Page 71 of To Love a Dark Lord

She was glad in a dream she didn’t get out of breath. But unfortunately, the logic of her dream world wasn’t helping her out at all. She was lost inside her high school. Well, a building that looked like her high school, if it had been designed by a total nutjob. Twisting and turning through the hallways, she kept skidding across the tile floor and crashing into the lockers.

It slowed her down just long enough for Grinn to catch up, his claws ripping through the flooring, the heat pouring off him causing the overhead lights to flicker and the ceiling tiles to char. The air around him was wavy. She’d never been afraid of him before—not really—because they were linked together, and he couldn’t hurt her without hurting himself.

But now?

Now, it was a crapshoot and anybody’s game. “Stop!”

“Why?” Grinn cackled. He balled up a fist and smashed it into a row of lockers, crumpling them in the middle until they looked like they had been hit by a truck on the highway. Papers, books, pencils, and the like spilled across the tile before blackening and charring with his presence as he approached. “I am having so much fun! I haven’t been this entertained in years.”

“Grinn, please—I—I thought—I thought we were friends!”

“Don’t insult me.” He grunted. “I’m going to eat your fingers one at a time because of that.”

“You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t! I know you wouldn’t. You’re a?—”

“Don’t you dare say anything about me being ‘good.’ I am a demon, you incomprehensibly mountainous moron.” The sparks that fell from Grinn’s maw seared into the floor. “You shouldn’t have stopped to chat. You’re trapped.”

“Wh—” She glanced behind her. She had been in the middle of the hallway leading to the cafeteria, there was, like, four hundred more feet of identical hallways and?—

No.

No hallway.

Just a brick wall. “Shit!” She ran at it, slapping her palms against the brick. She’d already tried changing the world around her a few times, and it hadn’t worked. “Shit, shit, shit!” She pushed on the wall. It wasn’t going to budge.

Grinn laughed.

Turning back around, she watched as he slowly prowled closer, lowering his head, shoulder blades protruding from his back as he moved like a lion readying for a kill.

The heat pouring from him melted the glass bulb in one of the overhead lamps, casting him in darkness. She could only see his silhouette and the glowing, terrifying, red eyes and the flicker of the fire inside of him.

This was it. He was going to rip her to pieces. Panic welled up within her. Grinn was really going to break her joints one by one and then cook her limbs and eat them. And only then would he kill her.

“Please—” She started to cry. She was shaking. She wanted to go home. She wanted to wake up. She wanted Mordred to save her from this nightmare.

All Grinn did was laugh.

Before he raised a claw and brought it down on top of her.

Gwen screamed.

TWENTY-FOUR

Gwen sat up in bed, her heart pounding in her ears, panting for air.

She was covered in a cold sweat. Every nerve in her body was electric, and she was on high alert from all the adrenaline pumping through her like wildfire.

Eod army-crawled across the bed on his belly so he could flop his head down onto her lap, looking up at her with giant, concerned eyes. “Mom okay?”

Taking a deep breath, she shut her eyes to count down from ten. She was going to have her first panic attack in a long time if she wasn’t careful. It was right there, shrinking her vision. Digging her hand into Eod’s fur, she petted the animal, using him to help calm her down.

Maybe it wasn’t magic that was curing her panic attacks.

Maybe it was the dog.

I told Dad he should have let me get a dog.

The thought made her laugh weakly. Leaning down, she kissed Eod’s head. “Mom’s okay. Mom is going to have to shout at Dad, though.”

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