“Please, Jude.”
His eyes find mine.
He sees my terror.
And it’s enough.
Taking my hand, we retrace our steps as the fog presses in and our feet fumble over unfamiliar ground. I try to breathe. I try to stay calm. I try to focus on my hand in Jude’s. Most of all, I try not to look over my shoulder, convinced if I do, I will see something terrible.
The Night Beast.
TheNachtdier.
The fountain materializes through the fog.
We race to the portico, my heart hammering as the sky rumbles and the dark grows darker. We need to get inside. I need a ceiling above my head, something to block out that terrifying hellmouth overhead. We’re halfway up the stairs when a slurping, sucking squelch slaps the cobbled stone behind us.
A tentacle wraps around my ankle.
I’m yanked backward.
With a scream, my legs fly out from under me. I hit the ground hard, elbows scraping stone. I scramble for something, anything to hold onto, my fingers scrabbling as I’m dragged away by a writhing creature that’s unfurled from the fountain.
“Selah!” Jude dives.
He catches my wrist.
The inky black tentacle coils tighter.
Pain shoots up my leg.
Jude’s grip tightens.
I’m being torn in two.
But I beg him to hold on, don’t let go, as the wind howls, rain lashes, and thunder cracks.
Our hands are wet.
I’m slipping …
Slipping …
I’ve slipped.
But in the very next split of a second, Jude snatches my other arm. He latches on like a vice and hauls me closer. He has a rusted trowel in his free hand. And with a primal roar, he plunges the pointed end into the tentacle wrapped around my leg.
Black, viscous fluid spurts into the air.
The creature wails, an ear-splitting shriek of a sound, and releases me. We tumble backward as it folds in on itself and vanishes into the fountain.
I collapse on top of Jude.
His arms wrap around my waist as our hearts pound and our chests heave and the rain falls.
For a second—or maybe an eternity—he looks at me like I’m his entire universe. Like he lost me and lived a whole life without me and he’s traveled back in time just to be with me.
And now here I am.
