Page 192 of Savage Throne
He stood next to. . .
God no!
My body stiffened as horror began to overtake me.
N-noooooooo!
Chapter twenty-nine
When Love Meets War
Lei
My father had done the unthinkable.
I closed my eyes.
The air was cold, biting against my sweat-soaked skin as I stood at the edge of the Arena of Echoes.
The descent had drained me.
Every muscle in my body screamed for rest but there was no room for weakness.
Not here.
Not now.
My chest heaved as I caught my breath with Soaring Precious still clutched tightly in my hand.
Go ahead and deal with it.
I opened my eyes.
And I saw her.
Chanel.
Or what was left of her.
Slowly, I walked forward getting closer to the grotesque display my father had orchestrated.
The air carried the sickly-sweet stench of decay that clawed at my nostrils and threatened to choke me. It was a smell I’d encountered before, in the aftermath of battles and executions, but this was different.
This was personal.
Chanel’s once radiant brown skin had turned a ghastly dark gray, cracked like the parched earth after a drought. Pieces of that rotted flesh had peeled away, exposing the raw, desiccated insides beneath.
Her hair—once thick, long waves that I’d dreamed of running my fingers through—was gone, leaving patches of bare, mottled scalp and flesh.
Her full lips—now shriveled and receded—revealed rotten teeth that grinned grotesquely in death.
At her sides, her fingers, curled inward like the brittle claws of some long-dead creature unearthed from the ground.
My God. What the fuck is wrong with him?
She was naked.
I stopped ten feet away from her, unable to get any closer.
