Page 69

33

ROSI

My scream echoedthrough the entire resort as Austin dove into the tank in front of the waterfall. Time froze, as did my breathing, until his head finally shot through the surface. He gave me a thumbs up, and I turned my attention back to the creature, only to find it had disappeared again.

“No. No, no, no. You are not getting away again.” Pure frustration had me spinning in air. “Where are you, you asshole?”

I spotted him, or rather the way he distorted the air around him in some form of camouflage around the rocks a deck below me. He’d paused, probably deciding which of us to go after. I had to think like him. It was me he wanted to taste. Me he wanted to torture like his old victims. So why was he resisting?

I stared at the knife in my hand. Oh. Austin had said he was a coward. I needed to act more helpless.

I dropped the knife and squealed like it was an accident as it tumbled to the ground below.

“Rosi!” Austin yelled from where he hung over the side of the glass.

Good. If he thought I was in trouble that would make it more believable. I spun in the air again, and gasped, as though I was afraid Yutu would pop out of nowhere and get me. It was entirely possible after all, except that now that I knew what to look for, I could track his movements as he climbed higher.

That odd blur moved along the rocks of the waterfall. He’d taken the bait.

Slowly, I rose on the hover disks, circling and moving away from the rock walls as though I was still panicking. Yutu climbed higher, scuttling around in a dance with me that he didn’t know I was aware of.

The track was just a meter or so above my head now. And that was when the camouflage came off and Yutu leaped at me like the animal he was, jaws open wide.

My scream was real as I, too, jumped, grasping the edge of the anti-grav track and swinging one leg over the top when he collided with me. His added weight caused me to slip and grasp for purchase, trying desperately to hang on.

But Yutu couldn’t fly either, and he swung us both up and onto the track, tossing me down on the ground where I scooted backward.

“Do I frighten you, little girl?” he asked as he stalked forward, toying with me again.

I nodded rapidly as I took inventory of the scene. Toklo and Cora hovered in the air, unconscious, arms spread out and hair flowing around them like they were suspended in water. A green glow emanated from them and wafted in tendrils toward what appeared to be a giant of a man—the same relative height as Yutu but far more substantial. He sat as if deep in meditation, arms and legs folded before him. His toned body was that of a man who worked out with weights daily, but his head was the same as the tupilaq that Ila’s grandfather created. This was the spirit come to life to finally fulfill its destiny.

Took you long enough, I thought.

To my astonishment, it answered in my head. You have been helpful in bringing me my quarry. The ancestors thank you.

“Enough fun and games,” Yutu said, redirecting my attention just as I backed into a wall. “I’m starving.”

He was on me so fast I barely had time to throw up my hands. But he shoved me to the side like I weighed less than a feather and bit my shoulder, this time so much faster than before.

The pain was blinding, but the shock probably protected me from some of it as he tore a hunk of flesh and muscle out, tossing his head back in ecstasy. My blood sprayed both us and the floor as the venom took instant hold of me.

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. I could only stare at a monster as he chewed and savored…me. Inside, I whimpered and cried as his long tongue again snaked out and licked the blood gushing from the wound. What the fuck is taking the tupilaq so long?

Yutu opened his mouth to take another bite, and I tried to brace myself, praying I’d pass out when the wind sprung to life around us, whipping debris so hard that it pelted Yutu like hail. He backed away from me into a crouch.

“Who disturbs my meal?” He howled into the ferocious gusts of what felt like a full-on hurricane.

I couldn’t look away or move aside as bits of random objects sprayed my face and the gaping wound at my shoulder. Through the chaos strode the vision of the man I’d seen meditating.

“No!” Yutu shouted, backing up toward the broken railing. “I am immortal now!”

The wind surrounding the tupilaq quieted, and his body quivered then separated into five smaller figures, each one shaped like a young girl. They spoke and moved in unison as they arced outward in a half circle to surround Yutu.

“You are not immortal,” they said. “You’ve destroyed your soul in exchange for a hiding a place. But justice never rests, and we have found you.”

Sinking to his knees, Yutu cradled his head in his claws and released a terrible sound that shook the ground beneath me. “You are my conquests, my prizes.”

“We are your demise,” echoed the girls.

My head grew lighter as I struggled to focus. The figures grew hazy, muddled, and I didn’t know if it was due to my blood loss or the magic involved. Behind them, I spied Austin, climbing over the railing, spear in hand again. He knelt to check the pulses of Toklo and Cora, who had collapsed to the ground.

I wanted to call to him even though I knew how stupid that was. I supposed it was a good thing the venom prevented that.

“I destroyed you all once. I will do it again,” Yutu declared, swiping a claw out and catching one of the figures in the neck. He continued pulling until he tore her head off and tossed it to the side where it rolled toward me, empty eye sockets staring.

This wasn’t a human. There was no blood, and real girls had eyes, I kept assuring myself as the other four molded back into the figure of the tupilaq. It launched itself at the monster, and the two began to tumble in a mass of claws, sharp teeth, and limbs.

Green light flowed from the tupilaq, who was now a good two feet shorter than Yutu. It surrounded the monster, and he writhed against it even as he snapped and clawed at the man. Austin crouched low to the ground and made his way around to me, hover disks tucked beneath his arms.

It was clear from the look on Austin’s face as he stared at my shoulder and hurried to pull off his shirt and press it to the wound just how bad my injury was. I wanted to yell that it hurt but couldn’t. He lay next to me and held pressure against my shoulder as he brushed back my hair.

“You did it, Rosi. You led him to the trap and saved Toklo and Cora.”

I’d have glared if I could. Yeah, and got gouged by the cannibal. Yay, me.

“You sacrificed yourself to give them a chance,” he said, cupping my face and turning it away from the creepy battle to a much nicer view of a much nicer storm—the one in his gray eyes.

He’d sacrificed himself too, and I appreciated it. But had either of us done enough? The way Austin’s face kept fading in and out, I wasn’t sure I’d be around for the outcome.