Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
But what he thought was something we never got to hear. Because at that moment, my fingers started tingling and glowing again.
I didn’t hesitate—reaching up, I clamped my hand over the monstrous one that was closed around my throat.
“What? Ahhh!” the Mr. Price Monster screamed.
I could feel the power rushing through me—the mysterious energy that somehow changed what I touched. And this time, I did my best to direct it.
Faster! I thought at it. Faster—more!
My internal directions seemed to work because the hand wrapped around my throat was turning to gold fast—too fast for Mr. Price to squeeze my throat and kill me, thank goodness.
“No—no!” he roared and grabbed at his right arm—which was rapidly turning to either gold or a metal that looked like gold—and tried to pull it free.
He wasn’t successful—his long curving claws had wrapped almost all the way around my throat and they weren’t coming loose. But the momentary distraction was all the opening Tark needed.
With a deafening roar, he rushed forward and swung his axe just once, lopping off my boss’s head as neatly as man might swing a golf club. Mr. Price’s head went flying in a gout of black blood that spurted from the stump of his neck and then oozed all over the place.
His body remained in place for a second, then it crumpled to the ground, one long, golden hand still wrapped around my throat.
Tark was kneeling by me at once.
“Harmony? Baby?” he asked anxiously. “Are you okay? Please say you’re okay!”
“Get it off me!” I was yanking at the golden arm with my one free hand. “Please—get it off!”
“Stop touching it,” Tark said, frowning. “I think you’re the one that’s doing that—you’re turning him to gold, somehow.”
Indeed, the dead body of my old boss was continuing to turn to gold, right before my eyes. I realized that I was still clutching as the monstrous hand around my throat and yanked my hand away.
But it didn’t seem to help. No more of Mr. Price’s body turned to gold…but the golden part didn’t turn back to flesh either. I waited for a moment, hoping it would change but it just wouldn’t.
So there I was, lying on my side on the ground, still zip-tied to the chair by one wrist and both ankles, facing the dead body of a monster with a golden arm which was locked around my throat.
I can’t deny, I started to lose it.
“Please, get me out of here! Get it off of me! Please!” I begged Tark.
“I’m trying, Babygirl!” He did his best to pry the golden fingers from around my neck, but they were fused together and even he couldn’t break the solid bar of gold they had become. He tried, but he couldn’t get his own fingers between them and my throat without choking me.
At last he had to resort to chopping the arm off with his axe, just above the elbow which was where the gold part ended when I had let go of it to stop my magic. Then, kneeling beside me, he drew a knife out of his boot and quickly cut the zip-ties that held me to the chair.
I tried to sit up but the golden arm hanging from my throat was incredibly heavy. It was literally like trying to lift myself with an anchor tied around my neck.
“Here, baby—I’ve got you.” Slinging his axe over his back, Tark lifted me in his arms and carried me—golden arm and all—out of the abandoned apartment.
15
HARMONY
“How did you know where to find me?” I asked, when I had finished crying. Because yes, I shed some tears—I’d just been through a near-death experience and it wasn’t quite over yet. Not until I got the damn golden arm off of my neck. It felt like some grisly necklace and it was extremely heavy lying on my chest and abdomen as it was.
“I had a feeling about an hour ago that something wasn’t right with you,” Tark rumbled, looking down at me. He had carried me through the whole building, going down several flights of stairs since there was no power and the elevator didn’t work. It gave me a whole new appreciation of his strength because I swear the damn golden arm weighed as much as I did!
“You…had a feeling? But why?” I asked, looking up at him.
“Dunno.” He shrugged. “Maybe because of your magic coming out while I was, you know, making you come. It formed some kind of connection between us. Anyway, I just knew you were in trouble. I went to Goodie Albright right away and asked her to make me a finding spell and then draw a door. She was able to get me in the same basic area as you—I just didn’t know which apartment you were in until I heard you shouting.”