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.“Somewhere.” He laughs again, as if this is a game that he’s been anxious to play for some time.I attempt to mask the dread that I’m sure is filling my face.How can I stop this monster?“Hand over the orb and all will be as you wish.”“I won’t negotiate with Michelle bound and held hostage,” I say.“You must let her go and return her to Seoul.”Kud’s form grows, expanding before my eyes.His hood falls back enough that I can see his gaping mouth.A piercing growl emanates from him, and the sickle lying by his throne sails to his fingertips.He pounds the ground with its hilt.The floor shudders, and the hounds howl in response, shaking their heads.Sweaty blood slobber flings across the stone floor.“Who do you think you are?” he asks.“Your games were once fun, but I know every secret you bear.Do not forget your place, human.I never take no as an answer, and you have tried my patience too long.”In horror, I watch his sickle spin in his palm and lift above his head.Fumbling, I grasp for my orb, which somehow has hidden itself back beneath my shirt.I clamp my fingers around it.An explosion of light bursts from the orb, and like a bolt of lightning, it hits the sickle.The tentacles release Michelle from the pillar and shove her forward, so she meets the tip of the sickle and it cuts into her chest.Her scream pierces the air, shattering my soul.She latches hold of the sickle and rips it out of the tentacle’s grasp.Then she spins around and plunges it into the hound beside her.The dog shrieks and collapses to the floor before evaporating to dust.“No!” Kud rages.“How dare you destroy one of my beloved creatures?”Michelle leans over the sickle, gasping, and glares at Kud.“Go to hell where you all belong.”The tentacles flock her, grasping for the sickle.She tries to fight for it but collapses to the floor.I’m at Michelle’s side, dragging her slumped body into my arms.I see nothing but darkness around me.My whole focus is Michelle, the orb illuminating her perfect face.It’s ashen now.Her lips tremble and her eyes widen with fear.She gasps, as if breathing is too difficult to bear.Blood gushes from the wound in her chest.My hands flutter over her body, my mind reeling.“You were my best friend,” she whispers.“I’m glad you told me your secret.”I shake my head, damned tears streaming down my face.“I’m going to save you.Just hold on for a little longer.”“Don’t give him what he wants,” she gasps.Her eyes bulge.“You have to destroy him.”“Please.No.Don’t go!”“The swords.” Her voice is thinner than air.I press my ear to her lips.“He fears them.”Her body shudders, and her grip tightens on my arm.And then she lets me go, and her body sags against the floor.Her glassy eyes stare into the darkness, and I know she’s gone.“It seems you must learn the hard way,” Kud says.He hovers not far away, as if eager to watch Michelle take her last breath.Her body lifts from the ground and swirls in a circle.I latch on to her, wrenching her body to me.The pull is too strong.Her arm slips from my fingers.Screams fill the hall.They’re mine, as the pain hurtles through me in wave after wave.Higher and higher she lifts, and then she’s gone, vanishing into thin air.I drop to the ground, sobs racking my body.She didn’t deserve to die.She didn’t deserve to meet evil and confront it alone.My hand scrapes across something hard on the floor.It’s Michelle’s butterfly clip, sparkling in the orb’s light.I clasp it in my palm and press it to my chest.“How could you?” I grit my teeth.“She was innocent.”“Hand over the orb.”“Never.”“It appears you will also be the one to watch him die,” Kud says, his voice booming loud as if talking to someone else.With dread, I scan the room, trying to figure out who he’s talking to.That’s when a burst of fire rises from the floor, creating a wall barring me from the other side of the room.The shadows hovering in the corners are now illuminated in shades of red, flickering over a long row of bodies chained to the wall.All are skeletons except one that appears to still be rotting.And Marc.I didn’t think the pain tearing at my insides could get any worse.Marc’s tangled hair hangs over his eyes, and a jagged cut runs along his jawline, blood trailing down his neck.Without his shirt on, I can see the tattoo clearly, now almost radiating from his skin.The inky vine is an inch from his heart.Though his mouth is bound, I can read the pain mixed with anger flashing through his green eyes.I shake my head.“No, no, no.” My words come out anguished, pain-ridden, and desperate.But I can’t just watch Kud gloat.I think back to the time I golfed with Dad and how he said all that mattered was what was inside of us.But here in this place, facing Kud, those words feel petty, childish, useless.How could anything inside me overcome this?“What will be your choice?” Kud asks.“I will not stop with the deaths until you give me what is mine.”“Never.”I grasp the orb.Its power surges through me, spreading from my palms through my arms, and awakening every nerve in my body.My skin twists and pulls.I don’t even wait for the full transformation.I sprint toward Kud, and as I do, my body bursts into the form of a white tiger.My paws eat up the ground in seconds and I’m leaping, claws outstretched, toward this demon.My roar fills the room.Kud dives away with his mouth open in surprise.I fall on him, snapping at his neck, ripping at his cloak.Darkness slips around my body, and despite the brightness of my fur, I’m drowning in an endless nothing.His tentacles wrap around me, choking my neck, twisting around my paws.I snarl and flip in resistance, but here in this endless darkness, I can’t find him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]