Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
“Put him down, honey, and we have to go.”
I stared at Monique, uncomprehending.
I mean…
What was she doing there?
Was I dreaming?
“Now, Cat,” she said urgently.
She then didn’t wait for me to put Hurley down.
She took him from me.
My heart thumped again, more painfully, and my skin got chill.
“No!” I snapped.
“Quiet,” she snapped back. “He’s fine. Asleep. Let’s go.”
Go?
Go?
It was the middle of the night, Tanyn was gone, but somehow, Monique was here.
“Go where?” I demanded. “Why are you here? Where’s Tanyn? What the fuck is happening?”
“I’ll explain. Later. Now,”—she snatched up my hand and started pulling me with unexpected strength, for a human—“you’re in danger. We must go.”
I didn’t know why she was there.
I was terrified that Tanyn wasn’t.
What was seeping in was her mood.
She was not lying.
She was tweaked.
No, not tweaked.
What I sensed from her was controlled panic.
But it was a lot of panic.
And we were moving.
Fast.
“I need a robe. Clothes,” I said to her back as she dragged me down the hall, and in the back of my head thanked the gods I did something I only occasionally did. Put my nightgown back on after Tanyn and I had sex.
“No time,” she replied, continuing to drag me down the hall.
She stopped at the corner. Listened.
I opened my mouth, and she jerked up a hand to indicate I needed to stay silent.
This struck me, because I had no idea how she knew I was going to speak. Her back was to me.
I had no idea about a lot of things.
And it was safe to say, I really didn’t like that.
She then kept us moving.
I could go far faster than her with my demon speed, but I didn’t know where we were going.
I just knew with the way we were moving, we needed to get there.
We raced down the stairs.
“Where are we going?” I whispered as we ran down a hall, the silk of my nightgown flashing around my legs.
“Shh,” she shushed me.
We entered the stairwell that led down to the admin floor.
We raced down those too.
And along another hall.
My heart was hammering.
My skin was prickling.
My senses were reeling.
My mind was filled with whatever this was…
And Tanyn.
We hit another doorway to another stairwell, and she went down them, taking me with her, but she did not call for the lights.
I could see with my demon vision.
She could not.
And since we were underground, it was pitch dark.
But she had no problem navigating the stairs, dragging me with her.
We hit the next level down, one I’d never been to, and I vaguely noticed that the walls were not entirely snow packed here. You could see the original black stone up to about shoulder height.
In normal circumstances, I would find that interesting and ask Tanyn about it.
However, at the moment, I was too terrified to…
Wait.
I yanked on Monique’s hand and stopped us both.
“Catla,” she stressed, “we don’t have time.”
“It’s melting,” I whispered.
“What?” she asked.
“The snow walls. They’re melting.”
And they were.
As we stood there, I watched the pack slowly receding, and the stone underneath being unveiled.
There was no dripping. No water. So it wasn’t melting.
The snow was just…vanishing.
I turned my attention to the floor.
It didn’t look like a sheet of ice.
It was stone.
“Ca—” she began but stopped herself as both of our heads whipped to look behind us.
I felt it too.
Someone…
Or something…
Was coming.
There was no sound.
But I could sense them.
And so could Monique.
Seriously, what the fuck?
She was human.
Again, I didn’t have time to ask.
Now I knew the threat was real.
It was then, I ran, dragging Monique with me.
I would have picked her up (even half-demon, I had the strength), but she needed to guide us to wherever the hells we were going.
With jerks on our connection as we ran, she did.
To another stairwell.
As we descended, I noted this was all stone. No snow. No ice marble floors.
But contradictorily, it was cold as all fuck.
At the end of a short hall down there, a hall that didn’t smell all that great, and the vibe of it was far worse, we ran into a door.
A dead end.
I was about to let her go so I could attempt to use my strength to break it down, something I hoped I could do because it was made of wood and iron, it was obviously old, but it was not rickety.
But Mon ordered, “Stand back.”
Alert to her no-nonsense tone, I did.
She positioned in front of the door, put her hands at her chest, palms facing out, and with a push on the air, the door buckled back, exploding, the planks of wood flying into the dark beyond.
Okay.
Seriously.
“What the hells?” I snapped.
I knew my human gal had some witch in her blood.
But that?
Princess Anna was a farging royal, and she probably couldn’t do that.
Monique took my hand again and we raced into the room.
I knew what it was immediately.
The dungeon.
Albeit undoubtedly interesting, I did not take a look around.