Page 78 of Faerie Fate
But it was nothing compared to the size of the shadow beyond it, something extremely large and black moving among the fallen debris.
“Get up,get up!”
Poppy yanked me by the hair until I scrambled to my feet and we ran.
The pain in my scalp matched the agony in my legs, the strain of pushing myself over debris and stalagmites rising up from the ground and the ache from where the beam had fallen on me.
The tunnel stretched into infinite darkness. The glow of her fae light caught the dark snags of scratches in the stone. Those weren’t made by weapons or machines.
They were made by claws.
Don’t look back.
Don’t look?—
The rumbling crash of the beast in mad pursuit made it impossible not to steal a glance behind. A large black beast, shapeless and terrifying, caught up to us easily. Except it wasn’t so shapeless now. Not this close.
My lungs seized, my muscles screeching in protest as the flight or fight adrenaline urged me faster than I was capable of going.
The thing moved effortlessly, burrowing through the tunnel as if it were underwater. Thick stone was no barrier for it. The creature left dust in its wake rather than rubble. Tentacles rotated seamlessly around its body and its mouth was a huge gaping maw taking up the entire front of the body.
I saw nothing but row on row of sharp spine-like teeth.
The creature spun as it burrowed. And it was much faster than we were.
When I forced my gaze away from it finally, Poppy was already several paces ahead of me. Her mended bone didn’t hamper her agility any longer and she leaped over stones and boulders like a sprinter on a track. Her fae light bobbed, growing dimmer by the second.
Run. Faster.
There was no more looking back. Not when I knew exactly what was behind us now and could imagine in awful detail how those teeth would feel chomping down.
My magic took on a life of its own. Reacting to gut instinct, the change tore through me. Limbs contorted as my physical body sought the halfling form that would make me much bigger than in my ordinary world.
Still not enough.
I needed more. I needed everything.
The creature wasn’t going to be intimidated by a halfling warrior who barely came up to its shoulder. Still sprinting, I pumped fae magic into the change to make my wolf bigger, faster.
I ducked low to avoid hitting the sharp decline of the roof of the tunnel and nudged Poppy in the back, catching up to her. The creature let out a roar at the distance between us now.
Don’t stop.
Poppy, to her credit, swallowed her screech of surprise at the Herculean wolf I’d become. I growled and dropped my head in a clear indication for her to hop on. Half a beat later, she grabbed hold of the fur at the base of my neck and jumped, wrapping her legs around my torso.
Her fae light bobbed in front of us as if with a mind of its own. The light only illuminated a scant few feet but I followed it. Or rather, it kept pace ahead of me.
A burst of speed put some much needed distance between us and the creature.
I wove in and out of tunnels to outrun it, the huffs and roars and terrible screech of claw on stone growing muted. A little further and maybe we’d be able to lose it. Although these tunnels were its home. How many more of them were out there?
The wolf thing I’d become might consider taking on the creature but the terrified human inside knew better than to press my luck.
Poppy wrapped her arms tighter around my neck. “Go, go,go!”
Her grip threatened to choke the life out of me but if it got both of us out of these fucking tunnels, then?—
The next turn brought us against a solid stone wall. I pulled up short with an exhale, my lungs straining. My clawed feet dug grooves to stop me from outright crashing.
