The heads all turned toward the group, a variety of eye colors all fixed on them simultaneously, their distressed faces shifting into wide smiles when they saw them.
The moans stopped.
Cahir stepped alongside Seda and gripped his sword tightly, his knuckles white with tension. “They cannot reach us if we stay in the center of the path,” he said as he stared at the too-wide grins.
Roya once again took the lead and descended further into the lair, taking careful footsteps through the center, some of the faces following her as she walked.
Kalon looked down at Seda and said before following Roya, “Stay close.”
She looked at Cahir, whose face was pale with horror anddisgust. “These are only the heads of men,” she said to him. “Are you sure you want to continue?”
“Forever by your side, Sed,” was all he said before he stepped in front and reached his hand back for her. She accepted it, feeling his warm palm within hers, and held the knife in her other hand as they began to walk through. She tucked her wings in closely behind her.
She tried to avoid looking at the eerily quiet smiles as they passed, but she made the mistake of glancing over, and the head of a man cackled at her in response.
“Do you know what I’d do to a pretty thing like you if I had my body back?” it said, licking its lips as its eyes rolled down her body.
Like a shadow of darkness, Seda felt her body tense as anxiety started to creep up her spine. It focused its energy on vivid memories of her past, of the men who had hurt her and diminished her confidence.
Cahir pulled his hand away from hers and brought his sword down onto the head of the man, breaking apart the amethyst it was staked upon. He repeatedly drove it into the man’s face, crushing the mangled face into the wet ground below, wild fury blazing in his eyes.
When the man’s face was pulverized beyond recognition, he reached for her hand once more.
Seda said nothing and accepted his outstretched hand.
None of the other heads spoke, but their smiles followed them as they moved deeper into the monster’s lair. What truly awaited them ahead if this was the entrance? Why would this beast display these heads for anyone who entered in such a manner?
They walked for a few more minutes before the pathway widened further, revealing a vast, crystal-crusted cavern, covered in cobwebs, with alcoves of darkness in the walls, as if it split into a maze beyond.
“Disgusting,” Roya said from ahead, and Seda tried to peeraround Cahir, but he immediately froze in front of her, causing her to walk into his back.
She stepped around him and stared at the two amethyst stakes in the center of the path as if the items displayed on them were prized trophies. Propped onto one was the head of a man, and on the other, a flaccid male appendage. Seda stepped closer and stared at the face of the man, and his eyes shifted toward her.
She gasped at the resemblance.
“Father?” Cahir whispered hoarsely, his face twisted and nose wrinkling in disgust.
The temperature inside the cave dropped, and their breath started to billow out like ghostly plumes of air. They heard a skittering sound, like a massive insect scurrying across the walls.
A long, wet string shot out from the darkness and wrapped around Kalon, throwing him roughly onto the ground. He struggled to move. Roya immediately knelt and tried to pull the string from him, but also became tangled in the thick, gummy paste.
“Cahir,darling. What did I tell you about making faces?” a feminine voice echoed from the dark pits.
Chapter 41
Benny
They ran until Benny struggled to breathe, and then they ran more. Askold lay atop Aurora’s back and groaned through rasped breaths. Every time Benny glanced over, he saw that the swelling on his face was getting worse by the minute, and he no longer looked like himself.
Sephyr and Vira flew beside them like black shadows that blew the air around their faces.
“How much further?” he gasped, pushing himself harder with each stride.
Vira let out a loud caw, and Benny looked ahead. The marshlands were slowly abating, and in the distance, the wreckage of a town lay ahead, alight with massive bonfires that lit up the buildings.
Rooftops had been torn off, and houses smashed, but there werepeoplethere, slowly working to rebuild the devastation left by the Jotnar.
He ran harder, and Aurora pickedup her pace.
