“Why have you stopped? Come now, you can’t have given up so easily?”
He’s close.
With one last glance at the skull, I push myself up, praying I don’t become just another skull in the dirt of this horrible forest, and run.
I run until my legs ache and tremble. I run as my lungs burn, and every breath is a rasp. I run as tears of hopelessness, anger, and pain stream down my face. I run even as I stumble and slow… to… a… walk.
Eventually, my body refuses to cooperate, and I fall. I sob, fisting the earth in utter despair. It’s over. The male is going to catch me. Cage me. Rape me. Destroy the very essence that makes meme. There was nothing else I could do to save myself. I just hoped I had at least saved Akari.
I hear him enter the clearing I have collapsed in. He strolls in a circle around me, as if he has all the time in the world. And he does. My body isn’t moving. Eventually, I sit up and look at him.
He watches me like a curious dog, head tilted to this side with a pout on his face.
“Why so sad, fierce one?” he hums.
I just sneer at him. I don’t think my voice would even work right now. I’m too tired. Bone sore. I can’t suck in a solid breath.
“It’s ok,” he soothes. “I will take care of you now. Let me take you home.”
I fling the dirt I have clutched in my hand at him. It falls harmlessly at his feet.
He laughs. “Good. I thought I’d burned the fire within you out already.” He reaches for me. “Come, take my h-“
He’s cut off as a shriek splits the air, and out of the shadows the Skraeming Dhevilkin launches itself upon the male. The male shouts and tries to fight off the beast, but it has already sunk its horrible teeth into his neck, its bone-like nails are in his chest, and the rusty stench of blood fills the air.
The struggle is over quickly, the male hanging like a rag-doll in the Skraeming Dhevilkin’s relentless hold. It’s horrifying, eyeless face rises to look at me.
I struggle to rein in my breath enough to speak.
“A gift,” I finally manage to croak. “A truce.”
The creature smiles. It’s horrible and bloodied and has strings of flesh and arteries stuck within its teeth.
A truce. Thank you, my sweeting.
With that, the Skraeming Dhevilkin melts into the night, taking its prey with it.
Chapter Twenty
I rest as long as I dare in the clearing before forcing my exhausted body to move. I need to return to Akari. I need to know she is safe.
My plan had worked. It had been senseless and fragile, but my only hope had been to lure the male into the territory of the Skraeming Dhevilkin. I had remembered its comment about how the taste of human was only inferior to one other flesh. Fae.
I had bargained that having a fae to feast on would satiate the creature enough to let me go. It was a minuscule hope. And it had succeeded. Just in the nick of time.
I push myself to my feet, grabbing a tree to stabilize myself. My knees wobble and threaten to send me back to the ground, but my stubbornness prevails, and I manage to keep myself upright.
I take a moment to get my breath back, my head bowed as my exhaustion threatens to overcome me.
My skin begins to crawl, and I become aware that another presence has joined me. I squeeze my eyes closed and fight back the tears that sting my eyes. My luck had seemingly run out. There were, after all, countless other fae hunting me.
I steel myself and look up.
“That was quite the show, Little Bird,” Lord Draekoh smirks. His canines elongate even as I stare hatefully at him. “Now it’s my turn.”
Epilogue
High Lord Draekoh
