Page 128 of Of Serpents and Ruins
We’d gotten another night together. Somehow, he had gotten here. Who was I to question it?
Except this wasn’t… It wasn’t good.
His mouth moved. I tilted my head back to try to see him, but my own voice ceased working. All I could do was cling.
Blissful relief spread through my body, pulsing through me in rhythm with the drums, but there was still unease, something that curdled even the pleasure within me.
Dangerous.
That frightened little voice scraped at the back of my mind, begging me to listen. The weight intensified, crushing down upon me and constricting my breaths.
I couldn’t move.
He stared at me, his lips parting as if he struggled to say something. His breaths huffed against my face, his brow creasing.
"Run," he whispered hoarsely. "Please." He pressed his forehead against mine.
The brokenness in his voice cut deeply, spearing me into place as I stared up at him. I…I couldn’t move.
A trap.
This was a trap.
Tears spilled down my cheeks.
I knew it, but I couldn’t. I held on to him, but my body had detached from my consciousness. We were here together. I was as powerless to run from him as he was to not kill me.
The vision’s interpretation had been wrong. I would die here.
Life suddenly felt so raw and fragile, so delicate.
"Stella, your necklace fell in the bushes." Elias’s voice called up from the path leading to the hot springs. "Don’t worry. I won’t look. I’m going to set it here on the stump with your dress."
The wind changed, blowing toward us. Elias’s cologne and the cherry scent of the sephorite stone mingled with the sharp bite of the steaming mineral water.
Brandt groaned, lurching forward. His shoulders thrust back. His neck arched up. Strained gasps escaped his lips. He was fighting. Struggling.
I pressed my hands against his shoulders. My whole body moved slowly, as if I were trapped in hardening tree sap. There was no strength in my palms. Every part of me had gone so heavy I just wanted to slide beneath the water.
"Run," he whispered thickly. "Scream."
He battled against the curse, the muscles in his neck straining and a vein along his forehead bulging. All I could see were his eyes. That desperate struggle. The light flaring as he faded.
I could barely move. The weight pressed me down more than him and made me like lead.
It was a nightmare. My mouth wouldn’t work. My voice had no strength. My tongue was a brick.
A weak "help" struggled from my lips, dying in the steamy air, my hands still against his shoulders but offering no resistance.
His hand gripped my throat. The muscles in his jaw tensed and ground.
"Stella? Did you say something?"
How had he heard that?
Brandt twitched, sweat pouring off his brow as he struggled to form a strangled shout. "Here."
His hand clamped over my throat.
