Page 63 of Vicious
Gripping the platform in case it vanished out from underneath me, I stared up at him as he stood. “Don, y-you have to let us pass through the rings. You haveto.”
“They’re already open.” He shook his head, and made a helpless creak in his throat. “That’s why theycame.”
I started to stand, but felt like I was sagging into the platform. “Already?”
“One of my employees tried to send us into the magnestar to try and stop them, but they caught her. I tried to help her fight them off, but only managed to flip the switch in the other direction.” Iron flashed from inside his mouth as bright as his tears. “I’ms—”
A loud crack sounded. Don’s eyes widened even farther, their whites blazing. A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. Something popped, again and again, like shrill, punctuated teeth on azipper.
“What—?Don?”
He slumped forward, into me. I shot to my feet, but under his weight I stumbled. Behind him, hidden in shadows, stood a Saelis. It gripped what looked like a bloodiedspine.
Oh. Horror flooded my every cell. My stomach twisted in revulsion. A single step backward kicked my feet out from under both me and Don. We fell over the platform, but something jerked us to astop.
I quit breathing, gripping tighter to Don’s wrists. He lay on his stomach on the platform, his arms dangling over the side. Up past his dead eyes, the bottom of his shirt had flipped up his back, and a huge grisly hole in his flesh grinned down at me. It grew wider, the rest of his intact skin ripping as if he’d been gutted almost all the way through to his belly button. Caught between whatever held him on the platform and my weight pulling at him, he would be torn in half.Easily.
I hadseconds.
Swinging my legs underneath me for momentum, I slipped my grip higher up his forearms, first one then the other. His blood poured downward, slickening my palms, splattering my face. Vomit kicked at my teeth, but I forced it back down. I wrenched myself upward even more, my fingers curling over the folded fabric at his elbows. We were nearly head tohead.
I released one hand to make a grab at the fabric near his armpit. Eight more inches, and I could grab the ledge of the platform. His shirt ripped. I reached up past his gaping wound and brushed my fingertips against his belt. Almost. There. I stretched up more, more, and finally snaggedit.
The last of his flesh tore at eye level. The torso my body had been braced against ripped free. I swung wildly, my one hand gripping Don’s belt, while his insides from his lower half spilled loose. A shower of blood and organs coated me from head to toe. I tightened my mouth, dared not inhale, and grabbed his belt with both hands. My muscles shaking with the effort, I pulled myself up to the ledge beside his legs. With one last burst of strength, I hauled myself onto the platform andcollapsed.
I wiped at my eyes and nose, then a combination of sobs and gags lurched from my mouth as I pressed my cheek into the cold metal. The Saelis had come to open the rings to Mayvel and Wix. What if I was already toolate?
“Absidy.” Poh’s voice behind me, tight and filled withwarning.
I snapped my eyesopen.
Enormous, black-scaled feet tipped with curled claws stepped toward my head. A deep tremble rattled down my back. My body shrank away instinctively, but I froze when the Saelis stopped about a foot away. Terror swept the air from my lungs as I waited for my inevitabledeath.
I’d tried. Feozva knew I’d tried to stopthem.
But the killing blow never landed. I risked a glanced upward, at its tufts of white hair, its long snout with razored teeth, its glowing green eyes aimed slightly to my right. I followed its gaze. My bandage must have fallen off, but underneath the thick layers of blood, gray scales reached up past my elbow. They werespreading.
With slow movements, I drew myself into a sitting position, searching the Saelis for a hint ofviolence.
“No. Don’t.” Footsteps swept up behindme.
Maybe I’d hit my head too hard. Maybe it was sheer stupidity. Or maybe it was deep shame about what my race had done to his. But I stood to face the Saelis head-on.
“I’m sorry.” The backs of my eyes burned at the truth in those words, yet I knew how meaningless an apology was in this case. It didn’t fix anything, didn’t make it right, didn’t come from someone who’d actually been involved in the Saelis slaughter. Nonetheless, Iwassorry.
Poh dodged in front of me, her whole body rigid and her head bowed. “I was sent by Saelis to kill her, and I lied and said I did. I’m sorry, but just…just don’t hurt her. She’s important. Divined. I don’t know what she is, but I know that she has to bealive.”
Divined? No. I didn’t feel divined. Justother.
The Saelis raked his green gaze away from me to Poh. The air around us tensed, needling unease up my scalp. Seconds rolled past, each one punctuated by a hundredheartbeats.
But then, as if we no longer existed, the Saelis turned and stalked back into the shadows. A moment later, the sound of its clicking claws vanished through a darkened doorway. He let out a loud, terrifying screech. Somewhere from outside the walls, something hissed and crunched, coming fast, but I didn’t dare peel my eyes away from where the Saelis hadgone.
Poh whirled around and handed me a lethal blade of broken glass. “We go.Now.” She pushed me along the platform the way she’d come, kicking the rest of Don off theedge.
“What just happened?” I asked. “He’s just going to let usgo?”
“Not atall.”
