Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
His confessions would’ve made her heart stutter if their lives hadn’t been on the line. Feelings had blindsided this poor, bewildered male.
“A split second after I realized I wasn’t strong enough to stay away from you any longer, I heard your sister threatening Desh.”
What was that saying? Sometimes fate doesn’t bother being subtle. Poppy tightened her arms around Rök’s neck.
A different kind of nightmare, a goblin with a pumpkin head and green-stalk body, lumbered up the stairs carrying an ax.
“Jack O’Lantern.” Poppy itched for a pouch to wipe that weird leer off its gourd. “Watch out for its—”
Stalk tentacles whipped out, coiling around Rök’s legs.
“—stalk tentacles.”
Rök dodged an ax blow, then swung his sword to sever the stalks. They grew back in a flash, lashing out at him.
With Poppy tucked against him, Rök evaded another ax strike, then slashed the pumpkin head. Two orange halves thudded to the stairs, seeds oozing out like brain matter. The misshapen body and stalks collapsed and withered. Rök kicked free and sidled past the remains, sheathing his sword.
Poppy, dogged, kept at him. “How could I have a say in this—denying you or not—if I don’t know my options?”
Cradling her in his arms, he vaulted over a series of missing steps. “I’m laying everything on the line now. I want you. For all time.” Never slowing their flight, he held her gaze. “Is my entire life’s objective—the most important mission of them all—doomed to failure?”
He ran down the steps. They stared at each other. He ran.
“Well, Red? Don’t leave me hanging.”
Her chin tilted up a notch.
“Hell, yeah!” he exclaimed. “Let’s survive this night and then sort our shit out.”
“It’s a lot of shit to sort. You left me hanging for years! What were you thinking? When did acting noble ever work out for mercs like us?”
He’d given her time. The one thing she hadn’t wanted from him. Now she felt out of time.
“Noble won’t happen again, love.”
A landing appeared! When they reached the floor, she wanted to kiss it. Three doors awaited them. “Which one?”
Rök chose the closest. “This looks good.”
From the other side, a whispery sound slithered into her hearing. Kill kill kill puh puh puh. “Wait!”
Rök had already opened the door, coming face-to-face with the gigantic camp slasher. Behind his mask, a murderous hunger burned in his eyes. The machete he carried glinted in the dim hall light.
Rök dropped Poppy and readied his sword. When the machete flashed out, Rök blocked the blade with his own, then doubled back for a swift hit. His sword struck true; the slasher’s hand and machete flew into the air. Never slowing his momentum, Rök targeted the madman’s legs, severing them above the knee with one gory sweep.
Blood spurted as the slasher collapsed to the floor.
“Come on, Poppy, keep moving!”
As Rök urged her away, she glanced back at the writhing slasher. He grunted manically, a thrill killer denied his prey.
How could that thing be connected to her? Why this curse? Why nightmares? Was it because she’d always liked spooky stories?
With more caution, Rök opened the next door. No bogeys awaited them. He and Poppy dashed from the castle, only to be greeted by a thorny wall of hedges in an outdoor courtyard.
“Outside, finally!” Rök tried to trace them, but they didn’t budge. “We’re still within the castle’s boundary?”
She glanced up at the rain pattering against an invisible barrier. “Looks like.”
Rök jerked his chin at the sole opening in the dense hedge. “That’s a labyrinth.”
“With a twist.” Poppy recognized that thorny species. Her sister Sage joked that its Latin name should be Sittingus Duckingus. “Those briars carry a paralytic agent.” Though the plants appeared to have been dead for some time, their thorns would still be toxic.
“I can vault over them.”
“One scratch for either of us, and we’d be helpless for hours.” Sitting ducks. “Let’s head back. The landing had a third door.” They’d just turned in that direction when children’s laughter sounded, accompanied by the tip-tap of little shoes. “Shit! Annelise and her friends are back.”
HISSSSSS. StStSt. HISSSSSS.
“Aliens too,” Rök said. “Looks like we’re heading into the maze.”
“Halloween labyrinths never work out well for the maze-goer.”
“Open to ideas.”
“Okay, we’ll go. But not one scratch. Remember, I don’t have any pouches left to help us.”
“Got it.” Gravel crunched beneath their boots as they started in. Overgrown limbs seemed to stretch toward them, thorny fingers grasping. He hacked at them with his sword.
As they hastened down the prickly corridor, creaking metal sounded from behind them. Rök said, “Just heard something not so good.”
“Haunted suits of armor. Watch for maces. I’m feeling some ghosts too.”
Floating apparitions shook the limbs and moaned, “Whooo whooo . . .”
“When you said a tsunami of shit, you meant it.”
Yes. Because nightmares were infinite.
She and Rök had just turned the first corner when a pair of maces burst through the hedge from different directions, both heading for her face.