I’m trapped.
She leaps, hands out, and flies through the air.Her claws are sharp enough to glint as she lands at my feet, swoops her hand down and plunges her nails into my calf, dragging me away from the wall.
I scream as pain sears through my muscles.
This is it.
This is the end.
Even as my core heats, runes glisten like golden suns and light brims around us, burning the library gloom away, all I think is that I wish I could have seen Midnight one more time.
9
Midnight
Ishift in the bed, edging out of it.I do not want to be left alone with Ignatius.But my hip hits the frame.I struggle out, my muscles begging me to stop.Not happening, my survival instinct has kicked in.Adrenaline courses through my veins, hardening my muscles and making the pain evaporate.I’ll pay for this later, but right now I need to escape.I won’t let him take my soul willingly.
It’s funny, I used to wonder why the humans I reaped fought.Why they didn’t accept the inevitable.After all these years, I realise I’m no better than them.
Desperate not to die.
I slip on the blood I left.
My feet swing out from under me, and I hurtle across the floor, landing on my chest.All the air empties from my lungs.
I gasp.
Inhale.
Nothing.
Inhale.
Still nothing.
Pins and needles.
Inhale.
I can’t catch any oxygen.
My ribs cramp out.
I’m winded.
The first flutter of panic rises from my gut.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t?—
Ignatius hauls me up by the scruff of my collar the way Arcadius did to him.I wince, still struggling to gulp oxygen down.
“Slow.Your.Breathing.”
“I—I.”But my lungs burn, my breaths become a panting mess.Toes and fingers go cold.
I’m going to pass out.
