Souls of Fire and Steel by Jill Criswell

Author:Jill Criswell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 2021-07-07T22:07:01+00:00

CHAPTER 22

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The creature that used to be a man, used to have a name and a home and a purpose, now had nothing but a single-minded goal: escape. The thing pinning him hurt. He did not like it, and somehow he knew if he could slip out of it, everything would be better.

He’d been pulling and squirming for some time, listening to the clanks and rattles as another section slid away and the tightness around his limbs loosened—a little more, then a little more. A sharp pull, and he could move his arms. It made it easier to worm his legs out, until the last sections clinked to the floor, no longer trapping him.

Free.

The creature ran, up, toward the light. Four other creatures were there—three shaped like him, a larger one coated in fur—and they cried out. Something stirred in his gut, pressure building behind his chest, pushing out through his limbs. Prey, it whispered.

He lunged for them.

One of the creatures threw her hands up. There was a sonorous crack. Pain flared up and down his leg.

Not prey. Not that one.

Instinct told him to fly. He would not be trapped again. He hurried in the opposite direction, as far as he could on his hobbled leg, until he reached a barrier. He scaled it and found there was nothing under him.

He fell. When he landed, it was cold and the cold seeped into his mouth when he tried to breathe. He flailed until his head was out of the cold and he could see. Arms and legs thrashing, he inched forward and felt something slippery but solid under him. He crawled his way higher, shaking wetness from his eyes, blinking against the sting.

His leg hurt, but he crouched, scanning for threats, for obstacles.

More shouts rang out around him. More creatures, inching closer. Herding him toward something—a thing made of metal and bone. Some distant part of his mind recognized the contraption for what it was, and panic flooded his veins. They would trap him. He could not stand it. Beyond the creatures, past the cage, he saw land covered in shapes he could hide in, a place for him to hunt and be away from all the things seeking to hurt and confine him. He wanted that place. He would do whatever he must to get to it.

The creatures stood between him and freedom. Slowly, their appearances changed. To shining hair and eyes, black shapes scrawling down face and body. Brother. Another word he did not understand beyond the bile on his tongue, the clawing in his guts.

That thing under his skin came out again, rising, filling him. He let it. Oh, it felt like the world was his. It tasted like blood in his mouth and under his nails. It spoke to him, gave commands he understood on a visceral level.

Hunt.

Feed.

Kill.

He growled, loping toward the creatures. They stepped forward, surrounding him, corralling him. Looking at him with those loathsome faces.

KILL.

The command flooded through him, became him, stripping everything else away.

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