Page 42 of Taken to the Deadlands

I had spent time exploring this place with Aris, so it was easy to follow the path that led to her room, no matter how many twists and turns the house had.

Until I got to the stairs.

I could hear her running after me. The sound of her flat shoes slapping against the carpet told me that she had crossed the space in half the time it had taken me.

“Aris!” I screamed.

My hand clawed at the banister, trying to use anything in my grasp to pull me up the stairs faster. I used the other to push against the steps, almost like I was crawling up the stairs.

“Found you.”

The footsteps stopped when she entered the room with the grand staircase. I shot a panicked look back to see the crazed demon looking at me with a sinister smirk.

The image reminded me too much of what Aris had looked like in the images the wraith had sent me. It caused me to freeze because ifthatwas what they saw in their last moments…

Is this to be mine?

She was too close now. I couldn’t outrun her.

So instead, I stopped and turned to face her. All the energy to run whooshed out of me, and a crazed giggle fell from my lips.

The wraiths. They tried to warn me,I realized in that moment. They had been warning me to run. Warning me that if I stayed here,thiswould be my ending.

The demon was in front of me in a flash. Her teeth bared, her eyes wide, her clawed hands on either side of me, trapping me between her arms.

What I didn’t expect were the tears that filled her eyes. Without thinking, I lifted my hand to cup her cheek.

“I know it’s hard,” I whispered.

Her snarling paused, and for a second, it looked like she might back off.

Until a hand gripped her shoulders and flung her back, and arms wrapped around me and forced me upright.

Aris’s growl was so loud her chest vibrated with it. I looked up to see her staring down to where she had thrown the other demon.

“I will kill you,” she vowed.

Thera’s whimper caused my gaze to shoot to her. She lay crumpled on the hard floor below us, her leg twisted painfully. Aris shifted against me, as if she really was going to go and finish the job.

I put a hand on her chest.

“Please. Don’t hurt her,” I pleaded.

She didn’t even spare me a glance.

“I will do what I must.”

Ice cold fear froze the blood in my veins. I pushed her away and gripped the railing behind me.

Her eyes finally darted toward me. She too had the darkened marks on her face.

“Don’t run from me,” she ordered.

But it was too late. I knew what I needed to do to get her away from Thera.

I bounded the rest of the way up the stairs and ran in the opposite direction of her room. My lungs were burning, begging me to stop, but I forced my legs to continue.

I hadn’t explored much of the other side of the house, but it didn’t take long for Aris to find me.

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