Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“About Theo,” I howl the words as he removes his claws again and snakes his black tongue out to clean them.
My heartbeat thunders in my ears. “I’m the one who killed him.”
He jerks, his dead eyes widening.
Then I stab sideways into him, cutting through my sleeve, through the rotten fabric of his black robe, and into his chest.
His scream is like a lightning strike, and he throws me off him. I land halfway across the cavern, my body slamming into the stone and skidding. There’s a roar in my ears, and I can’t catch my breath. My ribs are broken. Maybe more. And I can’t see clearly, can’t tell what’s happening.
I fumble for my pocket with my good hand, now slicked with blood. My fingers graze a syringe, and I grab it but can’t get it free from my pocket. My hand has gone cold, numb.
Gregor is still screaming. Not dead. He’s not dead. I failed. I have to try again. But I’m cold now. So cold.
I still can’t breathe all the way, my head getting lighter as I try again to get the syringe.
“Georgia.” A voice I know. A voice I’ve loved for most of my life.
I whimper, my jaw not moving as I try to tell Juno what’s in my pocket, what it can do.
She smooths her fingers along the wound in my arm, warmth fluttering across my skin. Her blood. Juno’s Miracle.
“I’ve got you.” She strokes the hair away from my face, my vision clearing slightly as I stare up at her. Wings flap far above me, right where Valen was hanging. Is it Coal? Is he—
A hard impact sends me flying across the floor again and hitting the wall with the force of a car crash. I’m dazed, my body erupting in pain again.
“Juno!”
“Fucking human bitch!” Gregor slams her to the ground, his rage palpable. She fights, her claws shredding him, his threadbare clothes falling away and revealing nothing but a corpse. Bones and sinew, yellow fat and grey, half rotted organs. He lifts her head and smashes it into the floor again and again as I crawl toward them, the syringe in my hand. Her blood is healing me slowly. I can make it. I can save her.
He jerks his head to the side, his milky gaze on me. “Valen, kill your mate!” he bellows then slashes Juno’s throat open, the blood spurting out as he sinks his fangs into her.
“No!” I scream.
And then I’m on my back, Valen on top of me his hands around my throat. One of his eyes is healed, the ocean of dark blue staring into me as he squeezes.
“Please,” I choke. “Valen.”
His eye waters, his grip tightening.
“Fight it. Fight him,” I say with the last of my breath. “Kedves verem.”
I clutch the syringe in my hand, the only weapon I have left. A tear falls from Valen’s eye, his body shaking as he chokes the life from me.
I raise the syringe, my vision fading as I lose oxygen. I could stab him and depress the plunger. With the last of my strength, I could save my own life.
His face goes fuzzy.
“Valen, I love you.” I let my hand drop, palm open.
The syringe rolls away.
20
Isurge back to consciousness, my throat tight and hot.
Valen is still above me, blood pouring from his nose as he trembles. His hands hover just above my neck.
I cough, drawing in searing breaths as I kick weakly to get away from him.
Someone collides with him, tackling him as they roll to the side in a blur of wings and claws.
Coal. I list to my side, then get to my hands and knees, searching the floor for my syringe, for my only chance at ending this. Packed with hemophiliac agent, it’s not as potent as the poison, but it’s still a weapon.
Two more Corvidions fly into the Black Cavern, both of them diving for Gregor. He’s standing with his arms out, the air around him hazy with power or rage or both. At the last moment, he dodges their attacks and spins in a dervish of claws and fangs. Blood and screams. Bits of wing hit the floor, and the Corvidions are no more.
Juno lies where he left her. Body unmoving, face smashed to pulp, throat ripped out.
My heart wrenches as I get to my feet. “Gregor!” I scream his name.
He snaps his head toward me, a vicious hiss on his tongue as he rushes me.
His fangs are in my throat before I can scream, before I can think.
He rips his head back, my lifeblood in his jaws. I stab my syringe into the rotten flesh of his back, into his heart, and depress the plunger. He bites me again, lifting me until I’m dangling. He didn’t even feel the sting of the needle.
“Georgia!” Valen’s anguished cry is a million miles away.