Wonderland (Deadly Lush Book 2) by Harper Alexander

Author:Harper Alexander [Alexander, Harper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rebirth Books
Published: 2017-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

16 – River's End

Dripping with blood and wracked in a thousand kinds of physical misery, Shiloh wandered alone back through the forests of Paradise. It was surreal, what had just transpired. All the more so because of the state in which she had experienced it. She had 'sobered up', so to speak, since the wave of feral instinct had overtaken her, and now all she could do was look back at the hazy events and wonder if it all really happened. And if it had happened, what exactly had come over her.

Her finger throbbed immensely where the dandelion seed had stung her, but then again so did her whole hand; it was no longer a mere feather-soft prick that ailed the appendage, but a knife slice to boot. She had had little choice in the face of escaping the spider-ape web, but in hindsight, cutting into her palm like a hunk of meat seemed a drastic impulse. Was that really necessary?

Had she done irreparable damage?

It was hard to stay focused on her journey. Instead of trudging tirelessly back toward her safe haven, she caught herself trailing off to rest, to lie down in dreamy weariness and stare blankly up at the indigo roses and their pearl thorns, shrouded in fiery leaves. Nothing should pretend to be so beautiful in such a terrible world, she thought. Some might say it was a necessary part of the balance, a nicety to temper the horror, but all it did was sugar-coat the truth.

You should be ashamed of yourselves, she thought at the perfect roses. Just tell it to me like it is. Don't try to hide your thorns behind pretty petals.

Then she had to force herself to get up and move on, because she'd been idle for too long.

The ground slumped out from under her, and she caught herself against a tree. Deep breath. It pinched her chest tight, fighting her in and then out. It shouldn't be this hard just to breathe. If I have to fight this hard just to breathe, what's the point?

A swirl in the treetops drew her eye. Was that a breeze running through the branches, or her own dizziness?

Had she not sobered up?

Here we go again.

Her stomach clenched. A strange prickly feeling was crawling underneath her skin. What if there had been something truly horrid and infectious in the sting of those dandelion seeds? She tried not to think about what toxins might be seeping through her bloodstream. If she had been injected with something vile, was there even a way to purge herself of it? Short of splashing around in the next pond she came across for some equivalent to leeches that might suck out the poison along with the rest of her blood, nothing obvious came to her. And that was a desperate measure at best. Especially after she had already lost so much blood.

She would just have to accept that her unknown fate might be sealed, and try not to trip over the brink of insanity agonizing over the taunting omen tip-toeing its invasion through her body.

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.