Page 59 of Renegade Queen
Well, I did, but there was no way I wanted to confront that thought.
Wow, self-awareness was a horrible state to be in, and right now wasn’t the time to be having an existential crisis.
It felt like we’d walked for hours, and there seemed to be no end to this place. As my eyes searched the way ahead for any sign we were closing in on the other side, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Something was watching us. The soft sound of lapping water surrounded us as we came to a stop. My eyes frantically searched the fog for signs of what was out there. She had to know we were here by now; there was no way she wouldn’t come for us. We’d be a shining beacon in a desert of hunger for her.
This was supposed to only be a four-hour perilous hike for us, and yet I was certain we’d been here for longer. Time felt like it stood still in this cursed place. Stopping made no sense, especially with the plan we had in mind. But running straight into her arms wouldn’t exactly help us, either. There had to be some way to find out where the maiden was in the swamp. If we could locate her, it would be easier to avoid her.
And then I felt it.
“Run,” I hissed.
Of course, they didn’t. Each of them looked at me in alarm as the pinching pain I’d felt started to climb up my legs.
“Run!” I shouted this time. “Something has hold of my legs.”
They burst out of the water then. Three skeletal beings clawed themselves up my body as they clung to me with desperate fingers. My gaze fell to the one at my side, its jawbone hanging open in a silent scream as its boney fingers dug into me, trying to pull me down into the stagnant waters lapping around my knees.
“What the fuck?” Dean yelled, and then he was moving, reaching for the nearest skeleton without any hesitation as he tried to tear it away from me.
The dead plant life weaved between its bones pulled away in Dean’s grip, but the skeleton held firm, a whistling scream building in its non-existent throat.
The one behind me clawed at my hair, wrenching my head back as its bony fingers tangled in the lengths.
I instinctively reached for my spring magic but found nothing. There was nothing living in this swamp that this magic could latch onto.
Tank burst into his bear, a roar of outrage echoing across the swamp as he did. One swipe of his massive paw shattered the skeleton to my right, but the bones seemed to cling to him before they started to reform around his arm. Even as he tried to shake them loose, they gripped even tighter, and I saw another shadowy form emerge from the waters behind him.
But the one thing that Tank had done by pulling one of the creatures to himself was to free up my right arm, and I drew my sword while I had the chance.
My magic wrapped around the blade, coating it in a blue fire as I drove it through the skull of the skeleton before me. The bones collapsed away from me, and for a moment, I actually thought we could do this.
And then she was there.
Gliding through the murky waters, she came for us. A soft smile danced across her lips as she took in her meal. The desperate yearning in her eyes almost made me feel sorry for her until she reached for Ryder, and then I had nothing but rage.
Because he was mine. And she sure as fuck didn’t get to touch him, let alone harm him.
A burst of magic blasted out of me as I surged through the water, diving into her path. One of the skeletons fell away, taking a good chunk of my hair with it, and the other shattered as I rammed my sword up through its empty chest and ripped it out.
When her hungry eyes turned to me, I regretted nothing. I felt sorry for the creature before me, but that didn’t mean we would lie down and die to save her. She’d been condemned to this half-life through her own actions. It wasn’t fair, but it also wasn’t my problem right now. My problem was the survival of the men around me, and I’d do anything to keep them safe.
The swamp water ran from her long black hair as I collided with her body, shoving her away from Ryder with as much force as I could. Gritting my teeth, I stared her down. She’d been here for a long time, long enough for stories to have reached me when I was just a young faeling. No one had ever risked the swamp back then, but somehow she was stronger now. She could reanimate the dead around her to do her bidding. That was never part of any story I’d heard before.
The sounds of fighting increased behind me, but I couldn’t let that distract me now. She was the threat here, and if I could eliminate her, it would save the others. Besides, I was fairly certain the dead wouldn’t harm them; their job was to ensnare her prey, so she could feed. She needed them alive.
Her head cocked to one side as she sized me up. Had no one ever fought back before? It had the effect of making the long tendrils of her hair swing to the side, and I saw more of her sallow face beneath. She looked emaciated and dead. The flesh on her body had taken on the grey tinge of a body left to rot in the water; claw marks littered her chest and arms. Whether they were from herself or the skeletons that seemed to do her bidding, I didn’t know.
Almost like thinking of them had made them appear, two of the skeletons appeared at her side. She raised her arms, and a thick black magic flowed toward her before they dropped back into the watery depths with a splash.
The corner of her mouth ticked up in a smile, and then she dived for me faster than she’d moved before, her fingers turning into claws as she latched onto my shoulders.
My sword drove deep into her chest as she pulled me to her, but it didn’t slow her down in the slightest.
She wrapped me in her arms, and the stench of her filled my senses as she pulled me into an embrace. I felt the rattle in her chest as she hummed in happiness at having me in her grasp.
My first thought was to send my magic into the sword and fry her from the inside. But as soon as I tried, it sparked and then felt like it was torn away from me. That was when I realised she was already feeding.
She had me now, and I had no idea how I would get away.