AllFreeNovel
Share Us
An odd smile formed on my face. “She’s fucking trouble, that’s what.”
~ Raine ~
Sandwasinmyeyes, nose, and mouth, and I rolled to my side and began coughing violently. Rubbing at my face, I tried to get it off me, but I could feel the small grains still clinging between my breasts and scratching against my thighs when I moved.Shit.I couldn’t worry about that now. I wasalive.
Every thud of my heart echoed in my ears, and I kept picturing the slab of rock coming toward me, steadily falling until it was about to flatten me. I’d been sure I was about to die. My body was going to be crushed, and there was nothing I could do.
But just as the rocky ceiling touched my bloody fingertips, a strange energy had swirled in me, clouding my vision, and then the ceiling had been gone. Turned to sand. Like the rocky ceiling had never been there at all.Goddess, what happened?
The horned monster, A-Two, stood just beyond a newly created opening in the cavern wall, his violet eyes watching me from across the space. At first, I could have sworn concern was twisting his expression, but now he had a crooked, amused smile plastered to his face. The asshole probably enjoyed the whole show.
Locke had broken through the door, which was visible again on the other side of the cavern, his face more terrifying than I’d ever seen it. Whatever had just happened, he wasn’t happy about it.
I coughed again, my already raspy throat now as dry as paper. Struggling to swallow, I forced myself to my knees, then to my feet.
I couldn’t stop shaking. I blinked furiously at the tears still leaking from my eyes and clenched my hands together, but it didn’t help.
Locke stalked toward me. As he stopped in front of me, his gaze lingered on my bloody fingers before fixing on my face. I didn’t move and stared into his unnatural onyx-colored eyes without fear. Exhaustion dragged at me, and I didn’t have it in me to feel afraid. It was taking enough of my strength just to keep upright.
“Like what you see?” I said, my voice cold.
His face remained hard, but his lips quirked up slightly. “Of course, beautiful, it’s always a pleasure to see you.”
If I hadn’t been so damn tired, I might have hit him, but thankfully, common sense prevailed and I left my poor battered fingers hanging by my sides. “Just take me to my room.”
For all I knew they weren’t done with me yet, but to my relief, he nodded and gestured to the open doorway. I tried to swallow again and took wobbly steps toward it, feeling A-Two’s gaze on my back the whole way.
It was slow going as Locke and I trudged back to my room. My body refused to quit shaking, and I wasn’t sure if the exhaustion I was feeling was just from the physical ordeal I’d had. Maybe A-Two was right, and I was turning into something. Somethingwrong.
Locke walked ahead of me, but I could tell he was keeping a slow pace for my sake. When we reached my room, I walked straight to the pitcher of pink liquid and downed the contents.
All right, fine, half the liquid spilled straight onto my chest, but I was beyond caring. And if it was poison, hell, it’d be a better way to go than being crushed to death or dying from thirst. Assuming it was a poison that killed me instantly.
When I looked up, Locke was still watching from the doorway, his gaze as intense as it had been since he’d entered the cavern. He eyed the empty pitcher, and I couldn’t read his expression.
“If it’s poison, I hope you put the good kind in there,” I said, hoping he’d at least give me some indication as to whether I’d just doomed myself.
His head tipped to the side. “Good kind?”
“Yeah, where you die instantly. That’d be way better than the ones that cause excruciating pain for a full day before you die. That would suck.”
“Huh,” was all he said in response.
Right. Because of course the gorgeous monster would give you the nice poison, Raine.
I sighed and slumped onto the bed, turning away from the doorway.
There was a moment of silence, and then the door creaked shut, and I knew I was alone.
CHAPTER 8
~ Locke ~
Ileftthehuman’sroom, my face a mask of stone as I stalked down the tunnel, firelight flickering on the walls.
Fucking Halced.The human had nearly died. I didn’t even know why the thought agitated me. She was only a human. Or was she? I remembered the pain that had pierced my chest when the stone slab had been about to crush her. The same pain I’d felt when we’d come back through the portal after the selection. I knew now that the human had done something to me.It wasn’t the portal.
The thought of her infecting me with some kind of magic should have infuriated me more, but instead, my curiosity only grew. This human was the most interesting thing to happen to me and my brothers in a long time, and I wasn’t about to let her go.
