Mask of Poison (Fall of Under Book 1) by Kathryn Kingsley (great novels to read txt) 📕

few survived.” He sniffed. “I’m not really feeling up to snuff today. Bit under the weather. Hope you’ll excuse me. Anyway. I commanded my new children to strike out into the city. I commanded them to kill everything and everyone.”

“But—but why? Why would you do this?” Lyon took a step toward them, but Rxa’s hand around her throat tightened. She squeaked, and Lyon hesitated.

“Why?” Rxa snarled. “You have the gall to ask me why? I was betrayed, Lyon. But not just by you—by everyone! And they will all pay. I will have my revenge. And their walking, hungry corpses will help me. Every single one of your traitorous bastards will help me kill the next one in line.” He cackled. “How wonderful.”

“Call them off, Rxa. Call them off now.” Lyon sounded more and more desperate. “We can work this out.”

“No. We really can’t. So, here’s your choice, old friend. Fly off and try to save the city as a whole before it’s too late…or save Ember. Which’ll it be?”

Lyon’s gaze flickered to her.

She risked it. “Go.” She tried to speak without moving her mouth as much as possible. “Go, Lyon. Save them.”

He bowed his head and, in an instant, exploded into a cloud of white bats. They swirled out the shattered glass window over the entry door.

“He always was a predictable fuck.” Rxa loosened his grasp on her. “Anyway. Oscar performance, by the by. I wouldn’t have ever believed you—oof!”

She stomped on his foot as hard as she could. He teetered, and that was all the chance she needed. She shoved him hard, sending him staggering. He had to release her to grab hold of the edge of the altar.

She ran.

She tried.

She made it exactly ten feet before she ran into Rxa. He had somehow appeared in front of her! In the blink of an eye, he was there, and she was back in his grasp. He tugged her against his chest. An arm around her lower back zeroed the space between them.

“Careful, little dove. I like it rough.” He chuckled. “Everyone always pegged me for the nice guy. The sweet one. Please.” He moved his head closer to hers. “How about you? You don’t seem to be the gentle type, either.”

“Let me go—”

“You can stop the act now. He’s gone.” A tendril of blond hair fell across the cracked eye of his mask as he tilted his head to the side. “Don’t tell me you’re a method actor.”

“I’m not acting, please—please let me go.”

“Why? I thought we were having a nice time. Until you stabbed me. Oh. You dropped your knife around here somewhere.” He glanced left and right. “Whatever. I’ll buy you a new one. Come on, we should go before Crabby McFlagpole comes back with friends.”

Ember was helpless as Rxa took her by the wrist and began dragging her toward the door. He was walking normally, but she might as well have been tied to a boulder thrown over a cliff. He didn’t even need to try, and she was staggering behind him, no matter how hard she dug in her heels.

She struggled. She kicked. She tried to grab on to columns only to have them peeled out of her grasp.

And he just hummed a little tune.

“I think we’ll visit my dear friend Aon first. I think I’d like to rip his liver out a few times. I’ll let it grow back, and then I’ll do it again, and again, and again. Oh! I’ll let you have a go at it. It’ll be fun.”

“Rxa, please, let me go. I—”

He cackled. “Nice try. No, no, it’s pronounced Rix-ah. Points for effort. It’s always rough on the first try.”

“I don’t want to go with you. I don’t, please—”

He whirled to face her, yanking her close to him again. His hand tangled in her hair at the base of her ponytail, tightening it into a fist. “Quiet, little dove. You are the only one who knows anything about the pissant creature who resurrected me, your ‘Dread God.’ You will come with me peacefully. I do not plan to hurt you. Unless you make me.”

Live for every second.

Live for every second.

Tears slipped down her cheeks. She stopped shoving on his chest, trying to push him away.

His hand released her ponytail. “Good. Now, I—”

Blam!

12

Rxa woke up with a long groan. He put his hand to his temple and felt the small round hole there in his skull. “Owww…no fair…guns ’r cheating.”

It hurt.

Everything hurt.

It had all been going so well. He had made a new friend, he had eaten a bunch of old ones, and then he had a chance to say hello to his old second-in-command and closest compatriot. And then promptly tried to kill him.

His day had been looking up.

But then it all went wrong. He had heard the gunshot, and then everything went dark. Now, as he pushed himself up to his knees, his new friend was nowhere to be found. “Little dove? Where’d you go?”

Silence.

He was alone. Standing, he walked to a dark corner between two columns and collapsed. The stone was cool, and it felt a little bit like relief against his aching and stinging body.

Everything hurts so much…

Why did his new friend run away? Why did Ember leave him? Clearly, he needed help…she seemed like a sympathetic soul. I must look like a piece of work, huh?

He pulled his mask from his face and held it up, looking at it in the darkness. The moonlight was bright and cast enough for him to see. There was a moon in the sky that he did not remember, casting light through the doorway and the shattered windows. It was a sickly shade of yellow. And he knew…just knew…that moon was for him.

Time was once that his mask was smooth, porcelain, and perfect. It was as beautiful as his true face—as eternal and wonderful. He remembered how the humans of Earth would fall to their knees in front of him in worship, his great white wings that spread behind