Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
I seek Luke’s support as the lipless mouth narrows, and the monster rolls to the other side, so the farther edge of the open cavern looms above my head. I’m about to recoil and get out of reach of those damn teeth when a familiar moan makes me look up, to where flesh bulges, pushing teeth apart. It’s like watching a wart grow at an alarming speed, and my stomach drops when I realize it’s gaining the shape of a face. A familiar one at that. When Anatole, whose face I’ve just seen crushed, stares at me with terror-stricken eyes and utters a scream so sharp it could make me bleed, I sense madness knocking at my door.
His tongue rolls out, unnaturally long, and his eyes bulge, each looking in opposite directions. I can’t move. Or think. Or even yell in fear, but as I fight through the stupor, knowing I can either fight or die, something cuts my legs from under me, and I tumble down the funnel of flesh and teeth.
A creak resonates in my ear, and a part of me knows it’s Luke shouting my name in a realm beyond a thin veil of shadows, but there’s no stopping my descend toward the loosening mouth pit.
All I can hope for is that when my body becomes one with so many others, my spirit will not stay alongside it.
Because I'm about to die, crushed and ripped apart like my cousin.
Full of regret, I cling to memories of the one thing that was good about my life.
My Luke.
Chapter 46
Kyran
There’s that moment when I almost want to let Heartbreak have me, because when memories play through my head like a theater of madmen, I struggle to see much of worth in my past. So many lonely days, shame, humiliation over not being my brother. My life only started when I let him perish, and as I think of Luke watching me last night when we shared promises on the mossy altar in the Ancestral Sanctuary, my blood heats up again.
I still have so much to do, so many kisses to give. I refuse to forsake the future. When my thoughts sharpen, shredding uncertainty and fear, I try to slow my descent toward the monster’s throat. I swallow a grunt when my forearm clashes with one of the massive teeth, but pain can’t stop me, and as I tumble, both my hands rip at the sleeve of my leather top.
One of the eels I keep on my skin would be enough.
Just one.
I don’t have time to coax it closer and rip it off despite the abrupt gesture feeling like opening a wound. The eel squirms in my hand, but I manage to inhale it while pushing the fingers of my other hand into the beast’s flesh. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to slow my fall for just enough time—
Luke grabs my wrist, giving me additional stability. His shadowy face has no features, but his brows seem to furrow in exertion while he holds me up.
The power from the eel hits me, coursing through me like fairy dust, and my mouth stretches into a smile as heat throbs in my veins.
I try not to think of the monster’s muscles clenching right under my feet in a desperate bid to crush me too. He can’t have me. Four black tentacles shoot up to grab the teeth high above, then I stab my sword into flesh for leverage. I’m already sweating, exhausted, and I prioritize my safety over looking for more of the black hearts. I can’t chase Heartbreak away from our shores if I’m dead.
I will not end up like Anatole. Not with Luke watching. But as that thought passes through my head, I wonder what would happen to him if I got out, and he ended up as the beast’s meal. He cannot be harmed by the material world while he’s in the shadowild, but if the beast swallowed him and carried him away, neither of us would have a way to free him. He can't leave the shadow realm in the sea. He’d be stuck forever, like my father’s poor Dark Companion, and die of thirst and starvation, all alone in the dark.
I cannot let that happen. I need to fight, if not for myself, then for him.
But as I’m about to leap and get out of the monster’s throat, something wraps around my neck and squeezes hard. The world darkens, my limbs weaken, and it takes all my focus and strength to not drop Gloomdancer.
Luke’s shadow figure reaches toward me as the tentacle drags me down the funnel of flesh and teeth. I reach back, but my brain is shutting off from the pressure just below my jaw.
It’s a goodbye after all.
He hesitates, only to dash my way, on a suicide mission that might end up with him stuck alongside my corpse forever. I grab at the veiny noose dragging me to my death and try to shout, but I cannot produce sound anymore. From the corner of my eye, I see the edges of the toothy sphincter widen to swallow me whole, but as I fall in, to my inevitable death, Luke disintegrates into a splash of gray reminiscent of quicksilver and hits me with his warmth.