Page 64 of Curse of Darkness
The heat drains from my face. There’s no way we can escape them all. There are simply too many.
“We just have to make it to the Hallow. Up.” Finn whips me to my feet and starts yanking me toward the path leading to the Hallow. “Curse it. Where the fuck is Eris?”
The forest whips past, bleached trees reaching toward the sky with skeletal branches. Something enormous crashes through the forest toward us.
“What in the Darkness is that?” I scream, a branch catching me across the face as I leap over a rock.
“I’d really rather not find out!” A hand shoves me in the middle of the back. “Faster!”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
My lungs heave for breath. My heart races. I can feel it in my chest. Hear it in my head. The Hallow. My heart echoes with the pulsing beat of its magic.
My thighs burn as we both sprint up the hill.
A loud crash echoes behind me.
I shoot a quick glance over my shoulder as Finn hauls one of the sluagh to the ground, cutting its throat.
“Run!” he yells at me, then his eyes shift over my shoulder and he lifts his arm and throws his knife directly at me.
I fling my arms up, but the knife hisses past my ear.
And then a shadow falls just in front of me.
I leap over it, not daring to look back.
The Hallow looms ahead, pulsing like it’s calling to me in distress.
I’m here,I whisper to it.I’m coming.
The stones start to glow, all the runes chiseled into their surface lighting up as if they can sense me.
“Eris!” Finn yells, and his sword clashes with another behind me.
Ripples of light paint over the rocky hill as he fights for his life. I can’t just leave him here. I can’t— But he’s wielding the Sword of Mourning. With it, he can’t fall.
Can he? Not even to the host of the dead?
If they get their hands on you and Thiago’s soul, then it’s all over….
I hate this decision, but I have to think as a queen now. My feet fly over the stone, my desperate gaze locking on the Hallow…
And an enormous shadow ripples over me.
No. No.No. I sprint up the rocky path, gravel flying behind me as I risk a glance.
There’s a winged figure above me, his pale skin marked with hundreds of sprawling tattoos.
The locket burns hot against my throat.
And then something slams between my shoulder blades—like a boot.
I stagger forward, trying to right my feet, but it’s to no avail. My palms graze along the gravel, a hot sting searing my skin as I crash face-first into the path and skid along the shale.
Terror sweeps through me.The locket.Its familiar weight fills my palm as I grab it and roll, my magic bunched within me—
There’s nothing there.
