Page 44 of Anathema

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

MAEVYTH

The fog of sleep lifted, and I stared up at a cloaked, dark figure looming over me, the lower half of his face hidden beneath a black mask with silver embellishments that glinted in the moon’s light. The upper half was barely discernible within the depths of his hood.

A stranger.

A stranger in my room.

A stranger in my room, staring down at me.

Reality struck like a zap of lightning across my skull, and I gasped, a scream cocked at the back of my throat ready to tear free.

A cold, sharp edge prodded my throat, the acute bite of a blade warning that, with one quick move, it would slice through my flesh like soft silk. Angry eyes lifted to mine. Even veiled by shadows, their irises blazed a golden yellow and orange, making the black pupils appear as eclipses that I feared looking at for too long. I’d never seen eyes so intense.

My body refused to move under a creeping paralysis that seemed to pin my limbs to the bed with invisible needles.

In a single breath, a swirling cloud of black surrounded the stranger.

I no more than blinked, and he disappeared.

As if he’d simply vanished.

The paralysis lifted, and shaken with nausea, I jolted upright, the scream I’d held withering to a terrified whimper. Tucking my knees close, I looked around the room.

Across from me, Aleysia quietly snored, entirely oblivious. The masked stranger was nowhere. A dream?

Another hallucination?

Clammy with sickness, I breathed hard through my nose, letting the rush of adrenaline settle inside me.

Hand trembling, I palpated my throat, and at the touch of damp skin, lifted it to find blood smeared over my fingertips. I practically leapt toward the window, peering down at the empty field and dirt road below. No sign of him there, either. As if I’d dreamed the whole thing.

The phantom sensation of that blade lingered across my neck, though.

A tapping sound steeled my muscles, and I spun around to the empty room, eyes searching for the source of the noise. I lowered my gaze to the floor, where the egg tottered from side to side. Moving on its own. As a twinge of excitement mingled with the fear still hammering through me, I crouched alongside the object, tracking the abrupt twitches.

A quiet crack announced a small fissure within the silvery lines of its surface, where a soft glow bled through. I watched in awe as the fissure widened, the crevice deepening, glowing brighter as it separated. Heart stammering in my chest, I reached out for the egg, running my fingertip through the soft radiance that heated my skin.

Another cracking sound. Another fissure.

A third crack sent another ray of light beaming toward the underside of my bed.

A tiny, silver claw slipped through the broader crevice, and I held my breath. Another followed. A chunk of the egg caved inward, creating a hole that grew bigger, as more chunks were broken away by those miniscule claws. A pointed maw, like a beak but lined with teeth, poked through, shifting and prodding, as though stuck. More of the egg cracked away, and a bony horn along the upper mandible lifted out of the destruction, giving way to a shiny, scaled, black creature with silvery eyes that matched its claws. Black wings lay tight against its body as it crawled out of the egg and stared up at me, drawing my attention to the small, silver crescents on either side of its face that glowed bright like the moon. Four taloned feet, each with three forward facing claws, and one hind claw left me questioning what kind of bird it could’ve been. Certainly nothing I’d ever seen before. The hind legs appeared thicker, stronger than those in the front, though all of them were equally vicious looking.

The little beast reminded me of a miniature dragon, like those that Grandfather Bronwick would tell me about from books he’d read to me as a child. It fluttered, spreading its wings outward to a span that defied its small size. Perhaps a foot in length on either side, before it tucked them back.

Beneath the small pulse of excitement racing through my blood, hummed fear. I’d never seen anything like it before. Had no idea if it was docile, or vicious.

Wide eyes gave it a cartoonish appearance, baby-like, and I reached out an open palm toward it, curious if it would jump there. It seemed to sniff my palm for a moment, running its beak over my skin. The dragon-bird stepped onto my palm, and I lifted it from the floor, into the light where I could study it closer.

“What are you?” I whispered in awe, noting the strange swirls embedded in its scaly flesh and over the long tail that, despite the creature appearing bird-like, seemed more akin to a lizard’s with its small spikes along the surface. The curvature of them, like tiny hooked blades, left me imagining them getting lodged into flesh.

It made a tiny chuffing sound in its throat that had me smiling. “You are the most curious little thing I’ve ever seen.”

It poked its beak at its claws, seeming to groom itself, and chuffed again.

A sharp sting bit into my palm, and I jerked my arm, knocking the creature from my hand. “Ouch!” I lifted my hand to find a tear across my palm, from where drops of blood leaked onto the floor.

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