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

first. The faster you get in there, the faster I can follow you.” She glared at him and made sure he knew there was no room for argument.

With a beleaguered sigh, he hopped through the window, a little less than gracefully. “All right. Now give me your hand.” He reached out for her.

She reached back.

Something else grabbed her shoulder.

She twisted out of its grasp and, taking her spear from her shoulder, stabbed the long, sharpened point through the skull of the drengil who had snatched her.

It wasn’t alone. A second one took the place of the first. It shoved her, knocking her down. She hit the cobblestones and was lost for a second in a sea of legs and limbs. Snarling, she kicked at the corpse that leaned over her, sending it sprawling backward. It was enough to slow it down, but not enough to stop it.

Maverick’s gun fired several times. “Ember!”

“Go—run—get out of here!” She punched at the figures over her. She felt the scrape of teeth on her calf, and she kicked violently. She felt something crunch underneath her boot.

“Ember!” More gunfire.

“Go!” She screamed for him to leave her, even as she thrashed and fought. It looked hopeless. There was no escape. The city was overrun.

No. Live for every second.

There—an opening! She scrambled across the cobblestones, pushing through the limbs toward the parting in the crowd of bodies. Maverick was nowhere to be seen. She wasn’t mad at him for abandoning her. Honestly, she was glad she didn’t see him. It meant he had survived just a little longer. Going in after her was suicide.

Trapped on the other side of the pack of corpses from the house Maverick had escaped into, she scrambled for options. There, in the shadows, where she hadn’t noticed it before—a tiny alley between two of the buildings!

She ran down it without pausing. By the sound of things, the creatures were following her, but she knew from experience that they were slower than she was. Although they could continue to animate through a great deal of grievous wounds and injuries, it often left them unable to move as fast as the living. It was the few advantages the living had over the dead.

There was no telling what was on the other side of the little alley, but she could only fix one problem at a time. The lane was only two feet wide, and she had to duck under several ducts and pipes as she escaped.

When she burst out the other side into a wider street, it seemed much emptier than before. Maybe she could escape!

Hope had lit her heart the exact same moment she rounded a corner and ran full-tilt into someone, knocking them to the ground.

“What now?” the person whined from the cobblestones.

They were tall, broad shouldered, but painfully thin. And wrapped in stained and bloody bandages. Their damp, blond hair fell in thick strings over their face, obscuring it from view. But she didn’t need to see it to know who it was.

“Oh…oh, no.” She took a slow step back.

A cracked and weathered, yellowed and stained full mask turned up toward her. “Oh! There you are. I was looking everywhere for you!”

Rxa.

She turned to bolt and pulled up her steps as soon as she did. The drengil were there as well. They weren’t attacking her; they weren’t even moving. They were just standing there…waiting. Waiting for what?

She whirled to go the other way. Another wall of drengil. They all stood in a circle around her and Rxa, blocking her escape. She had no way out.

She was trapped.

This is how I die. She shivered. She had known she was going to die by being eaten her whole life. She knew that was how her life would end. But now that she was facing it down, she decided she very, very much was not ready to die.

Silently, she prayed to the old gods for protection.

“Oh, please don’t go.” When he touched her shoulder, she swung her arm to strike him. She didn’t even get close. Six inches from his face, he caught her wrist and laughed. “Hey, now! I haven’t done anything. Why’re you so jumpy? Is it because the city is being consumed by the dead?”

She yanked on her wrist, but his grasp was like iron. It shouldn’t be possible for someone to be so strong, especially not someone who looked as though they had starved to death. But no matter how she tugged, she couldn’t even budge him. “Let go!”

“Nah. Don’t think I wanna.” He yanked her toward him. She tried to fight, but it was like being pulled behind a horse. A second later, and she was only a few inches away from him. He wrapped his other arm around her lower back and tugged her flush to him. She could smell the tangy, bitter scent of the blood on him. That freakish, broken mask grinning at her was far too close. “I was so worried about you! We were having such a nice time, and then somebody went and shot me. When I woke up, you were gone. Are you all right? Did anyone hurt you? Tell me who, and I’ll eat their liver while they watch.”

“Please—Rxa, please—”

“Hm? What?” He tilted his head to the side. “Why are you so afraid? You’re safe now.”

“I don’t—I don’t want to die.” He’s sentient. Maybe I can reason with him!

“I know, I know…Under is such a scary world. But you’re with me now, and I can protect you.” He chuckled. “Won’t that be grand? You and me. I like this plan.” He nodded. “I like it very much indeed.”

Sentient and insane. Maybe I can’t reason with him.

“I think I found some of your friends,” he interjected into the silence. “At least, I assume so. They aren’t from Under, so unless we’ve gone around hoovering up a whole bunch of random-ass worlds, I think these dead people are yours, yes?”

She nodded weakly.

“When you said your world was being consumed, I didn’t think you