stared up at me like it was seeing into my soul and the secrets hiding out within it were confusing.

“Where is the High King?” it repeated, hissing through a small mouth without any visible teeth.

“I—I don’t know,” I stammered, fumbling for something—anything—in the pockets of my jeans. They were empty.Where did I lose my bag?

I sucked in a breath to scream, though I knew that no one would hear me.

Or care.

“Liar,” the creature seethed. “Little human liar. I must see the High King.”

At that point, I would have liked to have seen the High King, too.

“Why?” I asked innocently, a pathetic attempt to prolong my inevitable death at the hands of the foul thing. “What’s so urgent?”

“None of your concern.” It spat curdled raisin-coloured bile at my feet. “Tell me where he is, human, and I might let you live.”

“Okay.” I held my hands up in submission, though I doubted that the creature normally let its prey live long enough to recognise the gesture. “I’m looking for him too, so maybe we can go and find him together.”

The creature’s lips curved up into a smile that might have been a show of amusement, or perhaps the practice of stretchingits mouth out in order to fit my head inside it. “You don’t need to find him,” it whispered menacingly. “You need to tell me where he is.”

I shook my head, backing up a step. “I can’t tell you where he isuntilI find him. And,” I added, throwing caution to the wind with my attempt at bargaining for my life, “I’m probably better use to you alive so I have a chance of doing that. Before you eat me. Let’s find him first, and then you can eat me. Okay?”

The creature threw back its head and howled at the colourful sky.Laughter. A fit of absurdly menacing giggles.

I swallowed the ball of fear in my throat.Maybe if I can amuse it long enough…

“The High King must pay, one way or another,” it told me, shucking off its robe.

I noticed that its faintly purple skin was translucent in full light right as the creature lunged for my throat.

Panic seized control of my body. My natural-born instinct was to fight, which had never served me well in the past, but that was what forced my fist into the air with enough time to smack into the creature’s jaw before it closed around my throat.

Hissing and snarling, it swung back to me with its claws out, a razor-sharp barrier between my fists and any soft part of the creature’s body. I backed away, and it matched my movements. Claws extending towards me, the monster advanced, kicking up the dust on the road beneath its predatory steps as I contemplated turning around again and running for my life. It saw my hesitation as the thoughts churned over in my mind and sprang, knife-sharp nails slicing through the forearm I instinctively raised to protect my head.

The pain cut through my thoughts. Through my throat. Through everything.

My balance wavered as blood trickled down to my wrist, leaving me open and exposed for the next attack.

Lunging at me again, the creature tackled me to the ground face-first and landed on my back, blowing its hot and rancid breath right into my ear. Saliva drizzled down my cheek from its open mouth as it held me down against the dirt, claws around my neck, and jerked its head back to let out a triumphant, wolf-like cry before it killed me.

My soul left my body with a wild, final release of my breath.

Shrieking sounded in my ears—a high-pitched, tortured exclamation that shook the very ground beneath me—followed by an equally loud and very finalthud.

But I felt no impact.