Page 91 of Wicked Curses
She prayed to Hecate that it was unlocked as her hand fell on the doorknob. Hecate must have been listening, as the door flew open, and she half staggered, half ran into the house.
She managed to throw the door shut before the scarog crashed into it. It rattled in its frame, and the windows near it shook, but the door held up against the creature’s impressive weight.
That wouldn’t last.
CHAPTERSIXTY-FIVE
Without looking back,Sahira sprinted through the house as glass shattered behind her. She was almost out of the living room when a scarog crashed into the couch a few feet away.
Sahira bit back a scream as the furniture exploded into pieces of wood and straw that pelted her as she ran into the kitchen. While she moved, she searched the house for any weapon longer than her dagger but didn’t see anything useful before reaching the back door.
She pulled open the door and dashed outside. She didn’t bother looking to see what she ran into; it was the same as what hunted her from behind. Slowing down to take in her surroundings would only get her killed.
Trying to stay in one of these houses would also prove useless. After what they’d done to that house, she knew there would be no stopping these things. She had to lose them, then find somewhere to hide.
Considering they were everywhere, it was a pretty shitty option, but it was her only one. And she somehow had to retain the strength to keep moving when her use of powers and so much exertion was only making her hunger worse.
She heard and felt them coming as she raced across the street. The air spell she’d cast to protect her had fallen apart as soon as she was out of the open and inside the house; she didn’t have the time to stop and cast another one.
She could only hope one of those things didn’t dive down to tear into her like a human with a lobster. She wasn’t ready to be some monster’s entrée.
Zigzagging across the street in the hopes she could avoid the ones above, she ran faster than ever before as she bolted up the stairs to another home. A scarog crashed into the building beside her as she arrived at the front door.
The wood splintered as its mandibles pierced it. The creature’s feet kicked, and its wings flapped while it tried to free itself.
Sahira didn’t stick around to see if it was successful before she flung open the door, sprinted inside, and did everything she could to get farther away from them. This time, as she ran, she spotted an iron hook in the corner.
She had no idea what they used it for but snatched it from the wall. Spinning it in her hand, she turned as another beetle barreled toward her. The floor shook beneath its massive weight and its six legs.
Lifting the six-foot-tall hook, she used it like a spear and drove it into the creature’s open mandibles. She glimpsed a hideous tongue with strange little bumps covering it before those bumps parted to reveal the dozens of teeth within each one.
These things have teeth on their tongues!Just when she thought they couldn’t get any worse or more disgusting, they proved her wrong.
And from the center bump, the biggest one in the middle of its tongue, a snakelike appendage rose and started to unfurl as it stretched across the distance separating them. At least now she knew how it sucked the brains out of the dark fae.
She could have happily lived the rest of her life without learning that answer.
With the hook firmly embedded in the creature, she held it back as the appendage snaked toward her. She tried yanking the hook free, but it remained fixed inside the beast, and that snaky thing was getting too close for comfort.
Releasing the hook, she turned and ran for the back door, but another one crashed into it before she got there. The impact tore the door from its hinges and flung it into the house.
Sahira managed to avoid being leveled by the thing as she skated around the corner and into a bedroom. It was practically useless, but she slammed the door shut behind her.
Her fingers weaved in an intricate pattern as she breathlessly cast a protective barrier over the door. It wouldn’t do much to stop those beasts, but it would slow them down.
She grabbed the dresser beside the door and flung it down as an additional barricade. Drawers fell open, and clothes spilled around her feet as she turned and ran for the windows.
Sweat cleaved her clothes to her body as her heart pounded her ribs. During the battle against the Lord, she’d come close to dying a few times, but she never felt the cool hand of death gripping her nape as it did now. It clung to her, refusing to let go while it laughed at her useless attempts to survive.
No matter how fast she sprinted or how many houses she fled into, it wouldn’t let go, and she would run out of options and time. Those beetles were coming for her and determined to feast.
She went to unlock the windows before realizing the latches weren’t locked. In this realm, and outside of the original, more secure buildings, there was no reason to lock doors and windows.
Everyone here relied on each other to survive and handled their battles in the pit. If they caught someone stealing, they were banished, and the problem was solved.
She was thankful for that, as the lack of locks had given her a bit of a reprieve through these houses, but the fact thatnoonewas in either place underscored how unsafe they were against these things.
All the occupants of the homes had fled for the much sturdier and safer build of the original structures. Now, she had to get to one of them again.
