Page 119 of Ruthless Scoundrel
I breathe deep and let the shift overtake my body, flipping my skin inside out. My body contorts and I roll over Reina, stifling her fiery shield. I push off the ground and wrap two tentacles around the monster’s top arms. I pull myself in and get two more around the bottom arms, but they’re sharp. My rubbery skin is too thin to withstand the cutting bite of her crystalline armor.
“Jasper!” Reina screams from below me somewhere and I spare a glance to see her lining up for a shot.
I drop low on the monster’s body and crawl behind it. The thing is much slower than me, which is my only saving grace against its sharp limbs. I pull back on the monster’s top two arms and let the others free. I know the queen won’t try to kill Reina; she needs her.
It’smeshe wants dead.
Reina fires her magic with a war cry. A blue bolt slaps against the crystals on the monster’s chest and shatters them. The queen shrieks in anger, thrashing to get free from me.
“Stop fighting! I’ll spare him!” she roars in the many voices of the dead that make up her body.
“Liar!” Reina screams, dodging a sweeping arm and blasting the offending limb with heat.
The singe of flesh burns my eyes, so I wince them shut and focus on what I can feel. My three hearts thunder, begging for the oxygen that I slowly pull through my skin. I grapple the queen’s lower arms under control and begin to pull. I’ll rip this vile body apart if I have to.
Suddenly, the queen contorts, and the arms I was retaining are now squeezing me. I slip out of her upper arms only for one of my tentacles to get caught between two crystal shards. I release my ink sac across the monstrosity’s face, aiming to blind her.
She grabs me by the pinched tentacle and laughs. “Scared, boy?”
Then she pulls. The second she gets me off her, I’ll be dead, so I seal my suckers against her vile body and hold tight. I open my sharp beak and bite into the monstrosity’s shoulder. The queen doesn’t react beyond pulling harder.
This thing isn’t a human; it doesn’t work like one either. I don’t know if there are muscles I can damage, or bones I can break, but I have to keep trying. I bite down deeper and use my suckersnear my mouth to rip pieces of her off. The foul meat slops to the floor with a squelch at her feet, but she keeps pulling.
I go in for another bite when something sharp pierces the soft flesh next to my beak. I rear back in a flinch, and that’s all the queen needs. She tears me off in one massive tug and slams me to the ground. I open my eyes and find the metal suit behind me.
The queen picks me up and slams me down again, more of her sharp shards puncturing my leathery limbs. I curl my tentacle around the metal knight and wield it like a hammer, smashing it against the queen’s top arm.
The crystals sing from the hit, breaking apart into smaller pieces. Human bodies emerge from the mass, grabbing the shards like javelins. I hit her again, splattering one of the once-humans against her arm, but the other stabs me with their spear.
A blue beam strikes the behemoth from behind. It staggers forward with a guttural groan, bracing one hand against the wall.
“Enough play,” she snarls, and black tendrils of power slide down her arms.
It’s frigid, like the waters of the north, and sends a painful sickness through me. My suckers malfunction, my system overloading from agony. The room spins and I realize she’s lifted me from the ground.
“No!” Reina screams and suddenly I’m flying.
The palace zooms out around me and the pain of the queen’s magic releases its hold on my mind.
She threw me through the fucking ceiling.
I don’t have any flighted creature shifts, and I’m running low on magic as it is. I need to get back to Reina. I need to heal.
But first, I need to survive this fall.
The palace grows in my vision again, but I’m off target from the opening. I’m too far to the right. I’m going to hit the ramparts.
Fucking hells.
I spread my tentacles wide and flex to slow my descent. The wind whips my many cuts, stinging like all hells. I slap down against the side of the palace, and the pain reaches a new height, nauseating me. I reach with everything I’ve got to hold on, but the hit makes me bounce. My suckers rip away from the rough building and I roll over the ramparts.
The agony is overwhelming. I think I black out. When I come to, I’m rolling down the side of the cliff. I slap the walls on my way down, begging for purchase that I’m not getting. The cliff edge slices into my suckers, rending them useless. I would scream if I could, but all the pain is trapped inside me, echoing over and over, demanding attention. But I can give it none.
Reina needs me.
My mateneedsme.
It doesn’t matter how much I’m needed, or what I want. The wall gives me no hold. I hit the water with a disorienting slap that makes my new cuts burn like I’m covered in acid. I try to right myself, but several of my tentacles refuse to answer my command. I blink my eyes open and take a deep inhale of the salty sea.
