Page 102 of Curse of Darkness
I grab his wrist and for a second I don’t feel it.There has to be some mistake. There has to be—
And then the ice hits me. A cold so vicious it burns, radiating out from my abdomen. I look down, and it’s buried to the hilt inside me. This is no mortal sword. There’s no blood, nothing but a fierce kind of pain and weakness as I clap my hands over the sword where it’s buried within my womb.
The shock of it nearly stuns me.
One knee hits the cobbles as I take the sword with me.
Heat bleeds from my face. This cold will not vanish. It’s in my bones now. Seeping through my body. Smothering the flame that burns within me.
How long do I have before that creeping chill extinguishes my light?
Somehow, I find the shadows where Grimm lurks, his yellow eyes blinking in horror. “Get her… out of here.”
Malakhai grabs a fist of my hair and hauls me close enough to whisper, “Long live thequeen.”
I slide from the sword as he wrenches it free, and the loss it is almost another blow too. It hurts. It hurts so badly.
“Mama!” Amaya’s scream cuts through the ringing in my ears.
I hear a baby crying as someone wrenches it from my arms. I scream in desperation for her as she’s placed in my mother’s hands, and for a second it almost seems as though my baby reaches back….
They took her from me once.
They will not take her from me again.
Slamming a palm flat on the cobbled parapet, I reach for my heart, for my lands. The heat within me is dying, but there’s warmth there. Far below me. I just have to find it.
“This way!” Grimm tries to herd Amaya toward the tower. “Come on!”
A pulse shivers through the tower.
The Hallow’s magic swims like a leviathan beneath the surface of the lands. It vibrates through me, promising everything.
“You’re learning, little queen. You just haven’t quite figured out how to wield the gifts he gave you.” Malakhai laughs as he advances.
He?
“And that will be your undoing,” he says.
Scrambling backward, I lash out again with my thorns, reaching desperately for Finn. “Get Thiago up here now!”
Malakhai swipes them aside with his sword, advancing upon me grimly. “Yes, call him out. Bring him to me.”
I let him come, my brambles cutting bloody ruins into his legs as he strides through them. The hollow ache inside me seems to be growing. The world grows fuzzy. I just have to hold on…. Just long enough for Amaya to escape.
A shadow darts out of nowhere, launching itself upon Malakhai’s back as Amaya tries to drive a knife into his throat. “Mama!”
“Amaya! Run!”
Malakhai reaches over his shoulder for her and hauls her forward. I throw myself at him, grabbing hold of his sword arm and trying not to scream as the movement forces more of that dread chill through my veins.
“Run!” I scream at her, tearing his fingers from her shirt. “Go and find your father. Grimm!”
He grabs Amaya by the wrist, sinking his teeth into her skin. Amaya yells, but as she staggers back, she dissolves into shadows, into nothing….
Gone.
Gone with Grimm into the shadows.
