Page 7 of Lost and Stolen Gods
Terror squeezed my lungs, and a shrill scream worthy of a horror movie heroine tore from my throat.
A hand slapped over my mouth, and the scent of earth, moss, and something coppery filled my nose.
Hands on my ankles.
Hands on my calves.
Climbing my leg to slip under my skirt.
A bubble expanded in my chest, the horror loaning me a fresh wave of strength. I bucked and rolled, squashing the creature on my back against the ground with a roar before kicking out at the one who was groping my legs. Fear whited out my mind, and somehow, I was on my feet, running once more.
If they caught me, then Nani’s sacrifice would have been in vain. I couldn’t let that happen, wouldn’t let them have me.
A man appeared on the road ahead. Shrouded in shadow, he walked head bowed.
“Help! Help me!”
He looked up, and moonlight kissed his face. A face that was all wrong—too thin, too sharp—the eyes gleaming like rubies. He flicked his wrist, and something wrapped around my ankle. My foot was pulled out from beneath me. The world tipped. I threw up my hands, the action futile as I fell backwards. Sharp pain lanced through my skull, a loud pop filled my ears, and my vision blacked out.
“Check her, do it quickly,” a male voice said.
I groaned, desperate to open eyelids that refused to cooperate.
“She’s a fighter,” a scratchy voice said breathlessly.
Their hands were on me again, pinching and moving my limbs, and oh god, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t fight back.
“Can’t find it,” another voice said. Softer. The creature with coal eyes?
“It must be there,” the man said. “We would not have been drawn here otherwise.”
Rough hands on my knees, and something slipped between my legs. Adrenaline burned a path through me, and my eyes snapped open to find the man crouched between my thighs. He looked up, ruby eyes glinting in the moonlight and bared needle-sharp teeth in a hiss that turned my blood to ice.
A wave of dizziness assaulted me as my heart raced too hard, too fast. “Don’t…please…don’t.”
A semblance of comprehension swept over his awful features.
“Your virtue is safe, mortal. It is your soul that we come for.” He broke eye contact and looked down at the mark on my inner thigh.
Where the fuck had that come from?
“We were not steered wrong,” he said.
“We did good?” one of the smaller monsters asked, hopping from foot to foot.
“Yes, Sprigg, you did good.”
The fact that I could understand these creatures should have surprised me, but the fact that I had a monster man between my thighs took up all my focus. Pleading to be set free was pointless, I knew this with a gut deep intuition, so instead, my mind scrolled through a series of questions begging to be asked. Whywere they after me? What did they want with me? “What are you?”
He smiled, thin and wicked. “My name is Rathor, and I’ve come to take you to your new home.”
He blew a warm, fragrant breath at my face.
“Wha—what did you dooo…?”
The sky rushed down to swallow me.
Chapter 4
