Kizzi brought her other hand up, slipping it between the bars to clutch my hand in both of hers. “I don’t—” She dropped off mid-sentence, letting her eyes fall shut.
A memory stabbed at the back of my mind, threatening to split me in two me as it tore free. I shook my head to relieve the tension.
The pain increased, intensified until it could not be ignored.
A grimace tugged at my face.
“What’s happening? Are you hurting him?” Ginger asked.
“Kizzi—”
“Hang on! There’s something?—”
My mind fractured, splitting into a million pieces andsending agony skittering throughout my entire being. I was burning. My bones were crumbling. My skin was peeling from my muscles, every ligament snapping one by one.
Wetness dripped down my nose, out of my ears, the corners of my eyes.
It was all overshadowed by the blinding pain in my skull.
My vision narrowed to a closing tunnel, and then darkness overtook my sight entirely, sweeping me under.
I shouted in pain, but I could not escape. My muscles were locked solid, held captive by the small green witch.
The pain, impossibly, intensified. I screamed in agony, begging the witch to free me, to release me from the torment.
“Are you killing him?” someone shouted.
“Kizziah!”
My eyes rolled back in my head. Liquid continued to pour down my face.
“His blood is gold!”
“I see it!”
“What the fuck?”
My ears rang, sound slowly drowning out until all I could feel, hear, see was my own suffering, my own unraveling.
The witch released me and leapt backwards as though I had scalded her—as though she wasn't the one dismantling me piece by piece.
The dungeon tilted and the ground swept up to meet me as I crashed onto my back. I couldn’t even feel the pain of the impact.
But the agony was slowly clearing.
As my ears returned to working, words filtered in.
Everyone was screaming.
Kizzi’s voice rang out above the others. “It’s Erebus!”
“What?!”
“That’s impossible!”
“The Old God?!”
“Yes!”
