Page 96 of Kept to Kill
With Bastian’s scream into the night, she had woken to see a thing sucking the life from him. Bastian had told her before that he could see her power as a dark smoke around her. She imagined that that was what it looked like; a smoky, nasty, faceless thing. A malevolent mist. Was it what was inside of her, she wondered? The awful thing that had killed a man she loved?
She’d fumbled with the key to the collar, wishing she had practiced with it so she was faster at taking it off. When it finally fell to the ground, she tried to touch the thing, to kill it. But her hand met only air.
Why Bastian? Why not her? She had been right next to him. But it hadn’t touched her.
Then, as Bastian had gone gray and cold, the thing had turned solid and black, sinewy and thin. Its arms and legs long and wiry. Its face a hole with no eyes, just a maw. She threw herself at it in anger. And, oddly, the thing without a face had looked surprised somehow before it gave an unearthly screech and exploded into nothing.
She clawed her way back to Bastian, tears blurring her vision. But he was dead. She gave a wail and hugged him to her, looking up to see Quin staring at them with the ghost of an expression of sorrow on his face.
Mal fell to his knees next to her, stroking Bastian’s hair.
‘I didn’t see anything,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t understand …’
Now she listened to the thud of the horses’ feet as they made their way to the Strait to finally get a ship down south. She should leave them as soon as they got to the camp, make Quin unbind her. She told herself she should put all of this behind her. But as she looked at Mal and even Quin in their grief, she didn’t know how she could.
‘What was that thing?’ she whispered. Quin’s hand settled over hers where she gripped the reins.
‘There are many creatures lurking in the Dark Realms,’ he said quietly. ‘I doubt it even has a name here.’
They came upon a village. It was silent and still. Doors hung open. Belongings were strewn about, trampled in the dirt. It was deserted.
‘The realm is dying,’ Mal said. Neither she nor Quin spoke.
Lily spied something on the road some paces away that reminded her of a dog or a wolf. But it wasn’t one.
It turned to look at them, its grotesque face full of black eyes and razor-sharp teeth. It let out a screech not unlike the thing that had killed Bastian, and Lily cringed at the sound. Without hesitation, Mal shot a bolt into its chest and it fell dead.
‘We need to get to the Strait,’ Quin murmured.
They rode for the rest of the day and into the night. It wasn’t safe to stop. They didn’t see another living soul on the road. But they did see bundles of rags, bones, and not just humans, but deer, boar, squirrels. They’d heard no birds in days. It was as if the whole of the north past Kitore was dead.
‘How long until we reach the Strait?’ Lily asked.
Quin didn’t take his eyes off the roads, always scanning for movement.
‘Today,’ he said. ‘Whether we’ll be able to get a ship from there is another matter,’ he muttered.
‘You don’t think there will be any?’
He gave a snort. ‘I think everyone’s dead.’
‘We take a skiff,’ Mal said.
‘And what? Sail around the coast as far as we can get?’ Quin shook his head. ‘We won’t get far enough. We can’t stop in Kitore. We’ll be noticed and thrown into the king’s dungeon before you can blink. The seas are too treacherous after that. We’ll be dashed to bits and drowned. And that’s if one of those fucking Dark Realmthingsdoesn’t sink us first.’
Lily gave a cry as she saw a figure standing in the road in front of them. It couldn’t be …
‘Bastian?’ she whispered, putting her hands over her mouth in shock. It looked exactly like him.
The other two stopped bickering and stared at him.
‘A trick,’ Mal growled, drawing his bow.
The man in front of them threw his hands up. ‘Wait! Wait. It’s me, Bastian.’
‘You’re dead,’ Quin snarled. ‘You are not our Brother.’
‘I am! I promise you I am.’
