Page 56 of A Crown of Tears and Treason (The Curse of Silver Secrets and Cruel Shadows #1)

Chapter

Fifty-Six

EVIE

D irty, putrid water engulfed me.

On instinct, I opened my eyes.

A grave mistake. I couldn’t see anything and my eyes stung as if someone had tried to scratch them out of my skull.

I delved lower and lower, lungs screaming.

Kick. Kick to the surface .

I knew how to swim. I’d loved it before I’d almost drowned–the last time I’d ever been engulfed by water.

That same hopeless sensation from when I’d been five took over me. The surface of the water was suddenly glass and I couldn’t break through, no matter how hard I thrashed. I opened my mouth to scream. Nothing but horrified bubbles escaped.

Nobody could hear me.

Nobody could help.

Why fight it? a voice slithered in my mind. A memory from back in my grandpa’s pool. A frightening echo, trying to drag me into the depths.

My muscles were rigid and useless. Cold. So cold. I would die here.

Good .

A massive splash tore me from the ghost of the memory, dragging me back into reality.

This wasn’t my grandpa’s pool and I wasn’t a child. The river yanked me further down, a looming shadow slashing through the water, straight at me.

I kicked the cloudy water with all my might, hands frantic to get me to safety. My lungs were on the brink of bursting.

The closer I got to the surface, the more my fear threatened to suffocate me. I couldn’t do it. It would be glass and I’d hit it and–

I breached the surface with a gasp. The air was fetid, but, gods, was I glad to have it sear inside me.

Something split the water behind me. Moving fast. Faster.

So did I. I still couldn’t feel Zandyr, but his blood in the vials gave me the final push of strength I needed to swim all the way to the shore. As soon as my feet dug into the mud and pebbles, I heard the shadows on the other bank.

They charged as one, splashing toward me. The fastest of them dove in first.

The massive hump of scales changed course, slashing the water straight toward them.

I didn’t stick around for the carnage. Wet and bloody, I ran.

If I survived the river, I could survive anything.

Cries erupted from behind, followed by a horrifying roar that shook the trees. Scales twisted, jaws snapped. The night echoed with death.

I rolled over large rocks I would’ve jumped in any other state. I fought to get across the stumps and the thorny hedges that clung to me, as if the forest itself wanted to keep me prisoner.

But I kept on running.

I would survive. I would–

I was yanked back so hard I fell, spine connecting with a jagged rock.

The fastest cloaked figure had caught up, even as his companions fought for their lives in the river.

In a flash, he was upon me, pinning me to the ground with his putrid weight.

I hit my switchblade against his mask. I only managed to crack an inch of it, near his forehead. It was made of ceramic, but looked like decaying copper, with greening veins at the edges and jagged white patterns all around its bottomless eyes.

He caught my hand, crushing my bones with his strength.

I bucked and kicked his back. He only lurched forward, but didn’t budge.

“You’re not getting away, not this time,” he rasped. “They promised to set me free if I brought you. And I’m gonna, alive or dead. If I wring your neck, I won’t spill your blood.”

As he pressed my wrists painfully into the decaying moss, his fingers touched my bloody wounds.

A cry broke from his throat and he yanked his arms back, as if burned. Only for a second, too fast for me to get up, before he caught the parts of my forearms not ravaged by the ropes.

My blood. It had burned him.

“That bitch cousin of yours put a protective spell on you, didn’t she?” he hissed. “Don’t worry, she’s next after you. You’ll all fall.”

That had been the worst thing to say.

My survival instincts were strong, but they were nothing– nothing –compared to my compulsion to protect those I loved.

Nobody was going after Allie. Not as long as I could breathe and bleed.

And bleed I would.

I bit my lower lip to the point of pain and kicked his back again. As he lurched forward, I head-butted him so hard, both his mask and my nose broke with a sickening crunch, as my teeth cut through my bottom lip.

My mouth filled with blood as half his ceramic mask crumpled to the ground. I gasped beyond the pain.

The man with the scar. What was left of him, at least.

The skin clung to his bones like flesh rotting away. His eye drooped, as if it was one breath away from popping out. Deep, angry veins crawled up his cheeks. Whatever had infected him, he was a walking corpse.

Before he got over his shock, I sucked air through my teeth and spit all my blood onto his face. His cry was bone-chilling. He let go, hands flying to his face.

As soon as my arm was free, I arched it in the air, and impaled my switchblade straight though the exposed junction at his shoulders. He would live, but his arm was useless now.

Instead of staggering away, he froze, a silent scream on his face.

Right before my frightened eyes, a greenish substance oozed out of his wound. That was not blood. That was death liquefied.

Then he began to disintegrate, ash in the wind. Fleck by fleck at first, starting with the fingers he still pressed onto his face. Then he combusted in one quick burst.

I covered my eyes. When I opened them again, I was covered in the rotten soot that had been him, clinging to the blood and dirty water on me.

I couldn’t keep it in anymore. I rolled to the side and vomited, broken nose stinging to the point of passing out.

But I couldn’t afford to pause. More feet splashed onto the shore, even as the water in the river sloshed menacingly. Whatever that beast was, it had caught one of them. The cries stopped suddenly as jaws thudded closed.

I rose, swaying from side to side. Thirty-two. Thirty-two shadows coming straight at me, dangerous weapons gleaming in the few rays of moonlight that dared breach this wretched place.

I couldn’t kill them all. I couldn’t even stand, hunched at the middle and shaking.

But they’d have to kill me right here and spill my blood, because I was not going down without a fight. I might die, but I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of succeeding in their vicious plan.

The blood in the vials of my armor began to swivel frantically.

A second later, a dark blur slashed through the shadows, and I knew I was saved.

Zandyr had found me.