Page 147 of The Dawn of the Cursed Queen

“I need you to help me block it from the lower part of the city. I have to save as many as I can. Give me a head start, but whatever you do, do not engage with it.” The lower part of his helmet flowed away from his lips and jaw. He cupped the back of my head and pulled me close, kissing me deeply. “Be careful.”

I licked my lips and nodded. Samkiel took off at a run, and I shifted and lunged for the sky.

FLAMES BURST FROM MY THROAT AS I CIRCLED HIGH ABOVE, MY WINGS beating in powerful sweeps. From my aerial view, I could see the path the murrak had taken in its hunt for food. It had demolished the town where the businesses were. Thank the gods, most of the citizens preferred to be home at this time of night.

I spat a controlled fireball, blocking it from the end of town where Samkiel was working. I glanced toward his small silver figure. He was going door to door, ushering families out of their homes and toward the safety of the tree line.

I swept lower, scorching another line through town, trying to contain the murrak. A screech, loud and damning, filled the air, and I knew the beast had figured out what Samkiel was doing. It doubled its efforts to get to him but kept running into my fire. It reared up and roared a challenge into the sky.

Great, now I was on a bug’s hit list.

I cut through the rising smoke, scouring the ground below, but I didn’t see the creature. I turned to make another pass. Fuck, had I lost it? A splash caught my ear, and I flew that way. My eyes widened when I saw the murrak burst through the water at the village’s edge. Fuck, it had gone to the water to avoid my flames. I pivoted and tucked my wings in tight, diving toward the ground. My form shifted, and I landed in a squat. The smoke was thick here, the wind swirling it in eddies along the shore.

Screams rang through the air as the murrak made it to the village. I sprinted, pieces of stone crunching beneath my shoes. The murrak moved through the homes Samkiel hadn’t reached. As people ran outside, it grabbed one woman and held her to its face, its pinchers opening. She screamed and went rigid, a clear translucent form of herself parting from her body and falling into the creature’s jaws.

The murrak fed and tossed her body to the side. It rolled to a stop, her eyes white and unseeing, her skin ashen. Oh, gods. It didn’t eat meat. It ate souls.

“Come on, we have to move now,” I heard Samkiel say, but so did the murrak. It lifted its antennae and turned toward him.

Samkiel was bent, completely unaware of the creature looking at him as he lifted a man and his family out of the rubble. If the murrak could smile, it did so as it focused on him. Those hundred legs shot out, racing toward him. I had only a second to think about what to do, a second to save the one person I couldn’t live without, so I reacted.

I sprinted forward, forcing myself to go faster, my legs burning with the effort. Samkiel looked up as the family near him ran. He saw me, then looked to his side as the murrak charged. My palms hit him square in the chest, sending him flying through the wall of the neighboring house, and the murrak grabbed me.

FIFTY-EIGHT

DIANNA

Rubble, sharp and jagged, hit my shoulder and face as we landed in a nearby house. A woman and her child screamed as I pushed the debris from my body and stood up. She held her baby to her chest as she wailed. I heard the rubble shift behind me, and the woman’s eyes went wide with terror.

“Run,” I said, pointing toward the back door. “Now would be nice.”

She wasted no time, springing to her feet and running out the door with her baby clutched close.

Goosebumps ran rampant along my skin as I heard the murrak slinking behind me. I turned to face it and looked up . . . and up. It towered over me, dirt, wood, and stone falling from its exoskeleton. Its pincers opened and closed as it glared down at me. The creature’s large, crystalline body whipped toward me, wrapping around me, binding my arms, and immobilizing me completely. I grunted, struggling against the strangling grip. The creature’s assortment of legs dug into the ground. It opened its twin pincers, and a scream made of death burst across my face. Tendrils of white light emerged from its mouth, slithering disgustingly against me, looking for something to latch on to. My body tensed in anticipation, except . . . I felt nothing. There was no pain, no stretching as it tried to consume my soul.

It stopped and closed its jaws, rearing its massive head back in surprise. The antennae atop its skull flicked as if trying to get a read on me, its black-as-night eyes widening.

“Void,” it said in a gasping voice before it dropped me.

I landed in a crouch, confusion furrowing my brow as the murrak backed up. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it looked at me as if I was the terrifying one. “What?”

A bolt of silver flashed before my eyes, and the creature’s blood sprayed, covering my face. The head of the murrak dropped to the ground, and its body followed. I stood, watching the disgusting legs twitch, that word repeating over and over again in my head. Every damned beast here had seen me and said the same thing.

Void.

Hollow.

Empty.

The way the oracle had laughed echoed in my head.

“Do you think you can touch death, girl, and it not take something from you?”

Samkiel gently gripped my elbow and turned me to him. His eyes blazed with worry as he looked me over. I was frozen solid, couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, and not from that damned bug, but because I had finally figured it out.

“. . .anna?” His voice brought the world back to me, my ears ringing. “Dianna, look at me. Are you hurt? How do you feel?” He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “Do you feel—”

“The cost of resurrection,” I said, my voice cracking.

---