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“I see you’ve met the princess.”
Saliva drips from the beast’s mouth as it looms over me, easily ten times my size. I reach up, pushing the skull from my head. If this is the princess, and what Asmo said about her bonding with Finn is true, then she’s not my enemy. If I can show her that, maybe I won’t have to hurt her and she won’t try to eat me.
She jerks forward the moment I move and I shudder, leaning my body farther away from her lethal teeth. “We’re on the same side… Look,” I say, lifting the skull all the way off. My hair tumbles down over my shoulder. “I’m here to get you and my best friend out.”
“Alice!” Finn yells, rattling the door until it pops open. He bolts in front of me, pressing his back to my front and holding his hands out. “Don’t hurt her! She’s… She’s my friend!” He trembles against me as her snout moves closer, sniffing him and wiggling its nose across his chest. “I promise. She’s here to help. If you could just bring Eva back, I can ensure we–” his words cut off as the beast shrinks. The sound of bone crackling and shifting hurts my teeth, but soon a woman takes form. Naked as fuck, with long bright white hair. “Oh thank the gods… At least she didn’t eat me.”
Finn spins, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. It’s then that I see his hands.
“What did they do to you?” I ask, grabbing what’s left of his wrist. A small Barbie-doll-sized hand peeks out from the nub at the end of it.
“Actually… They didn’t do that.”
“I warned you,” Asmo says behind me.
“I’m supposed to be executed within the hour and I couldn’t get out of the cell with the chains and Eva’s beast isn’t exactly accurate with its bite.”
“Where are your hands?” I ask, my eyebrows scrunching as I examine them.
“It’s best not to ask those questions,” Finn looks over his shoulder at Eva. “We were going to try to escape when they came to get me.”
“We have a problem…” I glance at Asmo, finding the worried creases in his forehead. “There’s no way for me to siphon enough from you to teleport all of us out. Taking you was hard. Doing it back to back to get Finn out was going to be pushing it.”
“Then take them. I’ll find a way out,” I say, my words earning glares from both Finn and Asmo.
“No. I won’t leave you here. You shouldn’t have even come for me to begin with. I told Kai no rescue missions.” Finn shakes his head, crossing his arms in a ‘you won’t sway me’ stance.
“I can get out. And if I can’t, the king wants me alive,” I say, and Asmo nods, reaching forward to draw on my magic while Finn shrugs off his shirt, giving it to the woman who must be Eva. “Do Finn first.” Before he can protest, Asmo latches onto his shoulder and they disappear, leaving me and Eva alone. “Thank you for trying to save him.”
Her vibrant eyes meet mine, but she still doesn’t speak. Just nods in a sharp motion.
“Take care of him, will you? He’s needed back at Hell Hold. If I don’t–” She cuts me off, stepping forward.
“You will. My father is terrified of you.” Her accent is thick, giving her words a royal feel.
“He should be,” I say, offering a closed-mouth smile.
Asmo appears again, stealing my power just long enough to take Eva away.
Heavy footfalls sound from the stairwell, rattling through the dungeon. My hand falls on my dagger’s hilt. There’s not nearly enough room in this hallway for a sword. My movements would be clumsy, and being clumsy means coming face to face with certain death.
“Hey,” a man’s guttural voice projects down the hall. “Who are you?”
“Why don’t you come find out,” I tease, and he surges forward, his actions reckless and lacking any form of grace. My dagger slices through the air the moment he’s in range, cutting easily through the side of his throat. His body slumps when he hits the ground, lifeless as blood pours from the wound, staining the charcoal-colored stone.
Another guard follows, this one throwing up magic. His power hits me square in the chest, sending me flying backward into one of the cell doors at the end of the hall. I close my eyes, trying to force my way through the mush of power rippling against me. Though sluggish, I’m about to get a finger, then two up. His power dissipates as he claws at his throat. I can hear his grunted and gurgled attempt to draw breath again, but he won’t ever succeed. His body falls as the last guard comes down. His armor tinkling as he claps. The man removes his helmet to reveal a face I know well. The king himself.
Sharp blade-like teeth form into a sinister smile as he nears, and I gear up, drawing magic to me as if my life depends on it. In a way, it does.
“Fantastic job,” he says, taking me off guard.
“Tha–” I start to say thank you, but someone else answers him.
“Of course. Have I ever failed?” I turn only for Asmo to latch a shackle around my wrist.
“No. You have not. I’ll gladly remove your band. You’ve earned it. As of today, you can consider yourself a free man.”
I try to pulse out my power, to hit him with everything I have, but nothing comes. “Don’t bother,” Asmo warns. “If there’s one thing the king does well, it’s creating weapons and prison cells capable of holding a god. He’s especially modified this one for you.”
