Instead of the ground breaking my fall, he yanked my wrist toward him, changing the direction. My cheek smacked into his lower sternum.
I frowned. Runes on his bicep glowed near my nose, and his muscles bunched.
I tipped my chin up, peering at his face. His glow flared, claws digging into the top of my ass. My breathing stuttered and my fingers pressed at the indents of his stomach—abs on steroids.
The monster was Adonis-shaped—times a thousand.
Something sliding along my calf wrenched a scream from my soul. I attempted to hop up, but the silky sensation wrapped around my ankle. I wheezed on a breath, trying to make sense of the tail.
Lips parted, I swung my gaze back up, but my vision blurred. I swayed and latched onto his wide torso.
My stomach whirled and I sucked in a shallow breath. The lack of light did a number on me. I was going to pass out. My knees were oddly weak. Shit. Before I dropped to the ground, arms swept me up.
I sucked in a hard breath.
He wasn’t letting me fall.
Blinking my eyes open, I gazed into his glowing eyes and set my palms on his chest.
“Thank you, Tenebrous.”
The blue glow of his eyes softened, and the swirls in his arms lit up, as if taking from the glow of his eyes.
“What is wrong with you, human?”
I frowned, not knowing how to answer the question. The annoying dizzy spells were only one part of it, but that was bound to happen being in the disorienting dark for a long time. Plus, it wasn’t like there wasn’t a rock to cause my fall. My stomach growled, and I dropped my palm to my belly, eyes widening.
“I’m hungry.”
His head tipped to the side.
“Hunger ... I understand.”
He kept his grip on me and headed through the featureless cave. The only way I could tell anything about my surroundings was because of him. Tenebrous was my beacon in this. He turned and navigated through the tunnel, passing dark holes in the walls that I had no interest in exploring.
Light brightened an ominous circular exit with boulders poking out at the edges, reminding me of teeth. He’d brought me outside of the cave. Tension I hadn’t realized I’d been holding lessened, and my shoulders relaxed.
It was the same gloomy lighting it had been since I’d crossed over into the monster world. Fog clouded the ground from view with how thick it was.
Tenebrous walked a few more paces to the right and knelt, dropping me onto a smooth stone. The inclined hill we’d slid down loomed in the distance. His tail swished as he turned away and dropped to all fours as he retreated, disappearing within the fog.
My chest tightened, and my fingers curled.
“Stay,” he hissed, and I turned side to side to figure out where his voice came from. I scooted to the edge of the rock and whistled at the abrupt drop. It was nowhere near deadly, but it put his height into perspective. My heart continued with rapid palpitations, but I remained seated on the boulder, attempting to calm my panicked breaths.
I swallowed hard as I swept my gaze around to try to get him within my sights. Where had he gone?
I stilled. What if he never returned?
How was it possible a creature brought me comfort? For one, he was a monster. Two, I’d seen him viciously murder. Three, I’djustmet him.
A while passed before a loud squeal invaded my ears. Tenebrous rounded the wall of stone he’d disappeared behind and dragged a squat creature toward me.
My brows lowered. It had stubby little legs, six of them, and a narrow face that reminded me of an anteater.
Tenebrous dipped, then tore one leg off, setting off a wild pain-filled shrieking.
I hopped off the stone so quickly it scraped my leg. My knees buckled, and my ankles stung upon landing, but I pushed through and shot off toward him and the creature spewing gray blood on the ground.
