Page 132 of An Inheritance of Monsters

The muscles in Carson’s arm bunched as he prepared to push her.

I rushed up the stairs, lowering my head, and plowed into both of them.

For a wild second, time felt like it stood still as solid ground vanished from beneath our feet. I saw the shock on Carson’s face, his arms wind-milling as he flew out over the abyss, mouth contorted in a scream.

We plunged into the black, his scream echoing in my ears.

But we didn’t hit the floor.

The prickling zap of energy rushed past, the darkness disappeared, and a shore of black sand rushed up at us. We’d fallen through a door into the Void… hundreds of feet above the sand.

We were going to die anyway. My estimation of the door had been wrong…

But something enormous slid into my field of vision, blocking the black sand and sea from my view. I hit a warm, giving surface hard, my breath rushing out in a gasp as I rolled across it.

Carson groaned, and I heard Sierra’s limp body hit the same thing.

Whatever had caught us was moving. I looked down at the charcoal-gray surface, the faint lines running across the pillowy mounds, sharp black spikes rising around us like a cage…

We were all cradled in a pair of giant hands.

I looked upwards at the twin supernovas of pale fire, blazing in the sky above us.

“Voraal,” I whispered raggedly.

The Elder God was so titanic now, it seemed like we were moving in slow motion as he lowered his hands to the beach, gently rolling us onto the sand.

He seemed to fill the crimson sky, his horns an arcing halo of light over his head… and beyond even him, the sky of souls was frozen, no longer endlessly moving.

The Fuseli Comet burned in our world and this one, an eclipse blocking the door to the Beyond.

In this world, it was not a rock; it was a creature of pure madness and hate and hunger.

I had the brief impression of thousands of limbs and eyes, gnashing mouths, before I had to look away, my eyes tearing up from howalienit was.

Carson was still groaning, dragging himself upright; I saw the skeleton key glinting on the ribbon around his wrist, trailing in the sand.

With a last push, screaming as I moved, I ripped one of my hands out of the ropes and lunged for it.

The ribbon snapped as I tore it away with bloody fingers, the smooth metal slipping in my grasp.

Carson snarled, staggering to his feet to throw himself at me, but that enormous hand descended, all five claws burying themselves in the sand around him like a cage.

Voraal looked down at us, eyes burning, his shoulders straining as he struggled to hold back the mind-bending light of the comet. Shadows arced over the island like a shield.

Water from the sea flowed upwards, droplets of luminescence spiraling from the waves and floating towards the horrible eclipse, and there wereKleein the water; their wings curled tightly, clawed hands raised.

I saw Zirin, the sea parted around him and the other monster, creating a shield of water in the sky against the burning red glare.

Rask’s roar filled the air. I spun around, tears pouring down my face as my eyes struggled to make sense of the epic cataclysm around us.

“Juno! Make the sacrifice!”

He was on the island, slaughtering Dagonites who rushed towards the Elder Gods. It seemed like hundreds of bodies were heaped across the sand, round eyes gleaming like coins, pale blood seeping away.

Carson stared at me from the cage of Voraal’s fingers, his face pale, clutching the knife. His eyes dropped to Sierra, only feet away.

I clutched the key, my blood dripping to the sand, and looked up at Voraal. The words came from my heart, from the depths of my soul.

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