Page 89 of The Stone Curse
Spit it out.
Venom.
Bad.
Graynite dead.
More to kill.
We leap up, wings flaring, ready to fly at the next one when a small form dashes up alongside us.
“Get inside! Now!” Cameron cries. “You have to drop the chimera and get inside, or it will drain you.”
A warning. I need to listen, but the chimera is too strong; it wants to fight. It wants to rage.
“Sharniza, no!”
There is no Sharniza, only the beast.
CAMERON
Sharniza was too far gone. All I could do was hope I could get her into the building once her chimera blipped out. I made a dash toward Curi several yards away grappling with a granite. Until he wasn’t. He hit the ground, his body morphing to human form. The graynite raised a claw, ready to rip out his throat, and I was too far away.
A scream lodged in my throat, terror racing through me and freezing my limbs.
I was about to watch him die.
A dark figure materialized beside him, and in the next instant, Curi was gone.
Derek had him.
He was safe. My paralysis broke, and I altered my trajectory to aim for the building. Sharniza? Where was she? If I could grab her along the way, then?—
A gust of air threw back my hair, and a gigantic form landed in my path, cutting me off.
I’d seen graynites before, been surrounded by them, but this thing was several feet larger, so bulky that his shoulder muscles had swallowed his neck. But it was his bright blue eyes that held me captive, eyes I’d looked into more times than I could remember. Eyes that had smiled at me, laughed with me.
My stomach dropped, hope leaching from my body. “Romi?”
The graynite roared, spraying saliva, but I was frozen in place, my body humming with recognition, stomach trembling with the horror of it. Powerless to do anything but stare at the monster that had once been my brother.
Romi snapped his jaws shut, lowered his head, and attacked.
CHAPTER 42
CURI
One moment we’re grappling a graynite, and the next our body loses all power. I hit the ground, chimera slipping away, and the graynite looms over me, larger than life. My vision darkens. I can barely see its claws coming for my face. Arms materialize around me, and the world shatters and reconstructs itself into the testing room.
Is this a test? Am I dreaming?
Someone slaps my cheek. “Curi, hey, are you with me?” Levi says.
“I need to get my Cameron,” Derek says. “Put up the shields and I will bring her.”
“Teleport her?” Levi asks. “How the fuck did you do that?”
“Not sure. Don’t care, as long as I can do it again.”
