Page 48 of Grotesque
If I thought Corban had looked angry before, he looked positively livid now. His dark hair was disheveled, his angular face twisted into something downright monstrous. His fangs, already razor sharp, looked absolutely lethal as his forked tongue lashed against them, he was almost out the window himself. “You’ll wish you were dead by the time I’m done with you.”
Just a little bit farther. I reached for the lattice at the same time he reached for me. I didn’t consider that the structure was old and possibly fragile. The moment his talons brushed against my shoulder I jumped. I felt the breath leave my lungs as I landed on the lattice, a few feet lower than the roof, with a loud thwack, my fingers scrabbling for purchase between the slats. My feet slid through the ivy, leaves fluttering around me as the impact shook them loose.
“Sorcha!”
This time when I looked back at Corban I caught the shock – or was that fear? – on his face, before he quickly replaced it with a mask of rage. He sat back on his strong haunches and looked down at me, eyes flashing between red, green, and black. The shift in his countenance might have been comical under any other circumstance. If this had been a cartoon, steam would have been coming out of his ears.
“Looks like I win.” Maybe it was the rush in my blood that made me tease him. Or perhaps some sick part of me liked toying with him as he had me these last few nights.
Corban shifted forward onto his hands and crawled toward me. The movement seemed unnatural, his limbs appearing somehow longer, more animalistic from this angle. I swallowed as I managed to get my foot onto one of the slats and slowly lowered myself down, not once taking my eyes off him, even once I reached the ground.
He leered down at me, his eyes impossibly dark. “There is no world in which you beat me.”
I took a couple of steps back, throwing my arms wide. “You have to touch me to win and you—” I pointed, “—can’t leave the house. Rules are rules.”
Poised atop the roof, his claws digging into the gutter, Corban blinked. The reflective glow in his eyes was there, as it had been the night before, as it had been every night, but I was only just starting to acknowledge just how frightening that was. From where I stood, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the monsters guarding the manor, with their fanged snarls and arched backs. All with the same granite grey skin.
“Close,” he had said. Gargoyles were symbols of protection and as Corban rose slowly, I knew without a doubt he wasn’t a guardian. He did look like Rosaline’s angel, though. A vengeful angel perfectly cast in stone.
Corban dropped to the ground in a single quiet movement. The impact of his landing sent me stumbling back so quickly that I tripped, seating myself heavily on the hard earth. He folded his hands in front of him and said, matter-of-factly, “I’ll give you twenty seconds this round.”
The earth was spongey beneath my feet as I flew across it, into the waiting arms of the crooked trees. My palms were scratched and burning from my fall, stinging all the worse as my nails bit into them, fists clenched as I ran like my life depended on it.
I felt it the moment Corban started to pursue me. A great sweeping shadow of dread shrouded me, threatening to pull me down despite the extra kick of adrenaline. Perhaps he was Death after all, a reaper come to steal my soul.
Branches tugged at my hair, one scraped my arm and then another was slapping me across the face as I hurled myself forward. OfcourseCorban could leave the house. I’d seen him standing in the yard once, after all, hadn’t I? But no, like the first idiotic girl to die in a horror movie, I’d taken it literally when he’d said he was a part of the manor.
Fear nipped at my heels, urging me faster. I had no idea where I was going or how large the forest was. I just knew that I couldn’t stop. Once I did, once he grabbed hold of me, I was lost. Not just because he would win this game, but because I had a feeling that once he did, I’d never escape his clutches again. Not that I really wanted to – he wouldn’t even have to take my soul, if thatwaswhat he was after. I would give it to him willingly.
The ground shifted beneath me as my foot landed in a soft patch of moss, my ankle twisting as momentum careened me forward and down. I hit the ground with a cry, barely catching myself on my palms, shredding them the rest of the way. I threw my head back, biting my lip to stifle the sob of pain that threatened to tear out of my throat.
Utter stillness enveloped me.
I held my breath to better listen. There was no trace of nighttime birdsong, not a single insect chirped. Even the wind had died. There was absolute silence. I knew creatures went quiet when a predator was close, but surely, I would be able to hear him. Corban was huge, he would be loud. Then again, hewasmagic. I probably wouldn’t be able to hear him unless he wanted me to.
I gripped the base of the tree beside me as I tried to right myself. Blistering pain wrapped around my ankle, but I forced weight onto it, testing it gingerly. I let out a shuddering breath and started hobbling forward. There wasn’t time to waste when I knew my twenty seconds were already up.
I was alert to every snapping twig, every shifting shadow as I crept forward, but there was no sign of Corban. It didn’t matter though, I couldfeelhim there with me in the darkness. Every hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
A patch of soft light filtered between the trees up ahead, a beacon leading me out of the maze. A neighboring property? Istepped out from between the final trees and came to a jarring halt.
“No,” I said, spinning back around to find the tree line now well behind me.
Ahead of me stood Glamis Manor, in all its glory. Each window glowed with warm light, as if to mock me. I might have been running through the woods blindly but IknewI had been running straight. There wasn’t any way for me to have completely turned myself around, and stumbled out into the field, only yards away from where I had entered the forest minutes before.
“What the fuck? This isn’t possible.”
A patch of darkness moved. Out of the shadows cast by my car in the driveway, spilled the tall form of a man. Corban. He looked perfectly composed, his brow free of sweat and clothes finely pressed and tailored. Had he chased me at all, or had he been waiting until I ran straight back into his arms?
“You’re only able to leave Glamis when I allow it,” he said.
My stomach dropped. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
He tsked. “No need to fear dove,” he said prowling forward. “I only intend to keep you here for our games. Which—” he plucked the front of my shirt, “—I’ve won again.”
“You can keep me here?” I breathed.
“Of course I can.” His eyes glimmered like rare jewels. He reached for me, one hand wrapping around my throat and the other lacing through the back of my hair. “I can keep you wherever I like. Put you in any position I want.”
