Page 128 of A Touch of Poison
Whatever was back there would be nothing compared to the devastation I could cause if I lost control.
I gave up reaching for the floor and clung to the thick, woollen coat before me, gambling on the tall fae to keep me upright.
What do you see? What can you feel?
Green wool flecked with lavender. The stink of sweat. The acrid stench of something familiar, just on the edge of recollection. Not comforting, but real and grounding.
My panic and my poison ebbed.
I pulled myself up and found space to draw a full breath. The fae grunted and frowned over his shoulder. I was too busy gasping to apologise.
A terrible clicking rose over the crowd’s fearful chatter.
I knew that sound.
From a turning loomed a huge, dark shape. Sunlight rainbowed on a black carapace as the Horror’s scythe-like front legs reached into the crowd.
Screams. So many screams.
I couldn’t make any sound as I stared at the thing. How was it here? How had it reached the city?How?
Its claws emerged with a figure dangling from them.
Like we were one organism, the people charged right, and suddenly there was no press of bodies. The coat slipped from my fingers, and the crowd spat me out. I stumbled, fell, wrapped my arms around my head as I rolled.
Somehow, no one trod on me. I scrambled to my feet, finding the street empty save for me and the Horror and the terrible sucking sound of it feeding.
At the crossroads, it crouched over its victim, body wrapped around them so I couldn’t see.
Bile rose in my throat and goosebumps prickled across my body as I fought to breathe slower, deeper than this shallow, desperate panting.
Pull yourself together, Katherine. It was the practical inner voice that had kept me alive for thirty years.
I needed to move or else that winning streak was going to come to an end.
The crowd had gone right. They were as dangerous as the Horror, as two bodies splayed in the street could attest. Their broken shapes and staring eyes said there was nothing I could do for them.
I could only try to stay alive.
The Horror had come from the main street on the left. Likely that way would be clear of people and I wouldn’t get caught up in another deadly crowd.
It lifted its head and sniffed the air.
Nothing to smell here. No magic. No tasty morsel.
Slowly, slowly, I backed away. A narrow alley opened to my left. A few paces more.Quiet, now. You can make it.
As the Horror turned its head, I dived down the alley.
48
Kat
Hurry. Pause at the corner. Listen. Check over my shoulder. Hurry again.
That was how I threaded through the city. The Horror didn’t follow, but I heard more clicks and screams. This wasn’t the only one in the city.
How had they got here? Howthe fuckhad they got here?
