Page 7 of Heart of Dawn
Closing my eyes as I flew forward, I held out my hands, ready for more pain.
The seconds seemed to slow to a terrible crawl. Taunting me, playing games with my anger and my fear.
Just get it over with!
When I hit the ground, my hands slid off to the side, my face in the snow. I yelled, getting a mouthful of dirt and flakes. My body turned to the side. I tried gaining purchase on, well, anything, the skin of my palms slicing open with each attempt.
Why me?
I hit another jutting root side on, jagged edges gouging through my clothing and flesh. The force sent me rolling down the rest of the slope until a snow-covered boulder brought me to a stop.
My right arm broke under the impact, pinned against the pesky boulder. Pain surged through just about every inch of me. Black dots danced across my vision, an extra dose of terror thrumming in my veins.
Oh, stars. I couldn’t move. Even with the incredible, rising agony, I tried getting back on my feet, only to be met with defeat.
Not now!I admonished my body.
It clapped back with extra pulses of pain.
Ugh. What a shame my healing ability didn’t work on me. Talk about cruel irony.
“The cherry fae!” the army cried from the top of the slope.
They lined up together, a force of nightmares, their rags fluttering in a rising wind.
“Kill the fae!”
Any chance of help?I thought at Wendy in my pocket.
No answer from the queen bee as the undying fae possessed by Dawn charged down the slope.
CHAPTER FOUR
MIKO
Summoning more of my dwindling strength, I dragged myself from the cage. My knees scraped the ground and my muscles protested each movement. But I managed to reach the platform, checking on the zombies’ progress. They were frantic, though not done with eating the remaining flesh downstairs.
Thank God the exploding biter didn’t get them skipping up here. I still had a chance to get away.
A surviving blood magi tried hiding from them in a cage, but failed to get the door closed in time.
“Leave me be!” the man cried, his blood magic useless now.
They crashed into the cage, filling it up in no time like a shoal of rabid piranhas. I looked away, not interested in being a spectator to the gore. I’d seen more than enough of it in this damn apocalypse.
I kept on crawling, keeping low as I made my way to a set of stairs leading up to another platform. It looked like there was an office up there—a possible source of shelter for me to recuperatein. I wasn’t going out as zombie grub like those lot downstairs. To hell with the odds stacked against me.
God, my head wouldn’t stop with its hazy bullshit, every limb ready for bed. Even when I promised my entire body a nice rest if it did its part to get us out of here, it didn’t want to.
Yeah, I got it. Bed equaled good. But dead equaled not so good. So, what would these bones prefer? To be rested or gnawed on?
That seemed to give me an energy boost, adrenaline finally kicking in.
Good body. Nice body.
I got to my knees first, then managed to get vertical. Woozy as fuck, but steady, holding onto the metal banister for support.
You’ve got this,I reassured myself.
