Page 39 of A Serenade To The Elf Queen
“I’ve marked your filthy scent, elven scum!” the demon screams madly. “I will have fun tearing you to fucking pieces!”
A dreadful weight sinks in my stomach. The creature can track me with its heightened senses. I take one look at Shade, his face growing whiter by the second. He doesn’t have enough strength to run again. I slowly grasp his hand, the gesture surprising him a little. “Don’t you dare give up and die. I promise I’ll come back for you.”
I don’t wait for his reply when I dart into the forest.
“Come and get me,” I mutter weakly as I draw the demon’s attention away from the Grimsbane. Just as I thought, the beast immediately changes its course. I keep running until I reach the clearing. Jack suddenly jogs next to me.
“Why are you still here?” I ask the human.
“I think I have a better chance of surviving with you than the dying male,” he replies, wiping the tears and sweat from his face.
Bad choice, human. I’m trying to lure the demon into following me. The lullaby surrounds me once again, pulling me to safety.
“Over there!” I point ahead. We bolt straight towards the abandoned well.
The human hesitates for a second. But one look at the demon has him jumping headfirst into the hole. I don’t think twice as I hurl my body into the dark. It’s a long fall, thin floors crumbling one after the other under our weight. Thank the heavens the landing isn’t too bad. I rub my aching back, struggling to rise. The ground is soft, littered with dried leaves, dirt and—brittle bones.
“Did we lose him?” Jack asks, groaning with agony.
“We better go,” I urge him, shoving my malachite crystal into his hands. “Just rub it and it will glow.”
The human protests but gradually gets up to his feet to walk into the tunnel. My instinct does not betray me. Several heartbeats later another crash resounds from behind us.
Jack finally finds it in him to run faster. I throw one look over my shoulder to the beast in pursuit. The Ashmedai’s skin peels away into a smaller body, a more terrifying form with needles of sharp teeth. It scuttles after us like a cockroach.
Oh god, oh god.
“They never told me it can shape shift!” Jack panics. I don’t have time to process his words as we race towards the diverging path ahead.
“I sense an escape,” I huff through ragged breaths. I concentrate on finding the flow of air. The route on the left leads to a bunch of narrow staircases that will get us out of this dark hole. We might just make it.
“Take the tunnel on the left!”
Jack veers to the pathway as instructed. He reaches the door first, scrambling to shove it open. I throw as many knives as Ican to slow down the demon. All of them hit home but they can’t penetrate its exoskeleton.
The Ashmedai‘s laughter echoes in the passageway. “I’ll have fun dicing you to pieces, elfling!”
I summon whatever courage is left in my veins to push myself forward a little faster. But the human is already shutting the door behind him.
“Jack, wait—”
My heart lurches when I hear the lock click on the other side. I have no choice but to take the remaining path. It leads to a dead end. To my end.
A stone slab falls behind me, sealing the chamber. The ground feels firm beneath my feet, but I can’t see anything—not beyond me or behind me. It’s like someone draped a blanket over my head. The cavern reverberates as something massive crashes, clawing to get in. I don’t know what else to do. I settle on the floor, hugging my knees in the dark, praying for the wall to hold. Each rumble of the Ashmedai’s assault is like a hammer to my heart.
After a while, the rumbling stops. The demon may be gone now, but I know it’s searching for a way to get in.
I let myself fall back, sprawling to the floor. There’s nowhere else to go, not when my eyes fail to penetrate through this pitch-black doom.
A depressing aura envelopes the place. I can feel the despair slowly settling into my bones. I will die in this filthy tomb, alone and forgotten. There will be no grave, no marker for the elfling who tried to be queen.
Get up, Rhianelle Wiolant,the Un whispers.
I hear their distant call but I’m already drifting into the emptiness. The dark feeling washes over me in violent waves claiming me into the ocean.
The silly guppies of Llewyn pond are not going to feed themselves. Who’s going to wake Miss Bernadette when winter is over?
Get up. Get up. Get up.
