Page 95 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood
“What’s not?”
“This is your garden, but things are not the same as they are in the world above.”
I study my sanctuary carefully. He’s right. Everything is in its right place, but the bones are all wrong. I don’t recognize the shapes.
The more I look, the more my excitement shifts to anxiety. The bones don’t match up with any animal or human I’ve seen.
A sudden howling from outside the garden walls has me whipping around.
“What was that?” My heart thumps so hard it feels like it’s choking me.
The sound comes again. I follow it, staring at the stone wall, imagining the monster it belongs to. The creature is moving. Turning, I realize whatever it is is getting closer to the hidden entrance.
“Harrow…”
He comes to the same conclusion at that moment. Shadows rush forward, sealing the entrance. There’s a loud pounding from the other side of the new black wall.
“It can’t get through that, right?”
Harrow’s focus remains on the wall. The pounding stops. Scratching takes its place. The sound moves higher and higher.It’s climbing the walls.
More shadows materialize. They encircle the garden walls before shooting upward. A full veil covers the roof until aswirling black canopy shields our view of the sky above. They finish forming not a second too soon.
Six heavy feet track a path along the rooftop barrier. I can’t see what kind of creature it is, only the way its weight displaces the shadows as it moves. It’s somethingbig. Is this the monster that roams the castle territory? What of the ghosts in the windows? Are they a separate entity? I’m starting to think every nook and cranny on these grounds has its own nightmares.
Another howl from above sends goosebumps up my arms. It’s answered by a second howl from the ground level. I try to imagine what they could be. Wolves? Beasts? Some monstrous mutation of a beautiful woodland creature? Things here are more terrifying than anything I’ve concocted in even my most memorable nightmares.
“They can’t get in here, can they?” I can’t school the trembling in my voice.
Harrow shakes his head, pulling me in closer. “My shadows will hold. Nothing will harm you while I’m by your side.”
His beautiful face grounds me. The angles of his cheeks and sharpness of his jaw lend me strength. The sounds of the creatures outside the walls continue. Their howls and growling send fear pulsing through me, but watching Harrow, so confident in his ability to protect me, settles my nerves. That masculine assuredness has something melting low in my belly.
My fingers bury into the pale blond hair that rests in shiny pieces between the dark spikes of his crown. He tilts his head into my touch and a strand falls into his eyes.Those eyes.I’m so caught up in them, the way the silver shines like starlight, that I almost miss the rattling that’s coming from behind me.
I recognize the moment Harrow hears it too. His irises darken and shadows flood the whites.
His voice is a low warning. “We’re not alone.”
His gaze shifts over my shoulder and my stomach plummets. There’s aclack, clack, clack, like wooden blocks being stacked on one another. Some new nightmare is coming to life behind me, and Harrow has just sealed us in here with it.
Chapter 30
Harrow
The thing taking shape behind Lenore has already surpassed my height. Bones from all around the garden shudder as they’re dragged toward the ever-growing skeletal figure.
Lenore’s terror-filled eyes stare up at me. She can hear the thing materializing behind her, but she hasn’t seen it yet.
“Don’t turn around.”
Lenore has sense enough not to fight me or ask why. The bone-crafted creature has already absorbed three separate spinal columns. Ribs click into place, running the length of its back. A dozen or more misshapen femurs cluster up at the very end of the bone-monster’s new tail. They form a sphere-like cage with one loose bone in the center. A massive, heart-shaped skull flies to the top, righting itself and turning side to side.
The new body twists and writhes, bones grinding against one another. The action is followed by the swift rise of its tail. With a violent shake, it swishes the tip back and forth, rattling the bone within. When it’s satisfied with the new positioning, the creature raises its new head and bellows.
A giant fucking snake. Perfect.
To Lenore’s credit, she hasn’t turned back. She flinches, hands flying to her ears when the creature releases its monstrous sound. The bone-snake’s jaw unhinges, revealing an array of broken bones filling the top and bottom of its mouth. Each piece looks sharp enough to puncture straight through a human torso.
