Millicent cocks her head. “Naughty,” she hums. “I almost want to let you run, so I canhuntyou.”
Then her hand punctures through. She grips my esophagus and rips it from me.
My body convulses from the violent assault, but the power thrumming in me refuses to let me die, forcing me to witness it all. I swipe, trying to gut her, but miss when she leans back and laughs at my failure.
She tosses the trail of tissue aside and drops me only to plunge her arm back in and tear out my upper spine.
The entity shrieks.
MINE!The screaming rips through my throat, so strong it projects without sound.
Her hand crashes into my chest, and my heart is torn free.
“You dare challenge me?” She sneers. “What unintelligent parasite drives a host to such arrogance?”
She nudges my body with her foot and devours my heart.
“Not good, not good,”it hisses, before fleeing, leaving only nothingness as everything goes to black.
Chapter 44
Malicent
ONCE I STEP INTO THE night air, I’m overwhelmed by the hearts I hear, each one thudding like a war drum. A feast. An entire feast waits for me, and the thought thrills me so deeply it sends me skipping into the crowd.
“Millicent?”
I ignore the lumbering fool who dares to call her name. “Millicent Le strange!” He yells again, pursuing me. I slip through the sea of bodies, giggling. He’s too big, unable to maneuver as I do.
A divine scent arrests me. I hone in on a woman, neck bared, begging me to have a bite as she chats casually.
Oh, if you insist.
Another tall figure steps in my path, but this one’s magic offends me.
“Move.”
“Hello to you, too. Is this a new look? People are staring.” He gives me a warning, as if I need one.
I raise a hand to slam through his chest, but the vermin dares to grab my wrist.
I grin wickedly and twist. The bones in his wrist snap like brittle twigs. His shout is delightful. I drive my heel into his gut, impaling him and launching him through the crowd. He crashes into a table. Screams erupt, and the crowd scatters.
Sheep. Panic-stricken, mindless sheep.I am their shepherd.
I summon a veil of night, my magic rising from the earth and sealing them in a dome of shadows that stretch into the sky. The herd crashes against its boundaries. They try to break through. Futile.
“You may all bow now.”
I reach into their minds around me and rip through them. Knees buckle from the pain, their pleas now drowned in sobs.
I find my chosen offering, my precious little morsel. She sobs about her family and her sons. I wish they were here so I could feast on them, too.
“Kiss it and beg,” I command, presenting her my bloodied foot.
She hesitates before kissing my shoe, then immediately turns and vomits into the grass.
“Well, that’s rude. Eat it.”
