Page 26 of Kryxis

As its awful face got closer, its mouth opened, fangs like hooks ready to skew her. A black cloud went over her vision as she tilted her head back.

So close. They had been so close.

Before its mouth could close on her, the creature jerked back and let out a hissing screech. Then Dani felt herself falling.

The monster hadn’t released her. Its arm had just been severed, and she was falling with it.

She hit the bridge, pain shooting up an ankle then her knees. The pincers sliced up her arm before letting go, her mouth filling with blood as she bit her lip. She let out a cry as she slid down the bridge and quickly tried to grab the rails.

The monster moved above her, but it seemed to be distracted by something else. Pain seared her senses as she gripped the rail one-handed and tried to claw her way up. The creature disappeared from her peripheral, but she was no longer worried about it and more worried about falling.

Her hand began to slip, and tears stung her eyes from the pain in her arm. She couldn’t get her footing.

No, please not like this.

She lost her grip and slid down the bridge, a scream tearing up her throat. She waited to feel the rush of air. To be overcome by the darkness below, where her body would shatter. The edge flew past her and her heart dropped.

As she fell, getting a glimpse underneath the bridge, something wrapped around her waist, holding her tight, and shewas suddenly swinging instead of falling. Her body jolted, breath leaving her lungs, as she arched back.

She blinked, trying to adjust to the cloud of darkness and dust around her. She looked down and saw a red spiny tendril wrapped around her.

No. Not a tendril. A tail.

As it lifted her up, she tilted her head back and stared at the large, hulking shadow above her. She blinked again as the shadow came into view.

Blood rushed from her face, eyes widening, a whimper tearing from her lips. “You…” she breathed.

Her monstrous stalker smiled at her—or appeared to, with its mouth wide and black fangs protruding. Its eyes shined in her light, devious…triumphant.

Oh, sweet revenge. It was written all over their face. And she couldn’t stop it.

She was too shocked to even move. Its long red arms were gripping under the bridge, while its blue ones reached for her.

She couldn’t even recoil back, though her heart hammered in her throat. With easy movements, it closed the distance between them, its breath fogging up the glass of her helmet.

“kilsa eh sarish nara mina lillak,” it said, grinning. “isha ek vish ras.”

Before she could attempt to struggle out of its grip, it wrapped its blue arms around her, pinning her against it. As it carried her, it began to climb, moving swiftly along the broken bridge back the way they had come. She no longer heard or saw the spider-mantis, and she didn’t see any of her crew. Through dust and darkness they moved, a tremor setting into her bones despite the monster’s heat against her.

“Please, don’t do this,” she whispered.

But it didn’t hear or didn’t care. It only took her away into the dark.

CHAPTER NINE

Dani

She couldn’t see well enough to guess where it was taking her. She only saw the edges of buildings and ruins as it raced between them or the feeling of it holding her tight against it as it climbed from one tower to the next. She forced herself to cling to it when she made the mistake of looking down. She didn’t expect that it would take her to the very top in order to drop her. It could have seen her fall on the bridge, but it had caught her instead.

She refused to believe it saved her. Not when she didn’t know what it planned to do to her. Many possibilities ran through her head, all of them not good. Mostly she just assumed it was taking her back to its lair to eat her. What other reason could it have for nabbing her? She had tried to kill it. She’d thought she had succeeded. But here it was, and the only logical thing now was to expect it wanted revenge.

She considered trying to fight out of its grip. But even when she did struggle, it held her in a steel grip. Even if she could find a way to get loose, it would likely catch her again. And if fire couldn’t kill it then she was SOL. She didn’t have a weapon, andshe couldn’t even bite it, tear its flesh. If she had a blade, she suspected it would do little. As would a gun.

Still, she couldn’t stop her mind racing with what more she could do. For now, there was nothing

It raced and leaped from one building to another, making her stomach drop. Eventually, it slowed its pace as they came to another bridge, this one enclosed by glass—or most of it was, except for a section in the middle that was broken. Her kidnapper carefully made its way across then dropped through the gap. It strode across the bridge, unhurried this time. She stared at the dark doorway growing bigger as they got closer, her tremor setting in again.

It slipped through a short tunnelway and out to the other side. By her suit lights, she could see a mural in front of them of the Marityne symbol. A four-armed man with a sun, a planet, a hammer, and a star in its hands. Above him were rays of light. She only had a second to study the picture until her kidnapper veered to the right and went up a short set of stairs.

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