Page 17

I gripped the sheets under my hands.

I was going to die.

Unlike when I’dinitially found him, he was so still, it was frightening. Since he was here, he must not be worried about me trying to kill him, probably because there was no way I’d be able to puncture his granite-like flesh. An inky shroud hovered beside him, no longer seeming a part of him as it did when he was awake.

I inched away from his massive body. He didn’t even twitch. His body stayed incredibly still, but it allowed me to finally get a good look at him. Where the feathering at the sides of his legs started near his knee, it trailed down until the little feathers covered the entirety of his flesh below the shin. Around mid-femur, his leg bent at an angle and stretched into a wide, elongated hoof instead of a foot.

I scanned the rest of his body, and he wasn’t as relaxed as I’d assumed. His limbs strained, almost to a point of pain, and hiswings twitched with tremors. It reminded me of an injured bird, incapable of flying but desperately trying to do so.

A smudge of sympathy infected my heart, and I clenched my hand, digging my nails into my palm. I scooted to the end of the bed and slid off, landing with a huff and a pinch in my ankle. I sympathized with the creature’s obvious pain, but I needed to find a way out of here. I slowly crept away from the ostentatious chamber, guided by the flickering flames atop the torches that never dimmed. A tug at my wrist made me hesitate for a beat, but I continued walking. The shadows flicked around me, whipping around my hair frantically, but I continued, ignoring the pulls and tugs.

“Stop.” I swatted at it.

I went left, down the hall, all the way to the end where darkness coated the hall so deeply that it seemed to be a part of the wall, but it was because there were no torches here.

The terrace in his room was much too high, and the one near the pool was on the same level. Maybe there was a way out on the lower level, in the room he’d originally left me in. I kept going, past the hall to enter the pool area, searching for the stairs.

I wasn’t sure how long I was running around for, but the path eventually spat me out at an inclined hall.

Light filtered in at the end, guiding my frantic steps. My heart pounded with violent pumps.

Sprinting toward the light was the exact opposite of what I’d heard my entire life. I huffed out a small laugh; I was going crazy. I clasped my crucifix to stop it from flopping around.

Reaching the light, I squinted and crossed the entryway to it, putting me at a different terrace. Shadows remained at the threshold, away from the light, writhing and pulsating like crazy.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. The shadows had helped me so much, and it was clear it—they, whatever it was, understood me. Once I reached the edge of the overhang, I looked down at thesteep fall. It was still high up, but nowhere near what the other drops were like. If I had any chance of escaping, this was my shot.

I licked my lips, nerves hollowing out my stomach. I squeezed the iron railing, and considered catapulting myself over the edge. There were some bushes against the side of the castle; if I angled toward them, they could break my fall . . . or my neck. I sighed and backed up, my foot snagging on a vine. I kicked it away and exposed the board it had covered.

I dropped to my knees, swiping my palm across the floor, nudging vines and weeds aside. Something creaked, and suddenly, the ground gave out from underneath me. I screamed, flailing.

Wood splintered with such suddenness that I didn’t have a moment to brace myself, and I held onto the edge of the board for dear life. My hair whipped around my face, making tears sting my eyes. I couldn’t think through the free-fall. In the next beat, I thumped onto a surface with a grunt, but the wood slid across brick.

I was going down a slant of the castle while on top of a slab of wood. The bumps and jostles wracked my body, making my stomach a mess of nerves. Squeezing my eyes tightly shut, I sucked in a final breath. This was it, I was going to die. I abruptly thumped to a sudden stop.

Wheezing breaths exploded from my throat, and I blinked to get rid of the tears blurring my sight. Raising my head, I scanned the ground, which was littered with dried leaves and debris. I let go of the plank and rolled onto my back. That was a close one; thank God I was okay. I panted, staring at the slope against the side of the castle leading all the way up to where I’d fallen from. It was so high up, how had I not gotten hurt?

The ground suddenly undulated as if it were breathing. I scrambled to my feet to stare at the dirt moving and shifting. Ahand suddenly exploded from the depths, and like from a cheesy horror flick, it started to claw at the ground, skin flaking off its limbs to the point that I could see bone and the rotted leftovers of its flesh. My stomach dropped to the floor, and I took off running. Leaves and dried, curved vines littered the ground.

My breaths sawed from exertion, and I slowed to a stop, placing my hand against a trunk. The icy surface was almost too much to handle, but I was running hot enough that I sucked it up. My breath plumed in front of my mouth.

Craning my neck, I could see the spot I’d run from wasn’t too far away.Are you fucking kidding me? It felt like I’d sprinted mile after mile.

I clasped my chest, heaving. Now, at this second, I regretted not being used to exercise.

A loud screech ripped my attention back to the rotted thing stumbling in my direction. It moved too fast. I gasped, pushing off the tree.

I had always judged how the people in those horror movies turned to look behind them, but my God, it was so hard not to. A hand wrapped around my elbow, and I gasped, fighting against it.

“Stop, thrashing,” a male voice ordered. It wasn’t the animated husk thing. I peeked backwards to see the body on the floor, beheaded. Another tall male swung a weapon and sliced the husk’s arms off. He looked normal from the back. I turned away to look at the man holding me.

He was tall, and his skin was a peachy hue, humanoid. Even his nose and, for all intents and purposes, he seemed like a normal, extra-tall human male . . . until you got to the pointed ears and his canine teeth that were sharp and elongated—like the woman I’d found when the Lord first brought me here.

“What do we have here?” The one who had hacked up the husk straightened, wielding a large machete.

“Looks like a human,” the one holding me sneered with a shake of my arm. I winced at the pinch. “Where is the Lord of Shadows?”

He shook me again.