Afterlife by Lindsey Sparks & writing as & Lindsey Fairleigh

Author:Lindsey Sparks & writing as & Lindsey Fairleigh [Sparks, Lindsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rubus Press

Chapter Nineteen

The Beast snatched up Carson’s guardsmen one by one, pulling them into the depths of the mist. Carson remained oblivious that his small army was being decimated behind him. He was too focused on us. On me.

Until the beast spat out one of the guards, launching him out of the mist. The guy flew past Carson, his hair-raising shouts forcing Carson’s focus off of us and onto the thing slowly descending upon him.

About ten steps from the bottom of the stairs, Carson turned around ever so slowly, like he was afraid of what he would find behind him. Well, he was right to be afraid.

Having seen the Beast, he froze, his back to us and his army little more than a few stragglers waiting to be overrun. He spun around suddenly and fled the rest of the way down the stairs, taking the remaining steps in twos and threes. He raced past us and to the darkest recesses of the cave, as far as he could possibly get from the Beast, and flattened his entire body against the cave wall.

I sneered, feeling no shame for enjoying his display of extreme fear. I remembered the way the Beast had shown me a replay of that awful moment when Carson killed my mom, and I wondered, just for a moment, if that had been its way of communicating. Had it been trying to tell me that it knew me? That it understood me? Or, as impossible as it seemed, had the Beast been trying to warn me that Carson was here in the fortress?

But as the mist oozed past us, the Beast ignoring us in favor of chasing after Carson, that train of thought veered off track, morphing into an idea. The Beast could take the shape of a person—I’d seen it do it several times already, with several different people. I wondered if it could take any form it liked. If so, then Mari may have been onto something with the whole “true love’s kiss” idea.

My feet were moving before I’d fully thought through my plan. I started toward the Beast.

Dom grabbed my arm, stopping me short.

I turned partway and met his eyes. “I have an idea. Just trust me,” I said and waited for his reticent nod.

His fingers loosened, releasing me, and I rushed toward Carson’s corner of the cave, heading off the Beast. I skidded to a halt in front of the mist, hands upraised. “Hold on,” I said, spreading my fingers wider apart. “Just, hold on for a sec.”

I licked my lips and took a step closer to the mist. I could just make out the Beast’s tentacles moving within the shimmering depths, whipping about at first, but stilling as the Beast turned its focus from Carson to me.

“I need your help,” I said, shooting a quick glance back at my watching companions. “We need your help.”

There was a long moment where nothing happened, but then a human shape formed deep within the mist. As it drew closer to the edge, its features became more distinct.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.