Page 105 of Mud

“Are you here to kill me, is that it?” I asked because he was still there. He hadn’t disappeared, which meant he wasn’t a figment of my imagination. No way could I have kept it up for this long.

“Because you can just sit back and watchherfinish thejob,” I added, and I could have laughed at the stupidity of my own words.

Taland, in the Iris Roe with me, barely a few branches away.

The vulcera,secondsaway from freeing herself.

“Your life is mine to take, sweetness. Mineonly,” Taland said, and I couldn’t even look at him because the vulcera was now free.

Fuck, she wasfree.

She spit out the pieces of rope she’d chewed, growling as she licked her right paw, her eyes instantly locking on mine.

“That creature is not going to kill you, but you’re going to have to bond with her before she hurts you,” the asshole continued.

I shook my head, jumping off the branch onto a lower one as the vulcera slowly stalked toward me with her head low.

“I can’t bond—I don’t have magic.” Which he already knew.

I looked around us to find a better spot, and thicker, longer ropes to stop the vulcera with. I really didn’t want to hurt her, but if she left me no choice, Ihadto kill her. I had to survive this bullshit, didn’t I?

Not really,said an ugly voice in my head.

“But you have plenty of strength,” Taland said, his voice coming from a little closer. I risked a glance up to see that he’d jumped onto another branch, and he was now standing on it upright, on the same side as me. “Familiars need to be made to submit to bond—that’s all there really is to it. And if you can’t make them submit with magic…”

The asshole shrugged as he walked closer, his eyes moving from the vulcera to me before he simplyjumpedtothe side of the tree, then proceeded on the other side of it. Once more, he walked upside down and looked up at me, smiling still.

My heart squeezed uncomfortably.

The vulcera jumped—and I did, too.

I didn’t think it through at all. I just copied Taland, threw myself on the side of the tree, landed on my knees as the world tilted violently in front of my eyes, and I stood up on the other side, just like that.

Now I was standing parallel with Taland, who was three branches away, watching me. Watching the upper side of the branch I walked on—or was it the lower? No idea.

But the vulcera was still there, and she was coming. So, I ran.

For a second there, I heard her footsteps—her running below the branch, me over it. It was the strangest sensation—I felt her tail as it slammed against the wood with each new step, and it was inside my head as well.

Then I noticed the shadow coming closer to me—Taland, jumping branches, running together with us.

“I can’t give you my magic for this—she needs to feelyours.And you can’t outrun her. She’s spelled to chase you until the end of the game,” he called, and I jumped on the branch to the right, farther away from him.

He laughed.

“Make her submit. That’s the only way you’ll win, sweetness,” he called. “Make her submit!”

I’ll just keep running—both from the animal and you, thank you very much,I thought.

And I was going to. I wasn’t planning to stop until my legs gave up on me, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The vulcera was done playing games. She caught upwith me in record time, and when she slammed her paws on my back, I fell forward, rolling on the branch and falling down—or up?—another level.

Cursing under my breath, I pushed myself to stand again as fast as I could because I knew she was coming. Taland was nowhere to be seen, but she was approaching me slowly, stalking toward me, eyeing me like I was her prey, head low and tail slicing the air behind her.

Unfortunately for me, Taland was right—I couldn’t outrun her.

My only option remained to fight until I either killed her or she killed me.

---