The Beast
MINE.
RUN.
BLOOD.
CRUNCH.
TEAR.
BONES.
PAIN.
RAGE…GONE.
GONE.
SMELL.
SCENT. CAUGHT.
MINE. RUN.
…HUNT.
CHAPTER 12
Reshina
The woundson my feet and legs had closed by the time I made it to the top of the stairs. The bites across my wings no longer burned, but emitted a dull ache as my body stitched my skin back into place.
I’ve been through worse, I reminded myself, grimacing in the sting of flesh renewed. Being a Goddess of the Veil came with many ups and downs, but the ability to heal quickly was certainly one of the more useful powers.
I raced through the frozen gardens on feet so frozen, it felt as if I stumbled over hot coals. The gardens were woven into a hedge maze with more twists and turns, like a map of the corridors below. I attempted to shift into a raven once again, but failed, though the ability was still there, just under the surface of my quickly healing wounds.
The moon hung low in the sky and dawn wasn’t far off by the looks of it. My lungs heaved out of control, forcing icy air into them to the point of pain, and I took a moment to swallow, gathering my bearings as to where I must be.
With absolute certainty, I knew that stepping outside of the castle grounds would release me from the curse. I just needed tomake it there. Gathering my long skirts in my hands, I waded through the snow, frozen down to the marrow of my bones.
Not much further, I told myself, having no real proof that could be true. But I’d learned the power of hope in the most harrowing of times, and I took her hand then, only looking forward, never back.
Untilhecame.
If the bellow of the Beast was heard miles away in the Brackish Wood, I’d have believed it. The ground shuddered, knocking drifts of snow off the tall hedges, but my legs carried me further, faster—away from what I heard burst from the castle behind me.
Run, run, run. I pushed myself, trying over and over to shift and fly away from the madness of the creature who followed me. The boom, the pounding, the uncontrolled rage of a monster sounded dangerously close, and upon a quick glance to gauge his distance, I saw that the hedge maze did not hinder him in the slightest. With each winding path I crossed, he jumped and dove, cutting over the hedges with ease in a straight line to me.
In his full form, he was the most monstrous thing I’d ever seen—with dark fur, massive limbs and black horns curling from the top of his head. No sign of the man I’d met was visible. This creature was all Beast.
And gaining.
Unable to see the end of the maze, I had mere moments to react, ignoring the calls of Piffle somewhere in the distance. I dug my sharp nails into the bite at my chest, seething in pain as I renewed the wound, flicking crimson drops of blood onto the icy layer of snow. Just as I’d hoped, the ground rumbled in protest, shaking and opening in a gap below my feet.
The last thing I saw above the surface was the great jaws of the Beast and the brightest blue eyes of the man he possessed, jumping towards me before I fell down, down, down, underneath the surface of the grounds and back into the Underrealm.
I struggled to grab onto anything to slow my fall, with no room to use my wings and no rock to grip as I fell. I screamed through dirt and stone, root and mud, crashing through the vaulted ceiling of a corridor in the Underrealm.
