Page 100 of Fires of the Forsaken
Cheriour shrugged. “The vultures will dispose of your corpse.”
“You’d leave me lying there?”
He shrugged again.
“What if I wasn’t all the way dead? What if I was unconscious?”
“Vultures aren’t finicky.”
“So much for being my mighty protector,” I grumbled.
Cheriour’s mouth twisted. Sometimes he looked like he was so,soclose to grinning. But then he’d wipe all expression off his face. Like a robot hitting the reset button.
I hated when he did that. I hated that I couldn’t read his emotions. Because a part of me got a little giddy at the thought of him finding my cheeseball quips amusing.
Or maybe fear was making me giddy. It was definitely making me sweat worse than a priest on a playground.
(Fear also made my humor wildly inappropriate.)
My sticky hands trembled around the reins. Sacrifice shook her head, her teeth grinding against the bit.
“Calm yourself, Addie,” Cheriour said.
“Calm myself,” I scoffed. “That’s a good one. We’re about to get freakingmassacred!But if I ride to my deathcalmly,everything’ll be peachy keen, right?”
Cheriour made a choking sound that100%sounded like a repressed laugh.
Be still my freaking heart!
But a sudden wave of shouting rose from the army, and all hints of Cheriour’s laughter faded.
“…arrived!”
“…several hundred…”
“Sanadrin…outnumbered…”
Everyone was screaming at once. The words were jumbled, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on. The Wraiths had arrived. There were hundreds of them. We were outnumbered.
My mouth was so dry, I couldn’t even muster up enough spit to swallow.
Next to me, Cheriour said something, but he sounded like the teacher from Charlie Brown. Like, Iheardhim, but the words were gibberish.“Wah wah woh wah wah.”
White spots flashed in front of my eyes. My chest got painfully tight.
The still-wet grass whizzed beneath Sacrifice’s churning hooves as she carried me closer and closer to the battle.
I shivered.
How could my skin be ice cold when I had sweat pouring off me?
“Addie!” Cheriour said. “Calm yourself…”
A noise rumbled through the air. An awful, gut-wrenching sound.
Screams.
And, I mean, everyone’s heard screams before. Shit, I’d gotten plenty of earfuls whenever I went to an amusement park or haunted house. But this was different. Because hearing people shriek when they were kinda scared but knew they weren’t in any real danger was totally different than hearing the outrightwailsof the dying.
