Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
I’d never seen one in person. Never thought I would.
And now I wished I never had.
The dragons immediately burst into action. Warrick and Dawn attacked from the sides. Dawn sent bolts of crackling electricity at the Shade as it entered the living room, which it deflected with its armored spider legs. Warrick grabbed a vase and launched it at the Shade. He lifted his hand and caused thick roots to burst through the floor, sending pieces of hardwood flying as they wrapped around one of the Shade’s legs.
It ripped off its own leg. Black blood sprayed across the floor.
I took a few steps back and focused on my wolf form, bringing the canine up to the surface of my being. Moments later and I was on all fours, teeth bared. Xavier pushed forward as the Shade rammed into Dawn, sending her slamming into a wall. Warrick tried to grab at it, but it stabbed out with a spider leg, hitting Warrick in the shoulder.
Xavier shot a brick of sand at its head. The Shade ducked. A hole appeared in the wall where the sand had hit. He sent another and another. One slammed into its chest and made the Shade stumble back.
I saw an opening. Fear coursed through me, but I ignored it as I leapt through the air, sinking my claws into the monster’s shoulders. We fell to the floor. I tore at its face, biting and snapping. Its inky blood filled my mouth. My stomach twisted, the acidic taste clinging to my throat.
It stabbed at me with its legs. One hit me in my thigh, making me yelp. Another smacked me across the face. I clawed at the monster’s chest, as if I were digging for the last source of water in the desert.
The Shade didn’t relent, even though its flesh looked like ripped pieces of black cloth. It lurched upward, trying to clamp that suction-like mouth around my jaws. I pulled back.
Warrick gave a loud shout from behind me. “There’s another one!”
A crash and a yell. I couldn’t look back, not without giving the advantage to the Shade. I had to finish this. I had to—
A spider leg stabbed into my shoulder, breaking through flesh. The pain seared through me. A howl ripped through my throat. The Shade lifted me up and spun me, pinning me against the wall. Its hungry black eyes looked like two depthless black holes.
Behind it was the other Shade. It had Dawn and Warrick occupied, lashing out as the two dragons tried to strike it down. Xavier was across the room. He lifted his hand to launch an attack at the Shade that had me pinned but was interrupted when Warrick was thrown against him, sending them both falling to the floor.
I tried to fight back, to struggle, but the Shade’s mouth moved like lightning, clenching around my jaw. I yelped in pain, the sound swallowed by the creature.
The sucking pressure came next. It was unbearable. Like my organs were being pulled out of place, my bones began to crack, my blood flooding in the opposite direction.
My vision started to go. The pain crested like a tidal wave.
Death would come next.
Chapter 24
Shadows And Lies
Xavier
The third Shade snuck up on me. I was so focused on getting to Blake’s side that I didn’t hear the scuttling from behind me. The ironlike spider legs wrapped around my chest and yanked me backward.
Dawn was fighting with bolts of electricity that kept bouncing off her target. Warrick had miscalculated a dodge and got cracked against the head by the Shade attacking them. He dropped to the ground, unconscious.
And then there was Blake. He’d been pinned against the far wall. He struggled against the shade, but it was useless. He’d lost his advantage. The Shade pressed up against Blake’s wolf form and latched its disgusting mouth around Blake’s maw.
No. No, no, no. Fuck no.
I managed to get a hand loose. I summoned a lethal dagger of sand and stabbed it into the Shade behind me. It let out a glass-shattering screech. The hairy spider legs let me loose as it scrambled backward. I had hit some kind of artery. Blood gushed out of its side like an oil spill. Still, it wasn’t dead.
I’d fix that. I mustered all the strength I had in me and swung my fist up, the dagger piercing through the Shade’s neck and up into its head.
It collapsed to the floor.
I spun around. Blake had maybe seconds left before he was turned to a gelatinous substance. I didn’t even have time to get across the room and fight the Shade.
Breathe. Focus. Follow the oxygen. Just like Blake had told me.
Breathe.
In and out.
I raised my arms. I had to save Blake. Breathe.
Had to save him.
A shining bow made of dense sand appeared in my grip. An arrow was notched. I pulled it back. The bowstring drew tight. I took aim. This shot couldn’t miss. It had to hit without penetrating all the way through, or it would hurt Blake as well.