AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I look over his shoulder, watching our friends chase us with murder in their eyes. “They can’t hear Rune’s voice like you and I can—it’s cursed!”
The Eostrix’s eyes flash with shock. “Why is this the first I’m hearing of it?!”
Holy fucking shit, Rune wasn’t bluffing when he said his voice is cursed.
“How do we snap them out of it?” I clench Rune’s shoulders as he carries me, not letting my eyes leave our friends. He shakes his head and keeps his gaze trained on the streets ahead.
Of course he doesn’t know how. “Let me guess, you have to kill anyone who hears you?” He ignores me for a few blocks but then finally nods curtly, pain flaring across his red eyes.
“Godsdamn it!” Kastian growls.
Fucking shit—there goes our plan.
Rune shifts on his feet and dives into an alley. I crash into the ground and roll a few times before he snatches me and pulls me close in the corner of the building and some crates. Kastian is a step behind us and effortlessly swoops over us with his black wings, hiding us all in the shadows.
Our breaths are sharp and we hold them as we hear footsteps run by. We remain silent for a few more minutes before breathing again.
“Why did you talk out loud?” I hiss at him, knowing it was an accident and that it was because something super fucking weird is going on with me, but I can’t fight back the bite in my tone.
“Because you look like the scariest goddess I’ve ever seen,” Kastian snaps back on Rune’s behalf.
Rune glares at me and the tattoo on my spine heats.“You look like a fucking god of carnage right now. Your wings, horns, and ears are red, eyes are black, your skin looks like you rolled in soot, and your hair is white. That’s why.”I don’t miss the attitude he’s throwing back at me but I’m too stunned by all the shit he and Kastian just said.
I scramble toward the back door of the café we are tucked behind and look at the half window on the door. My jaw drops.
Everything he said is true… but he left out how truly horrifying I look. Kastian nailed that part.
I’m disturbingly spine-chilling.
I turn back to them and Rune’s already giving me a worried look. I know he knows I hate pity but fuck, I’ll take it right now.
“What’s happening to me?” I crumble to the ground, digging my sharp claws into the snow and shaking at the thought of North taking over my body.
Rune dips down and rubs my back soothingly.“It’s North. He’s getting closer. We need to stop Violetnow. We’ll save the Hollows on the way out.”
I shake my head. “No, we can’t—we had a plan—”
He cuts me off by covering my mouth and presses us close to the wall. Wren and Moro run by again, back the way they came, eyes still just as dark and cursed.
After a few seconds he releases me and gives me a stern look.“We don’t have a choice. The plan is fucked and I’m about to lose you too. We’re stopping her first.”He grips my wrist and pulls me toward the alley opening.
Kastian checks to make sure the coast is clear before nodding at us.
I bite my tongue. I’m so fucking mad. Our plansneverwork out.
I keep pace with them as we dash through the streets, up to the High Court. I’m sweating from the thought of walking back in there for many reasons.
Facing Arulius, Violet, and her entire army. How are we going to stop them with just us three? Fuck, how did things get so twisted?
We come up to the shrubs that line the walls of the castle and pause to catch our breath. I nudge Rune and he looks back at me, his dark hair messy and the veins beneath his tattooed skin raised.
“The torture chamber, it’s that skull… I can feel it.”
Rune nods and leads the way through the main doors as Kastian and I follow.
I glance at the gods reaching for one another as I do every time I pass them—only now I’m wondering what court holds the Gods of Harmony and Ruin. Everything is so twisted and all I can feel is anger… It’s building and welling in my chest, burning hotter than Arulius’s ever did.
The corridors are quiet and cold.
