Halve Human by Stephanie Fazio

Author:Stephanie Fazio [Fazio, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733592932
Publisher: Syafant Press
Published: 2019-06-03T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

Come on!”

Aunt Jadem and Dayne are standing just outside the tunnel and waving frantically at me.

I throw myself out of the tunnel’s opening.

The wormkill shrieks in protest when its teeth clamp shut on empty air. Its hideous roars fill my ears as we run, but it doesn’t leave the darkness of the tunnel.

Too close, I think, as my heart thuds against my ribcage.

We stumble away from the tunnel before I collapse in a heap of nerves left over from my encounter with the wormkill. Feeling is coming back into my arms, and with it, a fiery pain.

“You did it!” Dayne sinks to his knees and pulls me to him. “Thank the sun.”

My brother’s grip on me is almost violent. It’s like he expects someone to come and throw me back in the wormkill tunnel. My face is pressed into his cloak so I can’t see his expression, but I can hear the relief and emotion in his voice.

“You did it,” he says again.

“I never had a single doubt,” Aunt Jadem says.

Dayne finally releases me. When I look at my aunt, I see the pride shining in her eyes as she regards me.

“Darling niece. Our savior.”

I swallow, not wanting them to know how much my skin is burning from contact with the wormkill slime…how close I came to failing them.

My aunt continues to look at me in a way that makes me uncomfortable. It’s like she thinks I’m invincible or something. She thinks I can fix everything that’s wrong and broken. She thinks I can control the fate of the Solguards.

What if I fail her?

I manage a smile. “It was nothing,” I say with a forced lightness.

Dayne lets out a bark of laughter.

My thoughts are drowned out by the sound of a blaring horn.

“Second alarm,” Aunt Jadem says, offering me a hand. “Archers on the way.”

Sure enough, before the horn’s echo has died, I see figures in gray appear in the distance. I don’t think they’ve spotted us yet, but then an arrow hits the ground only a few feet from us.

Dayne curses.

There’s yelling, and then more arrows strike the ground all around us.

“Take him!”

I let out a surprised oof as Aunt Jadem shoves Hendrix at me. I don’t ask questions. I just lift up the man’s limp form in my arms without missing a step.

There are more Duskers now, and they’re running straight for us.

We just need to get to the gate.

The iron gate is ahead of us, looking somehow even taller and more imposing from this side. It’s still open, at least, just as Aunt Jadem said it would be.

No sooner has the thought entered my mind, the gate gives a squeal of protest as it begins to crank shut.

I turn back to my aunt.

“Run!” she screams.

We do. I match my pace to Dayne’s, making sure not to outrun him.

Faster, I want to yell, but I know they’re running as fast as they can. The thought of the iron posts, coming together and locking us in with our enemies, is worse than the thought of facing the wormkill again.

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