Page 28 of Necromance
It was obvious he not only had a fiancé but a lover as well.
No wonder his betrothed cursed him…
I turned my back to him, not wanting to see that smirk, that look that always made my heart race, in case he was about to say something that would only make it worse.Something that would make me want to step back into his arms all over again.
“I’m going to sleep,” I said, turning my gaze on the bed in the room. It certainly wasn’t as grand as the one in my bedchamber, but it would do for the night.
“Mia,” he said, his tone tight as if a warning, but I wasn’t looking. I couldn’t. I couldn’t let myself fall into whatever strange spell he’d cast over me, whether intentionally or not.
“Good night, Lucien,” I said firmly, but when I turned back to face him, he was already gone.
I groaned as I plopped down on the mattress, a puff of layered dust enveloping me as I did so. I coughed, waving the obnoxious haze away as I choked for air.
Karma. It was a prickly thing and I deserved it forwhat I’d said to him.
**********
I couldn’t breathe.
I awoke with a start, a cold, suffocating pressure wrapped around my throat. My lungs seized. I tried to gasp, but the air wouldn’t come. The haze of sleep banished instantly when I remembered my surroundings. I wasn’t in my warded bedchamber.
Panic surged through me as my hands flew to my neck, fingers clawing at the invisible grip pressing into my skin… It wasn’t invisible. It was hands. Cold, bony, impossibly strong fingers curling tighter, pressing into my flesh.
I tried to move, but my body felt leaden, weighed down by an unseen force. My limbs refused to obey. A heavy, paralyzing dread settled over me as my eyes adjusted to the darkness.
And then—I saw her.
A figure loomed over me, straddling my chest. Long, black hair hung in thick, slick strands over her face and shoulders, dripping as if she’d just crawled out of some damp, rotting grave. The air around her reeked of decay, of something putrid and dead.
I fought to scream, to shove her off, but the pressure at my throat only grew stronger. My pulse thundered in my ears. My vision blurred at the edges.
The woman let out a garbled, wet sound—a noise that sent ice lancing through my veins.
She leaned closer. The strands of her hair parted just enough for me to see her face.
I wished they hadn’t.
It was Serena, but not the beauty from the portrait, no… it was the Serena from my vision. Grotesque, decaying, and dead.
Sunken, hollow sockets stared back at me, crawling with writhing things that moved in the pits where her eyes should have been. Her lips, cracked and peeling, pulled back into a grin, revealing jagged, rotting teeth.
A noise clawed up my throat—a strangled, desperate cry. My body bucked against her weight, terror giving me enough strength to finally move.
She didn’t budge.
The pressure around my throat was unbearable now, spots of darkness creeping into my vision. My limbs trembled with the effort to fight her off.
I was going to die.
No… no, I refused to let this thing take me.
My magic hummed beneath my skin, begging to be used, but I couldn’t quite grasp it. My mind was too frozen in fear. With everything I had left in me, I forced my hand up, shoving against her chest. I pulled my magic, commanding it to sway death. It did little to the cursed creature. Serena merely jolted back slightly, but it was just enough. The pressure around my throat loosened, for a fraction of a second.
Isucked in a breath and screamed.
“Lucien!”
The room erupted with movement. A sudden gust of wind howled through the chamber, knocking over the bedside candle and sending shadows lurching across the walls. The specter shrieked as a dark force slammed into her, ripping her away from me.
