Page 117 of Malicent


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I splay my hands in the dirt, pushing myself upright just enough to twist and look back so I can see what the birds are fleeing from.

Past the trees, in the shadows beneath the trunks twisted like bones, something moves.

Four long, impossibly slender arms stretch outward. Each pale-white extremity ends in clawed, crimson-black talons. It grips the bark and pulls. And from the darkness, it emerges,pulling free a humanoid figure. Two sinister eyes, gleaming like rubies in oil, lock onto me.

I kick frantically, trying to tear free from the thorny roots. They only dig in deeper.

I claw harder into the earth, bloodied fingers digging, slipping—desperate to follow the birds above.

To fly. To flee.

More roots erupt from the ground, wrapping around my arms, pulling them down, and pinning me flat against the dirt.

I scream but not from the pain. I am gripped by refusal.

I will not die here.

I summon my magic, trying to call Ollie—to summon Nyx and Twyx.

Nothing. My body shakes, and my strength fails me all over again.

Let me in,thevoice whispers, stronger than ever.

Her voice is silken, almost soothing

I will make you strong.Her words slip beneath my skin, curling through my thoughts like smoke.

And it would be so easy, so effortless, to simply let go—to open my mind and let her inside.

Behind me—

thud-thud-thud.

Heavy footfalls. The creature is coming, bounding fast toward me. I twist, trying to look, but my curls fall forward like a black curtain.

I’m so dizzy.

The ground around me glistens red. My blood spreads in a cold pool beneath me, seeping deeper into the roots and dirt. My teeth clench from the shivering cold, my head dips lower from fatigue, and my face nearly drops into mud.

And then she arrives.

Pale limbs plant themselves beside my face, near my head and shoulders.

A strange sound comes—click-click-click—from the thing’s jaw. It leans down. Oily, matted hair falls over me like a veil of rot. Its breath hits my neck with the smell of putrid decay, something deeper than death.

I gag, turn my head, and regret it instantly.

Its mouth hovers inches from mine, dripping with black slime and fangs long and rotted.

I tremble…and then I stop.

The voice hums gently in the back of my mind like a lullaby, and I finally do what I’ve avoided for months: I open the door.

Come in.

Sharp pain blooms at my neck; it comes hot and sudden. The creature bites down andpulls.

Something tears my throat.