Page 19 of Whispers of Ruin
The monsters hissed, spit, and wrestled as their brethren ripped them backward, slammed them off the ground, and pounced on them. They bashed each other’s heads off the stairs before climbing over their unconscious victims.
Now that they were closer, the hundreds of glistening white bones scattered around the base of the stairs and across the sky became clearer. Some of those bones still had chunks of meat hanging from them, and most were too big to belong to these creatures, but some did.
What are these things? And why are they here?
While walking here, Brokk was so focused on figuring out what the green mass and bones were that he hadn’t noticed the steps until they were closer, but now his gaze fixated on the stairs stretching toward the trees. At the very top, the stairs ended at a door at the top of a tree.
The way out!
He was so excited to see it that he forgot about the vile little monsters and stepped toward the stairs. When Kaylia gripped his arm, her nails dug into his flesh as she looked from him to the creatures and back again.
“They’re gremlins,” she whispered.
Brokk’s eyebrows shot up. He’d heard of the mischievous, often volatile and violent creatures before but never encountered them. Yet here they were, in a mirror realm, beating each other up and down the stairs while making awful, guttural, and animalistic sounds.
He studied the creatures blocking their way toward the door. Right now, none of the little monsters had seen them as they remained focused on their lethal game, but that could change, and if it did, he suspected the gremlins’ focus would shift tothem.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
“What are they doing here?”he whispered.
“I don’t know, but it can’t be good. They destroy everything they touch.”
“They’re blocking the exit.”
“There will be another one.”
But he didn’t want to wait for another one. Brokk examined their shadows spreading out behind them as the sun sank lower.
They could use their swords to carve through the devilish creatures, but the gremlins far outnumbered them. While the gremlins were currently focused on killing each other, they’d turn on him and Kaylia the second they saw them.
“I can cloak us,” he said. “Then we can get closer to see if we can get past them, but you’ll have to get closer to me.”
Brokk frowned at the flicker of unease that crossed her face before she bit her bottom lip, and her gaze darted away. Anger settled into the pit of his stomach; he’d believed she wasn’t as annoyed or disgusted by him as she once was.
At least not after last night andeverythingthey’d endured together in this Valley and Dragonia. They’d fought together, and he’d followed her into this fucking mirror realm to ensure she stayed safe, yet shestilldidn’t like the idea of getting closer to him.
He was fine to keep her from freezing to death, but he was well aware of the distance she’d kept from him most of the day. They hadn’t exactly walked side-by-side since entering Doomed Valley, but they’d always been within a few feet of each other.
Now, she’d stayed at least ten feet away from him all day and barely spoken a word. He didn’t know what had changed between last night and today, but he was sick of this shit.
So what if he was a half vampire? He’d considered himself her friend, yet she didn’t want to get close enough for him to cloak her too. Between him and a bunch of little green monsters who would most likely eat them, he considered himself the better option.
Kaylia didn’t agree.
If she preferred to walk through them without any protection, that was fine; he sure wasn’t going to try anything so stupid. “Or you can walk through them on your own.”
Kaylia gave him a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I’d prefer not to.”
When he stared expectantly at her, she took a deep breath and moved to within an arm’s length of him. Brokk couldn’t suppress his irritation as he scowled at her.What is her problem?
“I’m not going to bite you,” he grated from between his teeth as he kept one eye on the creatures. “And it’s only a matter of time before they notice us, so you’ll have to get closer, or they’ll come for us. Our shadows are the only ones I can use, and they’re not enough to keep us cloaked unless we’re closer together.”
Their eyes clashed as she threw her shoulders back and lifted her chin before moving to stand beside him. When their arms brushed, she gulped.
Brokk’s teeth ground back and forth as his hands fisted. While he hadn’t expected her to jump in his bed after last night, he’d thought it brought them a little closer together and forged a new bond between them.
Apparently, it had made her determined to get further away from him. And since he had a conscience, he couldn’t leave her there exposed, like a part of him wanted to do.
