Page 94 of Skyshade
But there hadn’t been a storm in weeks...unless there had been one far away. Unless the beast had been hiding all this time.
Its skin was plated in patches of scales like armor, and it roared, head to the sky, as if communicating with something. It sniffed wildly in the air, and Isla realized with a start that it didn’t have eyes.
Smell. It went off smell, and hearing, similar to the creature in the mountain.
Her ankle was bleeding badly. She would need to return to the coffin later. She took off toward the maze’s entrance, limping as fast as she could, shaking hand keeping a firm grip on the book, and froze.
Three more beasts awaited her.
They smelled her immediately, the one she had kicked in the face catching up. And all Isla could do was run. Into the maze she went, ankle screaming in pain as she ran as fast as she could, weighed down by her heavy fabrics. She tucked the book into the front of her dress to keep from losing it and soaked her cloak in her own blood. When a turn came up, she threw it in the other direction, over a hedge, and watched all four creatures lunge the opposite way.
She tore back down the path, but she had turned too many times in their pursuit. The directions she had memorized were now useless.
She was lost.
Ripping sounds reached her as the cloak was turned to shreds. Then, roaring. They were hungry. They had gotten a taste of her blood and wanted more.
Isla pressed against one of the hedge walls, panting, trying to keep quiet. They would smell her here. It was little use.
The growling was right behind her now.
If she was lost, she needed to get up, atop the hedges. She felt around her person. She had two daggers. Nearly useless against the scaled beasts...but she could use them to climb.
She stuck her blade into the thick hedge and heard the creatures erupt in growls. They had sensed her.
Her other blade reached high above, and she cried out as she hauled herself up, her ankle bleeding down the plants. Just three more stabs of the hedge should do it, she told herself. Then, she would be safe. The hedge was tall; she didn’t think they could climb it.
She reached back to strike again—
And was dragged off the wall by a set of teeth.
Isla’s breath left her as her back hit the ground. All she could do was watch as four sets of teeth hovered, snarling, ready to pounce.
The book against her chest was the only thing shielding her body from being ripped open, and it didn’t stand a chance against those teeth.
The book.
Just as they leapt to finish their meal, Isla pulled the book out of her dress, hoped Aurora was right about it being cursed, and flung it open.
At first, nothing happened.
Then, an otherworldly scream cleaved through the air like a clap of thunder. Isla watched as nothing short of a demon crawled through the pages. It was winged, and sinewy, and didn’t have a face, other than a mouth with more teeth than she had ever seen in any type of beast, rows of them, sharp as stacked blades. It hit the ground in front of her, resting on the talons of its wings and even the four-legged creatures backed away.
They didn’t stand a chance. The demon lunged forward and ripped them to ribbons. Blood spattered as the creatures fought, covering Isla in it, but she wasn’t safe. Not yet. When the demon was done with the beasts, it could turn for her...and she was still lost in the maze.
She tucked the book back against her chest and began to climb.
At any moment she could be torn to shreds. She could be pulled back off the wall. She knew that, and she kept climbing and climbing,dragging her bloody ankle behind her, until she reached the top and hauled herself over it.
The castle gleamed in front of her, just beyond the gardens.
She was right. The hedges were compacted, strong. Covered in a layer of ice.
Solid enough for her to run atop them.
She should go back to the palace, before she bled out...but she turned toward the coffin, glimmering in the center of the maze.
This could be her only chance to visit it without Grim. As soon as he saw her injury, he would be suspicious. She might never get this opportunity again. “You’re going to regret this,” she said to herself, before taking off toward the glittering metal.
