Real.
My lids snap open, pupils tighten, and I draw a sludgy breath, squinting through my smeared vision, trying to untangle from the dream’s sticky web.
The feel—thesoundof moving water comes to me, and I blink, clearing away some of the cobwebs clinging to my mind. A curling river reflects the moonlight, weaving between arched trees connected by drapes of messy vines.
Where the hell am I?
Wheezing wet breaths into my heavy lungs, I roll my gaze around. Notice I’m lumped against a precarious bundle of logs stacked upon each other by the water’s swirling flow. Snapped twigs and branches have impaled my leg and torso, poking out the other side, skewering me in place.
Fuck.
My vision sharpens on the talon still lodged in my heart. Despite the prickly ache deep inside my chest, I find myself sadistically proud of her perfect shot.
Nice try.
Groaning, I try to move, but it’s as if my muscles and bones have seized. Something nudges at my shoulder, followed by a dull pull.
I crank my head to the side in slow, painful increments, sketching out the shape of a massive black krah perched on a wet log behind me, lit by slabs of moonlight shafting through the canopy, a sliver of gray, rotten flesh caught in its clawed hands.
Is that—
I think it fucking is.
His tufted tail peeks over his shoulder like a charmed snake, swaying from side to side, both sets of leathery wings curled around his crouched body as he blinks those large gloomy eyes. Head cocked to the side, he puts the piece of flesh in his mouth and gobbles it down.
Did he just … eat me?
He releases a shriek, exposing a savage maw of razor-sharp teeth, and hops onto my arm, claws piercing my flesh. I lift my other to swat him away, then roar in agony as searing pain rents through my hand. Like it was hammered through with a nail.
The krah flaps off, and my eyes narrow on the festering wound in my palm. I turn my hand over, inspecting the black scrawls of rotten veins just beneath the surface of my pasty, waterlogged skin.
How long has the talon been in me?
My gaze rolls up, past the small flock of krah being led in circles by the one that was feasting on my flesh, seeking the bloated moon that sits low in the sky. Mocking me with its near fullness.
Panic rips me in two.
I draw another rattled breath, checking that tiny lustrous seed—like a star tore from the sky and settled amongst my ribs. A bright, twinkling beacon, contrasting my fucking dim.
The only star I’ll ever kneel to.
Rich, wriggling,foreignfear squirms through me like an earthworm, and my skewered heart stills, skin prickling all over. Thatthinginside me bristles, arching up, head to the side.
What the fuck is going on—
A scent seeps from the seed—salty.
Citrus.
His.
A blunt bite of crippling pain latches onto the side of my neck, the septic ache in my heartnothingcompared to the ravaging hurt that tears across my shoulder, up into my jaw …
Notmypain.
Hers.
The cold, carnal violence inside meroars, and my fangs slide down, murderous rage crackling through my veins …
