Page 25 of Runt's Haunted Ride
"Thank you," she said.
"No, Kai, thank you."
Then I stepped out of the tent and back into the October night, leaving my heart behind in a voodoo shrine while my mind raced with plans to tear down heaven and hell to set her free.
Chapter 8
Kai
The screaming woke me first.
My mother's voice, shrill with terror and defiance, echoed through our ancestral nest. The golden spires of the cave that had housed our Royal Phoenix Venture for millennia trembled and shook.
"Run, all of you, RUN!" My father roared, his wings already ablaze. "Try to get to the entrance and fly! Don't look back!"
But from the nest down, I couldn't move. My sitter and her hatchling were frozen in place, their bodies rigid as statues. The same paralysis magic that prevented me from moving.
And there, in the center of the entrance, stood Mortis.
The voodoo god unleashed. He towered over my father and the other adults fighting to hold him off. His frame grotesquely expanded with unnatural muscle and bulk. His limbs were too long, joints bending at wrong angles. The pale grey skin had split in places, revealing darkness underneath that writhed and pulsed.
His voice, when he spoke, terrified me. I moved my eyes to my sister. She had tears dripping off her cheeks as her eyes met mine.
"Such beauty," he said, his enormous black eyes sweeping across my family. "Such rare, precious beauty. You have no idea how long I've been searching for you, your highnesses."
"Begone from us, you monster," my mother spat. Even frozen, her voice carried power. "We will never submit to you, creature of death."
Mortis threw his head back and laughed, and I wanted nothing more than to flee. My own tears now falling.
"Submit?" He leaned toward the skull on his right, listening. "Yes, quite right." He straightened. "I don't need your submission. I need your gold."
"Our gold?" My father said. "We have no gold."
"Let's not play games. I'm fully aware of what happens when you rejuvenate." Mortis cocked his head to the other side. "Now come, you can all come with me peacefully, or I'll take you. What's your choice?"
I watched in terror as my father looked at my mother, then to the other adults around him. Each of them nodded.
"We'll not be going with you, monster," Father defiantly announced.
"We'll see." His hands began to move in slow, hypnotic patterns. A chant fell from his lips in a language I'd never heard. My sister and niece began to scream—high-pitched bird cries of agony as the magic burrowed into them. My mother's defiant expression crumbled into terror. My father flamed, trying to break the paralysis.
Scanning the room, everyone was unable to move to flee the excruciating pain. I shifted my eyes and saw my niece's distorted bird face. She'd shifted in an effort to stop the pain. The young bird threw its head back and wailed.
"Stop, please stop." Reaching the limit of what I could handle, "Leave them alone! Take me," I whimpered.
Mortis' attention snapped to me, and I knew he'd heard me, but I didn't care. The pain was debilitating, overwhelming every bit of me.
"You?" He glided closer, his too-long limbs carrying him across the golden floor. He leaned down, bringing his face to mine. He hooked a finger under my chin, raising my eyes to his. He leaned to the left. "Yes, yes, one would do." He leaned to the right. "Ah, true, one is easier to hide. Good."
"Kai, no!" my father shouted.
"Hush." Mortis snapped his fingers, and my father's mouth slammed shut.
"I wasn't expecting a sacrifice. It makes the binding easier. I'll accept it." He gazed at my niece.
"No, not her," I begged.
"No, not her." Mortis returned his gaze to me. "You." He stood and took a black bag from inside his coat, opened it, and threw a handful of dark powder on me.
