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I freak out, but there’s nothing to grab onto. He’s the one holding my crumpled body against his huge chest. The chest feels human—or more human.
At least until it starts to glow.
The glow starts from where I’d imagine a heart would be. Right where my face is smooshed up against his warm chest. I pull back and try to look up at his face—
Which is a mistake. Because his face is truly terrifying.
It’s the hybrid face of a human and lion, with long, wicked black goat horns curving out from his temples on either side.
I scream right into his face.
He turns his face down to me and opens his mouth, full of razor-sharp teeth. Inches away from my face.
And he roars a deafening roar. Which only seems to make his chest glow brighter.
We were heading higher into the sky, but he pulls his wings back in, so we suddenly drop, swooping low.
My scream is cut off, not because I don’t want to keep screaming—believe me, I really freaking want to keep screaming. But I physically can’t, the downfall is so extreme, nothing will come out of my throat.
Meanwhile his chest burns brighter and brighter until I have to close my eyes as the freefall continues.
Even through my closed eyelids, though, I can see the shine.
It’s burning my retinas it’s so bright.
And then my own chest starts to get hot. Oh shit, he’s burning me.
So this is what happened to all the disappeared hikers.
The monster in the mountain took them on a little flight and fileted them to charbroiled brisket. Will he gnaw on my bones after I’m cooked? At a glance I’d barely seem like a meal, but from the heat burning along my bones and coating my lungs—
I open my mouth and finally my scream is back.
I howl out my fury at being cooked alive from the inside out.
He’s a liar and a cheat, and I’m a fool for walking straight into the lion’s den when everyone from the mountain guide to Drew tried to warn me away. Thanks to my stubborn pride that was so certain I could find a solution to heal my body when doctor after doctor has told me it is helpless, there is nothing to do other than manage symptoms—
“Stop screeching,” comes the monster’s roar in my ear. “It is done. You are healed.”
I pause, cutting off my death-scream to consider his words.
I’m sure it’s a trick, considering we’re still speeding through the air. He hasn’t stopped flying. If anything, we’re moving faster.
But the light which had been blinding white from his chest is now receding. And when I consider how my own chest feels. The burning heat that felt like it was cauterizing my insides as it jolted through me is… well it’s all gone.
Sweat is quickly drying on my head from the cool air blasting my face as we speed through the air.
The monster’s surprisingly human arms rearrange me in his grip so that I’m not even hanging precariously over the—
I twist my head to glance down at the ground—
Oh shit! It’s so far below that in the break from the clouds where the moonlight shines through, I’m far up enough it’s like the view out a plane window. Everything below is broken up into tracks of land like on a map.
And when I gasp for breath, even though the air feels thinner up here, I nevertheless feel it fill my lungs.
Not just halfway, like usual, because previously my bones constricted to keep me from drawing a full breath.
No.
No way.
Have I truly just been healed mid-flight by some sort of ancient chimera-like beast?
And if he fulfilled his part of the bargain, then when we reach wherever we’re going, does that mean—
I’m his consort now. Oh shit.
Chapter Four
MONSTER
We fly long and hard.
It feels good to use my wings like this. I can attract attention, so I’ve only been hunting underneath the tree line lately. Which means I haven’t been able to fully extend like this and it feels—
I let out a bellow as I flex and slice through the air with my body.
I’m not going as fast as I might because of the burden attached to my front. But at least she’s stopped shrieking. I healed her with my holy light, and I suppose she can feel that.
Once we arrive it will be time for her to begin fulfilling her end of the bargain. To start her forever with me.
I won’t be alone any longer.
It would have been too much to ask for a willing partner to go through this life’s journey by my side. With a face not even a father could love…
Even a slightly willing captive is far more than I ever expected to ask for.
She gave her consent, though, and I have fulfilled my end of the deal.
And, besides, if she disappoints, as every other creature I have ever come across always does, then I can simply go back to plan A—having her for dinner.
