Page 128 of House of Crimson Cloak and Silver Teeth

“What—”

I feel invisible chains wrapping around my limbs. Every muscle in my body suddenly locks. It's as if someone has reached into my body and switched off every nerve at once.

My heart rate spikes but my body won’t respond. It has stopped obeying me entirely. I’m a prisoner in my own flesh. I can’t even twitch my fingers. This is the most terrifying sensation I’ve ever experienced. The air turns colder and denser until it’s hard for me to breathe.

Kitty makes a small, terrified sound. It’s barely more than a whimper.

Something is behind us. I can feel it.

Fear crawls under my skin and sinks into my bones.

“What do we have here?” It speaks.

The voice is young and childlike, like a little girl who’s found something interesting in the garden. “A dog and a cat.”

I try to turn my head to see what’s behind me. Every ounce of will I possess goes into that single movement. But my neck might as well be carved from stone.

The voice is so close I should feel its warm breath on my skin. But instead the temperature has dropped. I have the absolute certainty that if I could see what’s behind me, the sight would break my mind.

“You strayed too far from home, boy.”

The survival instinct I’ve built over years of killing screams at me to run or fight. But my body is a prison. I’m completely fucking helpless.

I’ve faced death before… I’ve stared it down more times than I can count. I've been shot, stabbed, and beaten within an inch of my life. Hell, I’ve stood on execution platforms with my hands bound and a noose around my neck. I know what a blade at your throat feels like.

None of those moments compare to this.

Because this is nothing like death. It is pure terror that bypasses all of my training and strips me down to nothing but a frightened animal that knows it’s about to be torn apart. A prey recognizing a predator it can’t fight or flee from.

Shit, shit, shit. I’m going to die.

Right here on this tree. This thing behind me is going to kill me and there is nothing I can do to stop it.

I can hear soft, desperate sobs from Kitty. She sounds so broken and terrified. In years of working together, I’ve never heard her cry. Not when she had to dig an arrow out of her own leg with a heated knife.

“I should kill you right now,” the dark presence says casually.

My mind fractures and shows me every death I’ve ever witnessed. The images flash through my consciousness. Pictures of every murder and kill come faster and overlap. They flood my mind all at once, overwhelming and drowning me.

An endless nightmare of pain and horror.

This is what I’ve given to others. All the death I’ve dealt, all the violence I’ve committed. That’s what’s coming for me.

Movement pierces through my tunnel vision.

My eyes, the only part of me that still responds, move down in the garden. Rhianelle has turned around. She’s standing and looking directly at this tree. Her face has gone white and her eyes are wide.

She can see it.

Whatever’s behind us, she can see it. Her mouth moves and though I can’t hear the words but I can read her lips.

“Blight, no.”

Suddenly I can breathe again.

Air rushes into my lungs, sweet and cold. The invisible chains vanish as suddenly as they appeared. My lungs drag in air like I’ve been drowning. Each breath hurts and burns, but I don’t care. I’m breathing. The simple act feels like the greatest gift I’ve ever received. Kitty gasps beside me. I can hear her shaking, the branch creaking under her trembling weight.

Rhianelle's eyes meet mine across the distance. There’s something in that gaze. Then she turns and walks away, disappearing down the garden path. The cats scatter ahead of her, spooked.