White Stag (PERMAFROST #1)

Chapter Ten: Monsters

Chapter Ten:

Monsters

My muscles burned like molten lava. A slow, agonizing pain spread throughout my body and left me fighting for breath. I gasped, greedily sucking in the cool air. The blue sky was a small speck from far above me.

Vines and cobwebs wrapped neatly around my body, restraining and suspending me in midair. Every time I struggled to break free, the vines tightened around my body like a constrictor. Elvira's broken body lay below me; a snarl across her dead lips. The twinges of power forcing its way through my skin were already fading.

On instinct I lashed out at the vines, kicking and tearing. Elvira's power fueled my tired, injured body and giving it the adrenaline I needed. But no matter how much I struggled the vines held me tight and I swayed helplessly and vulnerable in their grip.

Images of the battle on the mountain flashed behind my eyes. The memory of Panic's dying shriek still rung in my ears. He'd been a good horse and all it got him was a dagger in the eye. Rekke was gone too; the sweet little girl who shouldn't have been on the Hunt at all was dead because of the crumpled body below me. Every cell in me ached to pummel it to a pulp until it was unrecognizable. It was as if the feeling of her blood between my fingers would make up for the lives she'd cut short.

Once more, I twisted in the vines, lashing out with bound legs, and once more I failed to get free. The small speck of blue sky was now an indigo blanket. I closed my eyes, praying to whatever deity that would listen that Soren got out alright and that the blood streaking his body was not his own.

The hair on the back of my neck rose as footsteps echoed through the dark caverns. I thrashed wildly. If I got a glimpse of what this place looked like I may be able to know what type of creature called it their home—and more importantly, if they wanted to eat me.

The high walls of the cavern glistened with crimson liquid too thin to be blood, dripping down onto moss the color of moonlight. Bones and feathers littered the floor and among them sat a human skeleton. I swallowed down the fear threatening to rise. Escape was my goal and fear only got in the way. I brought one vine-covered arm up to my mouth and gnawed at the bitter-tasting plant.

The echoing footsteps stopped. "You won't get out that way," someone giggled.
"Where are you?" The voice came from behind me, but there was only darkness.

"You should be more polite," she said. "It's not fun when everyone doesn't get along."

"Show yourself!" I snarled. Whoever, whatever, these creatures were they needed to know they wouldn't cow me no matter how vulnerable I was swinging from the vines.

"Poor girl," this voice was obvious male and his words stung like dripping acid. "So much to lose, so little understood."
"Odin's Ravens! Who are you people?" The voices echoed all around me; the words repeating themselves over and over like a chant. I whipped my head around the nest but besides the feathers and old bones, the only moving thing was the sluggish liquid dripping off the stone.

"That's not very nice," the female said. This time I pinpointed her voice to a crevice above me. The creature's large, dark eyes twinkled with amusement, cracks formed along her eggshell white skin, and a shock of brilliant green hair hung in her face. Oh no. Gods Above, not this.

The male clucked his tongue and stepped into a patch of the shining moss. He stood there as I hung from the vines, boredom in his reddish gaze. His ebony skin also was cracked in places and a tail swept beside his legs, the tip twitching back and forth. The bare skin of his chest flaked away at his ribcage until the bloody bones and muscles underneath were exposed.