Page 23 of Surviving Hallow Hill
I ignore Rue’s commentary and turn to Styx, who looks awkward about the confession. He doesn’t meet my gaze, but keeps scribbling lines into the floor. He doesn’t have to tell me for me to know why he hasn’t had candy before.
His fucking asshole family.
My blood boils just thinking about the abuse he went through, and I want to shove my blade through their stupid shifter faces.
“When we get out of here, I’ll buy you all the fucking candy you want,” I say.
Because wewillget out of here. I refuse to accept any other outcome.
Styx looks up at me with his brilliant eyes, and the side of his lip quirks up in a smile. “We have company.”
That’s all the warning I get before Rue and Sia burst into our space, holding sacks filled with clanking metal that they drop unceremoniously onto the ground. Blood seeps from the bag, and I scrunch my nose at it, then look between them.
“What?” Rue shrugs. “He’s the one who wanted a semi-alive body.” The bag twitches, and Rue delivers a swift kick to it. “We also got supplies of the metal variety.”
“We had to carve pieces off of the dead things,” Sia adds in a dead tone that just shows how much fun he had doing that. None at all, apparently.
A clattering of metal tears my attention away from Sia and Rue to see Styx. His head is tilted, nostrils flaring wildly. A growl emits from his chest that’s menacing. “We aren’t alone...”
I’m on my feet with my sword in my hand and whirling before the words are out of his lips and turning towards the entrance, where two figures glide through as if they own the fucking place.
“Ah, shit.” Sia groans, throwing his head back to look at the ceiling.
Rue sighs and massages his temples. “Itoldyou not to follow us...”
“Now, why would I listen to you?” The figure that speaks steps forward, although “steps” isn’t really the right way to describe it. She slides in, prowls, movements sensual. She uses her whole body to take two simple steps, moving her hips, her breasts... Like she’s a fucking snake slithering out of a charmer’s basket.
In a few seconds, I have every contour of her body memorized. Wide hips, long legs, and a huge rack that dreams are made of are molded into a crimson jumpsuit. Plump lips curve into a smile, and enormous, amused eyes take me in with what I’m going to call reverence. Because there’s no way this bitch is sizing me up like I’m prey.
“Who the fuck are you?” I demand. Really, when did I become an ask-questions-first, kill-later kind of witch? I really need to up my game.
Her pretty smile gets even wider. “Maybe you should be asking your little boy toys that question...”
Her words are so full of insinuation that I stiffen. Jealousy, hot like an iron rod, stabs through my body, jolting my senses to life. I try not to let it overpower me so the scent of it isn’t picked up by anyone around me.
It’s a feeling that’s completely foreign and irrational. Obviously, if the red jumpsuit is anything to go by, they were on the same team. “Were” being the operative word here. But she has a sultry tilt to her words that makes it seem likemore.
Before I can say anything, though, a second figure clad in a bright yellow jumpsuit nudges the bitch aside by the hip and makes herself known.
The sword almost clatters from my grip at the sight of the familiar woman.
“Hi!” She waves in an animated fashion. “Damn, I thought I’d never see you again. Dr. Hyde got me and threw me into the pit, and I said to myself, ‘Damn, girl, you should have said goodbye to Em, at least.’ And now here we are. Different teams, but reunited. How crazy is this shit?”
Oh. Thank the Holy Lady she’s fine and still so, so damn annoying. I missed her!
“Kira!”
I run at her, slamming her small frame into my body and wrapping my arms around her. She smells like sunshine and death, a lethal combination that somehow fits this bombshell of a dragon.
She’s alive. She’s safe, at least, as safe as one can be in the Hallow.
She’s the one we got ourselves locked up for. The one we wanted to save. And here she is.
Emotion clogs my throat almost painfully as one arm snakes around her waist.
“Kira, Lady of Death, I was so fucking worried about you! What happened?”
Kira pulls away and smiles, full with teeth. “I know, right? It was crazy. I went in for my checkup with the good old doctor and bam, wham, next thing you know, I’m in the darkness. I wake up with this fashion atrocity on—” She gestures wildly down her body. “—and in the Hallow. Never thought I’d see the Hallow, let me tell you. I was never a bad girl at the academy, but I am one of the last living dragons. Maybe that’s why he threw me in here? I don’t know, or maybe it was because I lit Gavin’s dick on fire the day before I was taken...”
