A dark chilling laugh echoes through my head. My heart threatens to burst from my chest as I pump my arms, running faster than I ever have in my life.
Without warning, a cold hand grips the neck of my shirt and yanks me back, tearing the fabric clean off my body.
Sharp, jagged bones dig into my bare back as I hit the forest floor. Scrambling backward, I look up to see the Mara clutching my tattered shirt in its bony hands. It inhales loudly, lifting the rag to its obscured face.
“Mmmm, your fear smells divine,” it purrs, its putrid breath stinging my nostrils.
I grapple for anything to use against the specter looming above me. It drifts closer through the air, eerily graceful.
My hand closes around a long, thin bone beneath me, and I snap it over my knee, screaming at the backlash of pain that follows. I hold up one of the sharp ends with trembling hands.
This motherfucker’s about to eat me alive.
“Oh, no, no, no. Now this won’t do. I want to taste your fear. I want to taste yourpain,” it hisses softly, death personified.
“You’re gonna have to try a little harder than that, Casper.”
“Sweet thing.” It looms nearer, its breath dousing me in a foul stench that makes me dizzy. “You’ve yet to see me try.”
Scrambling to my feet, I try to run again. A sharp pain forces me to cry out as I look down at the thin bone embedded in my thigh. On instinct, I pull it out. Blood spurts from the wound.
The Mara groans in pleasure at the smell, drifting closer. It lifts its cement-white fingers to draw back its heavy hood. Long, stringy raven hair falls free as I peer into a gaunt gray face, so sunken it’s nearly skeletal. It has no lips, only a gaping black hole of a mouth. Its eyes bulge from within the deep sockets—the black pupils so dilated they swallow up all the white.
My heart lodges in my throat as I blindly scramble away.
I make it a few feet before the creature is upon me, tossing me onto my back and squatting above my chest, pinning my arms beneath its spindly fingers. I’m unable to contain the scream that bursts from me.
I holler relentlessly. I can’t stop. I can’tmakemyself stop.
Then the forest floor disappears beneath me, and I’m suddenly standing over my dad’s hospice bed, staring down at his frail, weak body—tubes in his nose, needles in his arms. I cry out, trying to clear the image from my head.
“This isn’t real.” I back away, but I’m met with a wall of muscle. I spin around, and Jack—no, not Jack—thecaptaintowers over me menacingly. He grips my face with one hand, and for a split second, it is the gentle caress of a lover. Then hislips pull back, bearing sharply pointed canines. His smile turns violent, bloodthirsty, as he drives a knife into my gut.
I wail, nails digging into his shoulders as I struggle to stay upright. He twists the knife, and pain like I’ve never known decimates me. I crumble to the ground.
My hands are wet with my own blood.
Jack withdraws his blade with jarring force, and I fall back, unable to scream or breathe or think.
His molten eyes glitter triumphantly as he lifts the blade to his cruel mouth and slides his tongue up the edge, lapping up my blood.
Myblackblood.
“Please,” I beg through the sobs, horrified by the sight. “Please stop.”
That’s better,the death voice speaks into my mind.
I struggle to keep my eyes open. My fingers and toes begin to fall asleep. Spots decorate my vision. I know I’m losing too much blood. This is how I die. I should have listened to Zadyn.
Icy hands wrap around my throat, but everything is black now. I can feel its rancid breath on my face like a harsh wind. My jaw clenches as I brace myself for the death blow, but the clammy hands disappear from my neck.
I force my eyes open.
I’m on the forest floor. I clutch my stomach, expecting to find warm, thick liquid pooling there. But there is no blood, no fatal wound. My eyes flash at the movement before me.
A high-pitched screech makes me clap my hands over my ears. I struggle to my elbows, still weak and disoriented. Three armored males on imposing black steeds dash into view, swords drawn and blazing with white light.
I recognize that shining black armor. Those horses. The Kingsguard.
