Page 199 of Infernium

Mouth gaping impossibly wide, she let out one of those awful and annoying screeches, while her eyes turned a blood red.

“Go, Farryn! Now!” Vaszhago yelled, as she bolted, lightning fast, across the room toward where the boy and I spun for the door.

A hard yank of my hair kicked me backward a step.

Vaszhago came up from behind her, and she released me on a scream.

Tightening my hold on Elyon’s hand, I pushed through the door, straight back in the corridor once again. The door closed behind us, and through it, I heard Vaszhago’s pained outcry and lurched toward where I’d just exited.

You will only complicate things.Instead, I headed back to the room where I’d left Jericho, because damn it, nowhere in the cursed place was safe without him.

As Elyon and I made our way down the corridor, the scene before me wobbled, and I stumbled to the side. He looked up at me with concern, but I smiled, shaking it off.

“I’m fine.” The dizziness struck again, a black fuzzy circle closing in from the edges.

Darkness.

Screams pierced through the void, and I opened my eyes, staring down at the boy who lay on the floor beneath me. Face pale and eyes wide with fear, he trembled, and I looked further down to see his arm just below me with two telling arcs of a bite.

“Oh, my God.” I scrambled back from him, releasing his small limb.

Syrisa.

“It’s okay, I … I didn’t mean to–”

The boy jumped to his feet and took off down the corridor.

“Wait!” I called out for him.

Damn it.

Damn it!

I twisted around to see room 777, but I couldn’t bring myself to go in yet. I had to make sure the little boy was okay. I had to find him, because I intended to take him away from this place, if we managed to escape. Pushing to my feet, I headed in the direction he’d gone.

Shadows on the floor brought me to a halt.

Hobbling creatures approached just around the corner. On a shaky breath, I turned to go the other way, but Mortunath stood at the opposite side of the corridor, too.

On a screech, they launched toward me, and I pushed through the door, into the room.

When I turned around, the sight that greeted me sapped the air from my lungs.

Jericho hung from a chain in the center of the room, his skin a scaly black. Against his dark tone, gruesome red wounds marred his chest and abdomen, the flesh torn away in vicious grooves.

The urge to vomit tugged at my throat, and a cold fist gripped my lungs. Until his body twitched, his chest expanding and contracting with breaths, telling me he was still alive. Through panicked tears, I scanned the room for Claudius, and tiptoed toward Jericho, who seemed to be unconscious.

As I passed the sphere with the beating heart inside, I gave another furtive glance around before sending a hard shove against the glass. A shock of electricity snapped at my palms and hit my chest like a fist to my heart. I flew backward, crashing to the floor.

The sound of laughter sent a jarring tension through me, and I twisted around looking for the source of it. “If it were that easy for a mere human to destroy, the portal would’ve closed a long time ago.”

The view shifted, the room tipping just enough to send a wave of nausea through me. Something took hold of my ankles, and I looked down through a haze of dizziness to see tentacles wrapped around them.

My body flew straight upward, into the air, where I dangled upside down for only a moment with unbearable pressure rushing to my sinuses. The wall shot toward me at a speed too fast to stop the impact. I slammed into the surface, and a jagged pain shot into my spine, up to the back of my skull. Drawn away again, I rushed through the air a second time. A crippling blow struck my shoulder, and I cried out. My stomach went light, as my body fell to the floor, crashing in an ungracious slump that shot needles of pain into my shoulder blades.

“The legends have always spoken of a dark-winged creature seeking out the Met’Lazan for love. All a bunch of ridiculous fairytales.” Claudius chuckled as he approached me. “Letifer isn’t looking forlove. He’s looking to feed. Himself. His army. This realm. Only the Met’Lazan has the ability to access that power.”

“I told you before. I have no fucking clue how to access that power!”

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