38
Seconds passed. Seconds where Leviathan hunched over and groaned, his hand dropping to his groin. For a few terrifying heartbeats, Cullen was frozen. Unable to move or breathe or think.
And then he was stumbling to his feet, pushing past Leviathan’s reaching hand as he ran for the door. To his shock, he made it, Leviathan remaining where he was as Cullen raced down the hall.
He was sure he remembered the way now. The way to those massive wooden doors that led outside. He knew the way. He could make it.
A left down this hallway. A sharp right down the next.
Leviathan’s aura erupted behind him, chasing him through the palace halls as he ran and ran, his heart racing and his breaths sawing out of him in panic.
What had he been thinking?
How could he have done something so stupid?
He was going to die now.
Here. In this terrible, dark place full of death and emptiness–
He shook the thought from his mind, biting back a whimper that threatened to escape when Leviathan’s aura surrounded him, seeping into him as he ran.
He was coming.
He was close.
Closer than should have been possible.
But of course he was faster than he had ever let on.
Faster…and he knew the palace better. Perhaps that had been part of his plan all along; to portal Cullen everywhere, to keep him from learning these dark, empty halls. To keep him from running.
But Cullen had always marked it all when they’d explored this place together. Every step. Every window. He knew. He was sure he knew…
He nearly cried with relief when he rounded another corner and those giant wooden doors appeared on the floor below. He raced down the slick stone steps, slipping on the last one, and then ran for them.
Leviathan could have sealed them, he knew. Could have appeared right in front of him and tore his throat out with those terrifying dagger-sharp teeth–but he didn’t. That terrible aura continued to seep into the air around him, into his body and chilling his blood, but Leviathan was following at a slow pace.
Cullen knew it wasn’t a mercy. Or a hesitation.
No, Leviathan was hunting him. Taunting him. The knowledge set off some primal terror in his chest. Something that felt tight and hot and made him feel like throwing up.
He ran faster, shoving open one of those damn doors and spilling out onto the short staircase that emptied out ontoflat, hard ground. Several agonizing seconds passed while he paused at the bottom of the steps, his eyes roving the empty landscape. Nothing but miles and miles of smooth rocks with jagged edges. A wide stone bridge just a short distance away, the only way across the wide ravine that led down to that terrible blood-colored river.
Nowhere to go.
Nowhere to go…
But he’d known that when he had run. He didn’t know how to portal out of here. Knew this was some other world and that there was no way out. But it didn’t stop him from running the moment he heard those doors creak open again. He had just cleared the other side of the bridge when the voice echoed into his mind, the tone soft and vicious.
Do you really think you can get away?
He flinched hard–and stumbled back with a cry of shock as something under the ground cracked.
Thick rock walls slid up through the ground, blocking him in on two sides. All that remained open to him was straight ahead–which led to a sharp right turn into what he was sure was just another long hall of rock–and the other side of the bridge.
Where Leviathan was now standing, fury rolling off him in deadly waves. His eyes were that solid, shark-like black again, his features distorted in that unnatural way that had haunted Cullen’s nightmares since he’d escaped Walker’s soul bindings. Shadows swirled around him in deadly tendrils. Cullen felt his own shadows, usually somewhat dormant things, recoil inside of him, as if they were terrified of Leviathan as well.
He drew in a harsh breath and stepped back, his heart pounding so hard he was worried it would blow right out of hischest. He tried to find his voice–to apologize, to beg for his life, maybe–but it was lost to him. He could hardly even meet that deadly gaze without panic tearing into him.
