Page 12

AVA

D arkness presses in from all sides, thick and suffocating. My head throbs with a dull, persistent ache, and my limbs feel heavy, suspended above the ground. As consciousness returns, so does the realization of my predicament.

I’m hanging by my wrists, ensnared in a sticky mesh of jungle fibers that creak and stretch with every slight movement.

The air is damp and fetid, filled with the stench of decay and something more acrid—like burnt metal and rotting meat.

Blinking rapidly, I try to adjust to the dim light filtering through the cavern’s ceiling, revealing glimpses of bones and tattered clothing scattered across the floor below.

Panic surges through me. I twist and writhe, attempting to free myself, but the fibers dig deeper into my skin. A sharp pain lances through my forearm as the restraint slices into flesh. Warm blood trickles down, mingling with the sweat and grime coating my body.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I mutter, teeth clenched against the pain. “How could I let this happen?”

The memory floods back—the creature mimicking Kairon’s voice, luring me deeper into the jungle with cries for help. I should have known better. Should have trusted my instincts instead of that bastard’s voice.

Anger flares, momentarily eclipsing the fear. I won’t die here. Not like this. Not as another skeleton in this godforsaken nest.

Summoning every ounce of strength, I begin to swing my body, aiming to create momentum. The fibers groan under the strain, but they hold. Pain radiates from my wounded arm, but I grit my teeth and continue, refusing to give in.

A distant sound—a faint rustle, a whisper of movement—catches my attention. I freeze, heart pounding. The creature is near. I can feel it.

“Come on, Ava, think,” I whisper to myself.

I give up on swinging. My arms burn, shoulders screaming with every shallow breath I take. Blood drips steadily from the gash on my forearm, soaking the fibers that bind me. It’s sticky, slick—useless now. I sag in the restraints, letting my head hang forward, the sweat on my brow stinging my eyes.

The cavern pulses with sound—wet, sick sounds of movement I don’t want to identify.

Something shifts in the dark, and bones crack under the weight of whatever the hell drags itself through this hellhole.

There’s no light. No direction. Just endless damp and rot and the slow, creeping fear that this is it.

This is where it ends. In some alien monster’s nest, strung up like prey.

Tears sting the corners of my eyes, but I blink them back, furious at the burn in my throat. No. Not like this.

Kairon’s face rises unbidden in my mind. That infuriating smirk. The tilt of his head when he’s about to say something awful. The casual roll of his shoulders like nothing on this goddamn planet can touch him.

I hate the way he looks at me—like I’m breakable, like I’m nothing but a burden. I hate how his voice curls low when he’s mocking me. I hate that I notice the shift in his scent when he gets close. That my skin prickles when he leans in too far.

Gods, I hate that bastard Reaper.

And I hate that part of me—some traitorous, primal part—aches to see him now.

I drop my head back, jaw clenched, my throat raw from screaming earlier. “If you left me here, I swear to every star in the sky, I’m gonna haunt your smug ass.”

But the words fall flat in the dark, swallowed whole by stone and silence.

Still, I cling to them. Because right now, anger is all I’ve got left. And if I die down here, I’ll do it with fire in my chest and his name on my tongue—for the express purpose of punching him in the face if I ever come back as a ghost.

I grit my teeth and force my legs to move. One slow, shaky swing. Then another. Pain screams through my shoulders, but I ignore it. I focus on the rock formation jutting out beneath me—a bulbous, slick thing about half a meter away. If I can just plant a foot, just shift my weight?—

I swing harder, twisting my hips. Every motion sends a bolt of agony through my torso, but I push through it. I’ve made it through worse. I’ve survived war zones, sabotage drills, IHC training. I will not die here in this rotting hellhole strung up like a goddamn pinata.

My toes graze the rock. Almost.

Again. I swing again, harder this time, blood dripping from my arm, slicking the webbing around my wrists. Come on, come on?—

And then I hear it.

A slow, wet slither behind me. The brush of limbs against the stone. The air shifts. My heart slams in my chest.

I twist in time to see the creature emerge from the shadows.

Gods, it’s worse than I remembered.

It’s massive, nearly twice my height, hunched with muscles that bulge unnaturally under its mottled, putrid skin.

Its limbs bend wrong—like it’s imitating something vaguely humanoid, but getting all the details wrong.

Patches of exposed muscle glisten under shredded scales.

Its eyes—too many of them—glow a dull, hungry yellow.

And its mouth... that mouth is a split seam of jagged fangs, stretching almost ear to ear.

Its breath hits me before anything else—thick and putrid, a cloud of decay and rotting meat that forces bile up my throat.

I recoil instinctively, but it’s too late. The thing moves in, fast for its size, its clawed hand wrapping around my ankle like a vise. It hauls itself up, eyes gleaming, and leans close to my face.

And then it speaks.

“Kairon’s” voice slips out of its mouth.

“Ava,” it croons, sickly sweet. “Didn’t think you’d come running for me. You came so fast when I called.”

I freeze.

No. No, no, no?—

It leers at me, tongue slithering between jagged teeth. “I think you’ll do nicely,” it purrs. “A strong body. Stubborn. We like that.”

I snarl, thrashing against the restraints. “Get the fuck away from me!”

But it doesn’t. Its claws caress my thigh, up the side of my ribs. My skin crawls so hard I think it might peel right off. I twist violently, trying to kick, but I’ve got no leverage.

“We’re going to breed your little body. Impregnate you with our many children, over and over again,” it whispers, right against my ear. “Over and over again. Until you’re used up. Until you break. And then we’ll feed on what’s left.”

I rear back as far as I can, rage twisting in my gut. “Stop touching me, you disgusting freak!”

“Oh,” it croons with Kairon’s deep, mocking timbre. “She’s got fire. That’s good. We like fire. Makes the breaking more... fun.”

It traces a claw along the line of my neck, and something in me snaps.

“I swear to every star in the sky, I will fucking destroy you,” I growl through clenched teeth. “I’ll burn this whole cave down around us before I let you use me.”

It laughs then—low and gleeful and wrong. Kairon’s voice stretched thin and cruel, echoing off the cavern walls. “You think you have a choice, little soldier?”

I stare it dead in the eye, every inch of my body shaking but not with fear.

With fury.

“Yes,” I hiss. “And when I get free, I’m going to make you regret ever speaking with his voice.”

The creature bares its teeth wider, amused by my defiance. But I can see it—there’s a flicker. A twitch. It didn’t expect me to fight this hard. Maybe it didn’t expect fight at all.

But I’m used to being underestimated.

The creature lashes out without warning, one massive claw swiping across my chest. Fabric tears with a sickening rip, my uniform shredded to ribbons in an instant.

Pain flares as its claws slice into skin, shallow but burning hot.

I scream, more from the shock than the injury, jerking in my restraints as blood wells along the thin gashes.

The remains of my uniform hang off me in pathetic, torn shreds, offering no protection, no modesty—just one more humiliation in this nightmare.

“It’s time,” the creature announces, Kairon’s voice causing a strange reaction in my gut.

My eyes widen in shock as the creature straightens, becoming even larger and exposing its massive cock as it flops out from some kind of protective flap beneath what I can only assume is its gut. It grabs my legs and wrenches them open as I scream and kick.

“Yes,” it grins, leering with rows of teeth. “Keep resisting. We like it.”

I spit directly in its face. “Fuck you. I’m going to fucking kill you.”

It just laughs, the haunting sound permanently scarring my mind as the tears begin to well again.