Page 88 of Wicked Curses
The dwarf unlocked the weapons room and dashed inside. Weapons started to flow out as more screams pierced the air.
The warlock and a witch had fallen beneath the beetles. A light fae screamed as she ran into the library, only to have a flying scarog swoop down and catch her.
The light fae screeched as she flew into the air before crashing into the bookcase with a thud that rattled more books free. Pinned to the wall, her screams ratcheted up a level as the beetle started feeding.
Sahira couldn’t recall a time she’d been this frightened or unnerved. Even during the war, when they took down the Lord and wendigos were all around them, she hadn’t been this scared.
These things shredded their flesh and sucked out their brains. Was there anything worse?
Yes. Dying because of one of them would be worse.
“Must go!” Gromuck bellowed as Boris threw a battle-ax from the weapons room.
Gromuck swung it down on a beetle’s head, bashing it into the ground. Yellow pus exploded from the creature to coat the floor. Sahira swallowed the bile surging up her throat as she danced away from the sloppy mess.
Going would be great, but the legs and antennae of more beetles were already wrapping around the doorframe. Gromuck sliced those legs off as she stopped trying to hold the door closed and ripped it open.
They didn’t have a choice: try to get to safety or stay and die. Gripping her spear, Sahira followed Gromuck, Elsa, and Boris out the door and into chaos.
CHAPTERSIXTY-THREE
“Something is goingon at the library,” a light fae said.
Orin turned his stool to see where the light fae stood with her eye against a small hole in the center of one of the shutters.
“What is it?” a dwarf asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t see much, but the beetles are swarming it and hovering over the road near it.”
A vampire nudged the light fae out of the way and pressed her eye to the hole. “There’s dozens of them over there.”
“I wonder why,” the mermaid murmured.
She’d managed to avoid the beetles before they fully descended, but the lake was far away, and the library was her closest option. Orin had never seen her in the pub before, but she either worked nearby or was in town when The Reaping started.
“Let me see,” Belda said as she pushed through the crowd gathering around the shutter.
The tall lycan bent to rest her eye against the hole. She remained there for a minute before rising and frowning at the shutter.
“Gromuck says the books often fall from the shelves when the beetles swarm over the building, and that’s why they tend to focus there when they arrive. I’ve never seen them like that before. Maybe the falling books have really set them off this year.”
“Why would they do that now, after all these years?” an imp asked.
“If I had all the answers, we wouldn’t be here anymore,” Belda retorted.
“What if they turn their attention to us next?”
“Then you better be ready to fight. We’ve never had any problems before, but we’ll pull the booze off the shelves.”
She waved at him and Carmella to indicate they should get to work. Orin rose but had no intention of helping Carmella until he saw what was happening.
He brushed past the berserker, still pacing like a restless tiger as he glided toward the closed shutters. Belda watched him as she leaned her shoulder against the wall. Her eyes continued to bore into him when he looked out the hole.
Despite his determination to remain indifferent, an unexpected sinking sensation formed in the pit of his stomach when he spotted the beetles crawling over top of the library and turning the air above the road black. The six-foot-long bugs were enormous killing machines and had found their feast as they dipped and swooped while screams filled the air.
“Shit,” he muttered. “I think they left the building.”
What is going on over there?
