Page 46 of King of the Unsightly

I eyed Kaschel, half expecting him to elaborate on what the fuck just happened, but as a man who valued keeping his secrets, he ignored my wild stare.

Kaschel looked above us, disregarding my what-the-hell expression. “I wouldn’t open your mouth for a while,” he said, propelling us off the ground, making sure I had no time to refuse.

His dark wings expanded and carried us with so much momentum. I squeezed myself harder against his chest and tossed my arms around his neck.

Kaschel’s wings were the polar opposite of Levisus’s—covered in obsidian black feathers with a plum tint to them—and if the moonlight hit them just right, they radiated like a violet flame soaring through the darkened sky. They made Kaschel’s presence more menacing than it already was.

I clutched my hands tightly together as the wind whipped around us.

We moved so fast I could barely peek my head up and look over Kaschel’s shoulder. The sky passed by in a blur of midnight blue and gray like watching a movie stuck in fast-forward mode. I couldn’t decipher a single thing—only streaks of twilight.

Now was not a good time for me to realize I had acrophobia.

I pressed my face against Kaschel’s rugged chest again, and his steady heartbeat slowly throbbed against my ear. It calmed me as my heartbeat settled back down with his. Then, he turned us upside down and nosedived.

A high-pitched scream escaped my lips, and I clenched my eyes shut. I swore my soul left my body when the wind violently thrashed against us.

Everything stood motionless now, like death took away all the pain and panic cementing itself in my bones.

My eyes fluttered open.

Both Kaschel and Levisus’s wings contracted and disappeared into their backs.

Confusion devoured my mind but now was not the time to question it.

Kaschel dropped us in the middle of a forest with dense weeds the color of a pale green. The trees surrounding us had white bark and black protruding lines running down them with yellow-tinted moss covering the bottom and thinning out at the top.

A low fog cast around us as the air grew thick with condensation.

The crooked branches contorted in different directions when either of us flinched or moved a muscle.

So the forest was alive.Disgusting.

Gren managed to keep up with them as he landed by our side.

“You can let go of me now,” Kaschel said in a flat tone; his face riddled with aggravation.

I peered down, horrified to realize how I entangled my body with his. I looked like some leech or a snake suffocating its victim.

I dropped to my feet and smoothed my hair out, but I knew it probably resembled a rat’s nest the more I tried.

I coughed. “I think I prefer your shadows.”

Kaschel’s eyes flashed an animated glint, but it vanished so quickly I thought I imagined it.

Kaschel fixed his sights on Levisus as his tone shifted, now low and gravelly. “You better hope we didn’t make my presence known to the others.”

Levisus walked right past us as he spoke. “Would you have preferred we strolled our happy asses over here? You know as well as I do that if we ran on foot ... it would have dragged us both back to our court.”

Kaschel tipped his head back, and grumbled, “Fuck.”

No one else spoke as we came upon a burned tree split in two.

Perplexed, I squinted at Levisus, but I had been here long enough to know there was some trick or enchantment to it. So I watched him crouch down in front of the charred tree as he chanted under his breath. He stood up, stepped forward, and vanished.

“Your turn.” Kaschel ushered me forward, and my body collided with the portal.

My movements slowed down like I was thrust underwater, but my breathing stayed short and controlled as the world surged around me in tidal waves until everything reverted back to normal and the shifting stopped.

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