Cursed Slumber by Luna Lockhardt

Author:Luna Lockhardt [Lockhart, Luna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zoomy Zombies Productions, LLC

CHAPTER 6

Aurora

The nightmare pulsed around me like a wounded animal, its boundaries trembling with each labored breath. The walls—if you could call them that—rippled with veins of darkness that hadn't been there moments before. I felt her arrival in my bones before I saw her—a pressure at the base of my skull, familiar and revolting all at once. A century trapped in this place, and still, the weight of her presence made my throat close.

"She's coming," I whispered, my voice fracturing against the thickening air.

Bell turned to me, her eyes bright with a defiance that broke my heart. She didn't understand—couldn't understand—what we were facing. To her, this was just another hunt, another curse to break. But I knew better. This wasn't just a battle. It was an ending. And I had been foolish enough to believe it would be mine to choose.

"Let her come," Bell said, her hand falling to the dagger at her hip. The gesture was so achingly human, so desperately inadequate against what approached us. Steel meant nothing here. Courage meant nothing here. Only power mattered in the nightmare, and mine had never been enough.

The air split open before us, not with sound but with absence—a void that swallowed light and breath and hope. She stepped through, midnight silks shifting around her ankles like oil on water, her movements too fluid to be natural. Her icy blue gaze locked onto me as if Bell didn't exist, as if there had never been anything in this realm but her and me, predator and prey, curse and victim.

Her lips curved, a cruel imitation of a smile. Something deep in my chest clenched, muscle memory of fear I thought I'd buried.

The ground beneath us cracked like brittle glass, spider-webbing outward from where she stood. Bell shifted her weight, adjusting her stance. The action was subtle, but the Sorceress noticed. Of course, she noticed.

"Did you think I would let you go?" Her voice slithered over my skin, each syllable precise, measured. I hated that it still made me shiver. I hated it more that Bell saw my reaction.

Bell moved closer to me, her shoulder brushing mine. Heat radiated from her skin, a stark contrast to the unnatural cold that had seeped into the nightmare since the Sorceress's arrival. Bell's fingers twitched toward her dagger again, a hunter's instinct. I wanted to tell her how useless that was, how nothing forged in her world could harm something born from this one.

I needed her to run, to leave me and save herself, but I already knew she wouldn't. The stubborn set of her jaw told me everything. She would die here for me, and that was the one thing I couldn't allow.

"Stay behind me," I whispered, but she ignored me, just as stubborn as ever.

The Sorceress chuckled, a sound like glass breaking underfoot. Her gaze flicked between us, lingering on the narrow space where our bodies nearly touched. Something hungry flickered in her eyes.

"Oh, how sweet," she murmured, tilting her head. Her hair moved too slowly, as if suspended in water.

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.