Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
I tried to help, I really did, but my two berserker bodyguards worked so hard and so fast, no shifter got within striking distance of me. Except. Hmm. They were too busy to notice the newest threat headed our way. The windows above us opened, allowing additional turul-shifters to fly in from the ceiling.
“Incoming,” I shouted. Internal heat intensifying, I swung my claws at a member of the flock. Mistake! He clamped his talons onto my wrist and lifted me off my feet.
He tossed me across the room. Viktor roared a denial as I soared through the air and crashed into the floor—Ahhhh! Upon impact, a trapdoor opened, and I dropped. The heart-stopping plunge didn’t last long, but it might have been the most terrifying moments of my life. Air whooshed around me as I flailed about, unable to stop my momentum. When I hit the ground, I hit hard. Bones broke, and oxygen exploded from my lungs. Searing agony blasted through every inch of my body. Stars winked over my vision, and nausea churned in my stomach. Dust filled my next breath.
Groaning, I rolled to my side, coughing violently. Deep breath in, out. In. Out. Each inhalation was a gritty struggle. One moment. Two. Then the pain began to fade. The sharp stings diminished to a dull ache before vanishing completely as my bones healed. Thankfully, my stomach settled, and I pulled myself into an upright position.
Light flickered from a lantern, casting eerie shadows over uneven, cracked stone walls. Needing leverage, I slipped my fingers into one of those cracks. As I stood, I gasped, realization dawning. This wasn’t a stone wall but a barrier made of stacked human skulls. My thumb had passed through a hollow eye socket.
I’d fallen into some kind of catacombs. I swallowed a second wave of nausea and snapped my hand back to my side.
The scent of decay thickened cold, damp air. Water trickled from a fissure in the far wall in a persistent drip, drip, drip. I grabbed the lantern by the handle, ready to find a way out of this death chamber. A glance up proved the trapdoor had already closed, ensuring no one could follow me down. Torchlight caught a crimson smear on the far wall, and my eyes narrowed. No, not a smear, but letters. Deco had painted a message for me.
Told you I thought of everything.
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth. There must be an escape this place. I had only to find it.
Pace brisk, I headed down a narrow passage. Turning this way and that, I ended up back at the start. So I tried again. And again. The maze always began and ended at the same point. But no matter where else I ventured, the lantern light illuminated additional messages that peppered the walls.
There’s no way out.
I’ll join you shortly.
Are you having fun yet?
The things I’m going to do to you…
I was well and truly trapped, enshrined in a tomb, the only life besides mine scurrying into the shadows as I passed.
A series of noises reached my ears, and I frowned. Clinking chains. Moans of pain and snarls of rage.
I tracked the sounds, which led me to a path I’d not stumbled upon before. Racing through the skull lined corridors, I took another turn. It brought me into a massive cavern with a ceiling seemingly miles high. The air felt cooler, and it was easier to breathe. Decay didn’t scent this space, but a hint of rust.
Goose bumps formed on my skin. Something told me not to enter, but I heard another moan of pain and surged forward. Maybe it was Juniper, because she’d been dropped down here, too. Gravel crunched beneath my feet. At least I hoped it was gravel. I lifted the lantern to fill the cavern with light, my lips parting in both wonder and horror.
Chained throughout were nine colossal beasts I’d only seen in nightmares and movies. A dragon. Something that resembled a wolf, but a thousand times worse. Same for a bear and a lynx. An eagle lion hybrid. Some kind of giant sea monster, imprisoned underneath a leak in the rocky walls. A winged amalgamation of a panther and a scorpion with the quills of a porcupine. Another winged creature, but with a horn and skin of stone. And a huge, coiled adder with humanoid features and fangs the size of my pinkies. Each animal possessed glowing eyes of a different color.
The bottom dropped out of my stomach, like recognizing like. “The primordials,” I rasped, pressing a hand to my chest. The original kings were exactly as my mom described them in her bedtime stories, only now they were frozen in their animal forms.
“Magnificent, aren’t they?”
The unfamiliar voice startled me, and I jolted. A woman strode from behind the dragon. A creature she stroked and kissed, as if it were a beloved child. The dragon jerked from her touch, steam rising from its nostrils.