Please—take me away from here,she thought in desperation.
Graves’s grip locked around her arms, pulling her away from Az.
"We have to go. Now," Graves hissed.
"I—I—okay," she stuttered, frozen.
The thunder blocked out all sound, rising so high that she felt like her eardrums would pop and her brains would bleed out from her ears.
She didn’t even have time to tell Az goodbye—or Tharen.
As Graves ripped her away from them, for just one faltering moment, she was alone, tethered to another only by Graves’s hand on her wrist, pulling her against him.
That was all it took.
Something dark and frigid slithered over her ankle. So cold that it burned.
It wrapped around her, snaking up to her calf and curling up her thigh like a vine.
She gasped out, "Wait—there’s something?—"
And the cold thing dug into her flesh. The ground disappeared beneath her; her equilibrium shifted. She suddenly found herself slamming into the ground, dragged so swiftly that the pebbles dug into her stomach and palms, leaving raw, searing scrapes. Gravel embedded into her skin.
Graves wasn’t quick enough. His grip on her arm was forced to release; otherwise, he’d have torn her arm clean off from the strength in those cold vines wrapped around her leg.
She screamed.
Lightning flared. Enough for her to see flashes of their panicked faces as they reached for her. She tried to lift her head to stop the stones from cutting into her face. She turned to look behind her and saw a mass of thick shadows teeming on the ground, tendrils shooting out as it pulled her straight toward it.
The shadows curled up from her thigh, drifting between her legs. She screamed and screamed as they curled around her, twisting up until they were wrapped around her waist, and further, they snaked, until they constricted around her breasts. She felt its icy edges brush her neck.
"Conquered Princess," the shadows whispered into her ear.
"No, no, no—" Luella cried.
It was the same thing that had happened to him—to Caliban. He’d been taken by snake-like shadows and ripped away into the belly of the earth.
She couldn’t let that happen to her.
Luella!Bastian’s fearful roar echoed in her mind.
"Bastian!" she cried out.
The shadows tightened. She gasped, pleas faltering.
Darkness specked her vision. It hurt.
A warm hand touched her elbow, fingers digging in.
Through teary eyes, she looked up, pain hot on her cheeks where the rocks had scraped her. Graves was on his stomach, reaching for her.
The sharp fall of the cliff was at her back. The shadows pulled her toward it. The mass slipped off the edge; she sensed it waiting there—waiting for her to fall into its mouth like a meal.
Her nails cracked as she dug her fingers into the stone.
Graves groaned in pain as his fingers tightened. Luella slipped, then gasped.
She met his eyes; his were wide with fear. The shadows wrapped around her throat, cutting off her words.
