Page 60 of Land of Monsters

The gun recoiled, followed by a shrill screech, her form dropping from the air into the dark field.

I let out the breath I was holding, hitting my hand on the top of the roof. “Yes.” I hissed through my teeth, sliding back into the car.

“Got her,” I announced with satisfaction, turning back to the headlights far behind us, but Raven came into my view instead. “You okay?” My eyes slid over every inch of her barely dressed body. Her tank was in shreds, her hair bloody and knotted, yet her face was flushed with health and vigor. Life brimmed under her skin, which thrummed withmymagic.

It screamedmine. Everything about her affected me, creating a tightness, a deep awareness.

I shredded off my jacket, giving it to her to wear, only adding to my possession.

“Yeah,” she replied. As she pulled on the coat, our gazes caught, making me feel she could see right through me. Whatever we shared on that mountain went beyond the wall I had tried to keep between us. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Or about how close I was to losing her tonight.

Something had changed, and it felt like I was purged back into a world where I was forced to care. To watch those close to me die.

Sitting back in my seat, I rubbed at my forehead. Dzsinn snorted, peering at her through the rearview mirror, then back at me, shaking his head like he could see through us both.

“We need to lay low for a while. She’ll have troops searching for us,” Dzsinn spoke, pushing harder on the pedal. “This car is too noticeable.”

My lids lowered, turning to him. “Why didn’t you tell me you not only know Sonya, but you’re related?”

“Not really related.” His expression didn’t change.

“Not the point.”

“I don’t owe you anything, Ash,” he huffed, seeing the motorcycles gaining on us. “And right now is not the time.”

“We have to get off these roads before she puts up roadblocks,” Raven said, still watching the motorcycles in the distance.

Dzsinn shifted in his seat, a frown on his lips. “I know of a place we can go.”

“Another cousin’s house?” I quipped.

“A connection. I trust them.” Dzsinn pushed the old jeep until it rattled, jarring my already tense nerves. Anger welled at the feeling of helplessness, of what was already lost to me and what could be taken.

I didn’t want to feel it again.

I didnotwant to care, yet I was falling down that hole anyway.

The jeep squealed as Dzsinn spun us down another side road, fleeing from the notorious castle whose myths couldn’t even come close to the real-life monsters and horrors dwelling inside.

Chapter 12

Raven

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Outside the city walls of Bra?ov, the slums of desolation wore like a badge of honor through the dilapidated buildings. The jeep rolled down the bumpy road, and all those out on the icy streets turned toward us. The military car was an unusual sight.

“Nice place.” Ash snorted.

“In my line of work, you make all sorts of connections. Like you have any room to talk, fairy. I’ve seen the places you’ve been in the last year.” Dzsinn turned us down another lane, rolling the jeep into a place behind an old building. A line of fae-updated motorcycles filled the lot. “This place might hold the worst of the worst, but we have a common enemy. They won’t ever snitch on you here.”

Ash nodded, his movements stiff. Instead of relief from our escape, I felt his anger multiplying, threading through the car. Pointed at me. It was all so overwhelming.

My body wouldn’t stop vibrating, everything feeling like it was too much for me to handle. From the moment I was taken by Sonya, I lived in a warped nightmare, nothing sticking in mymind except wanting him. Dreaming of him. When his voice reached me, his hands touched me, it felt like another dream. One I didn’t want to wake from.

I barely recalled the fight inside the castle, my monsters taking over instinctively, fighting for him, stealing the last fragment of me until I was nothing.

What he willingly gave me was so sacred, so intimate, it terrified me. But when the first drop of it singed my veins, my beast licked it up with hunger, my obscurer absorbing it without reserve, and I dove in with greed. Taking more and more until I swallowed him entirely. That could be the only reason he slid around inside me like he was my prisoner trapped between my ribs. But he was angry, and I couldn’t deal with all of these thoughts and emotions now.

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