Page 10 of Wicked Prince of Shadows (Wicked Princes #2)

No, there was no time for this! I had to get across. Had to!

Movement flashed to my left. I barely turned before a great force barreled into me.

A scream snagged in my throat. I slammed to the ground. Rocks tore open my palms and arms, and my skull cracked against stone. Then fire erupted in my calf.

With a ragged scream, I dug my hands into the earth and kicked at the third hound’s jaws wildly with my good leg, trying to free the other. The pressure from its jaw intensified as it snarled, its horrid breath whooshing against me.

The other beasts gave warning snarls as the world tilted upside down. I vaguely glimpsed one of the first two charging at the one that held me in its jaws. White-hot agony flared through me as it snapped its head. Its jaws released, and my body wrenched loose.

No!

Air screeched past me as I sailed over the chasm, the world tilting over a void of darkness.

I screamed, blood streaming from my face and legs and hands as I flailed helplessly. The chasm yawned below. I looked up just in time to see the edge careening at me, then I struck it.

Everything flashed white, then black. Lights erupted in front of my eyes as I tumbled and twisted, rolling across the packed earth. I skidded to a stop in front of a trio of towering tablets.

My mouth opened in a gasp that wouldn’t come.

No breath.

No sound.

Nothing.

My chest convulsed, muscles straining uselessly, ribs locking tight as if iron bands cinched around them. Panic clawed at me harder than the hounds had. My body bucked, desperate, but nothing filled my lungs. Black edged my vision. White sparks burst like lightning across the dark.

Then, somehow, I gulped in a mouthful of dusty air. Collapsing, I sucked in breath after frantic breath. Had to move again. Get up!

Blood was already streaming hot down my legs and back, pooling against the thirsty ground.

On the other side of the chasm, two of the hounds battled, snarling and biting and snapping at one another. Their claws dug into each other and crushed into the stony earth, jaws cracking as they bit down on one another’s limbs.

The third—the one that had flung me. Where was it?

I dragged myself backward, elbows buckling under me as I searched. My hands left smears of blood across the dirt. Where was it? It had flung me so it wouldn’t have to share. My ankle throbbed with every frantic beat of my heart. Then I looked up.

Scrag rot!

The third beast was already airborne, flying across the chasm. It landed at the edge with a heavy crunch, lowering its head and growling. The dull red of its eye sockets flared brighter. It almost seemed to be smirking as if it knew I was basically out of tricks.

That didn’t mean I was going to give up though.

“Get away,” I rasped. Still wheezing, I grabbed a rock and flung it. It struck the creature in the side of the head and made it growl as it stalked forward, jaws parting.

Something shuffled and slid in the darkness.

The soil at the chasm’s edge shifted and cracked.

Then black vines shot up and lashed out.

They flailed at the edge, only one coming close to the beast. But that one vine snapped around the hound and ripped it back.

The skeletal hound lurched forward with a startled yip, its head striking the ground.

It drove its other legs into the earth, but more vines wrapped around it and the vines dragged it backward, leaving deep gouges in the earth.

The sound of grinding bone filled the air.

Two of the legs snapped, and black ichor sprayed across the ground.

It howled, the cry echoing down into the abyss as the vines dragged it back.

A final, piercing shriek split the air before the creature vanished into the dark, leaving only silence and the stink of its ruin.

I slumped, trembling, bile burning the back of my throat. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I braced myself. My fingers went numb, my coordination failing. Had to tie off the wounds. Then—then I had to—

Another heavy crunch snagged my attention.

My head whipped up.

One of the other skeletal hounds stood over the corpse of its opponent, the skull rent from the spine.

It kicked the skull into the chasm, then vaulted the chasm in a single monstrous leap, landing with a thunderous crunch that sent shards of stone skittering.

Its skull head swung toward me, jaw hanging open in a grotesque grin, dull red light flaring brighter in its skull.

“No,” I whispered, fumbling for the rock. My arm trembled as I hurled it.

It struck nothing but dirt, falling short.

The hound stalked closer, each step punctuated by the clicking grind of its claws on stone. My pulse thudded so loud it drowned out the beast’s growl. I lurched sideways, trying to force my battered body upright, but my leg buckled under me.

The hound lunged.

Its jaws clamped onto my calf, teeth sinking deep, the pain so sharp it ripped a ragged scream from my throat. My hands scrabbled at the earth, nails tearing, palms digging furrows in the dirt as the beast dragged me away.

I kicked desperately, sobbing in jagged bursts, my strength bleeding out with every pulse of my wounds. “Let go!” Maker, please! Not like this. Please!

A black streak shot down from the sky and slammed into the hound’s back with a crack like breaking timber.