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The force behind the action caused the creature to release him. She staggered backward several paces, wings flapping, her mouth opening with a wide scream?—

Malakai barely managed to plug his ears on time. The sound was so fucking loud, it almost made him pass out. Made him scream in return, eyes burning and watering.

Travis was doing the same.

Alfie, however?—

That poor bastard wasn’t so lucky. The scream had caused him to faint, his head smacking against the floor.

The Harpy lunged for Malakai, and he dipped to the side right on time—so close, her wing swept across his back.

“Come on, man!” Travis shouted. He was at the door, waving an arm. Malakai felt dazed—distant, as if he were dreaming. “Let’s go! We have to run!”

Malakai pressed a hand against the blood gushing from his neck?—

And as the walls began to shimmer around him, the floor beneath him rotating as if he were trapped inside a kaleidoscope, he realized that those talons?—

The Harpy’s talons had poisoned him.

“Come on, man!”Travis shouted at Malakai. “Let’s go! We have to run!”

Finally, Malakai snapped the hell out of it—what waswrongwith him?—and moved.

They bolted, Travis twisting mid-run to launch his daggers at the Harpy. One hit the creature in the knee. The other thudded into her chest. But?—

Holy shit. She didn’t evenflinch.

Yeah, running was a good plan.

They sprinted down the hallway, their breaths sawing through the air, boots clapping on cement.

Behind them, the Harpy tore out of the room. With a piercing hunting call, she barreled toward them.

And Travis realized?—

They’d gone the wrong way! Shit. This was not the way out!

Together, they screeched to a halt, boots sliding across the floor. There was no way to get back to the exit—not without facing the Harpy.

“Got any bright ideas?” Travis panted.

But Malakai had nothing smart to say. He was pale and sweaty, and he suddenly sagged against the wall.

“Shit,” Travis breathed. “Okay—running it is!” He hauled Malakai against his side, draped the Reaper’s arm across his shoulders, and started running—into the hallway to his right.

The lights continued to flicker—faster now. As they ran, the hallway changed. Everything modern about it ended, and soon they were not running down a hallway, but a stone tunnel.

Up ahead, waiting to devour them, was a water pipe, the opening taller than both Travis and Malakai put together.

They ran into the pipe, boots clanging against the metal like a struck bell.

Travis looked over his shoulder?—

The Harpy was gaining on them.

He whipped back around?—

“Oh—whoa. Shit!” He slid to a stop and dug his heels in, his boots nearly going over the edge of the pipe that ended without warning. His arms screamed in protest as he supported Malakai’s weight, stopping him from tipping forward. The Reaper looked like he was going to pass out.