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“She's my ticket it back into my wife's bed,” the giant claimed, a triumphant gleam brightening his dingy, yellow eyes. He puffed out his chest, unlocked and opened the door to our enclosure, quickly thrust his hand beneath the goose, then retreated, closing the door of the cage. Out of my periphery, I noted that the lock remained unused, resting on the tabletop.
“Yes, excellent plan,” Marv, another one of the demons in my head berated me, “try to escape and get yourself killed faster.”
I ignored the demon and forced all my focus on keeping the bastard’s attention away from his foolish mistake. “Oh? And what is it you've got there?” He moved his hand closer to the bars and unfurled his fingers. Both my eyebrows rose, and my gaze flicked from his face to the dozen golden eggs cradled in his palm. “I see. So, she's a golden goose, yes?”
The giant laughed and dropped the shiny eggs into a shallow dish juxtaposed to the cutting board. His outward expression of hilarity vibrated the dilapidated cabin until his greedy laughter stopped abruptly. My eyes zeroed in on his expression as it darkened and his lip pulled up on one side. I focused my senses as he stomped the short distance to the door, then flung it open and stormed through. The door swung wide before coming to a stop with an inch of space left between it and the frame. My tapered ears twitched, following a shattering noise, drawing my attention to one of the windows on either side of the doorway. I laughed, noting the knob sized hole revealed as the cracked glass fell to the mud-stained, warped floorboards, microscopic particles glimmering in the dim lighting.
“Even better. If the mistakes keep compounding like this, we’ll be out of here shortly. Eh, feather face?” I said, grinning and nodding to Goosey. A breeze trailed in through the cracked doorway, and I inhaled greedily, attempting to clear my nose of the giant’s rank stench. My eyes widened as an unexpected combination of scents caused my heart to palpitate and stomach to somersault in tandem, my mouth watering.
“Fuuuck me,” I groaned, “what is that incredible scent?”
My head tilted as I stood to my full height and scanned the world between the bars of my enclosure through the bottom pane of the window, my taloned toes scraping against the wooden surface. A purr vibrated my chest as another breeze twisted around my senses. I breathed in deeply, marking the notes of the soon-to-be-an-obsession-scent with my supernatural perception of smell—cherry blossom and vanilla mixed with lighter notes of honey. Another surety swiftly followed, literally knocking me to my arse as if struck.
“Mate. Mine.”
Goosey squawked and I absently smoothed down her ruffled feathers with the tip of my tail.
For a moment, pure joy bubbled behind my ribs and a wide, fanged smile transformed my stone features. “It’s finally happened!” Yet, my thoughts quickly darkened, every horrible thing that has ever happened to me in life transforming the happy feelings into sludge as if a vat of acid was poured directly into my chest cavity.
“No, no, no, no, no,” I growled, suspicion threading my voice. “It can’t be real. It’s just my brain trying to screw me over again.”
Freddy snickered. “Of course, it isn’t real. Do you really think a banished grotesque like you deserves a mate sent by fate itself?”
I slapped my clawed, overly long fingered stone hands over my face, a low and deadly growl rumbling from me, followed by my whispered words, “Shut the hell up, demon.”
My heart ached as if it might have leaped from my chest, and I swore I could practically taste decadent almonds on my tongue. Lies. A thud resounded as my open palm struck my cheek, further clearing my thoughts.
Whoever that scent belongs to isn’t real.
My mind cleaved in two and a tremor worked over my body, part of me desperate to rip the bars apart and find my mate, while the other half resists, suddenly grateful for the chains shackling me. I press my full weight against the bars at my back and pinning my wings unnaturally in the process, clawed hands balling into fists. No, not my mate. This isn’t real.
CHAPTER 4
Dehydrated Delusions
MIKO
Iblew out of breath and hugged the stalk, pressing my entire body against it for just a moment.
My musings derailed as another thought stole into my mind. Wait, if this is a dream there are ways to tell. I reached down to the skin just beneath the hem of my black, jean shorts and pinched the sensitive area, hissing as the bite of pain registered. Reality squeezed my heart and sweat beaded along my brow.
Is it possible that this isn't a dream? Surely that isn’t accurate.
I panted, the precipice of my climb coming in to view over the edge a regular blue sky, free of claustrophobic cloud cover and giving me a boost of motivation. My limbs shook as I crawled onto a mostly flat surface, as if the top of this never-ending plant had been lopped off with rusty shears.
I glanced around, my face flush against sparse, patchy baby blue grass, then my nose scrunched. My hand slapped over my mouth, terrified of making any noise as what only could be described as a giant lumbered around the far side of a lopsided cottage and out of view. Why does it feel like there should be a castle there instead? I pushed away the irrelevant thought, then scrambled to my feet, ran behind a withering orange rosebush over ten times my height, and crouched. Forcing myself to breathe through my nose, I struggled to catch my breath as my adrenal glands flooded my system.
My shoeless, sore feet sank into the mulch heaped over the roots of the bush, my nose twitching from the cloying floral scent. I gauged the distance to the cracked open front door. I pondered all of my options, finding none of them suitable. At the moment, that gargantuan creature remains outside the cottage, therefore, I need to be inside it.
I peeked around the edge of the roses, verified the coast was clear, then stood and sprinted the distance to the door. The remnants of mulch stuck between my toes as I jumped through the gap created by the open front door, that to me was several feet wide, but judging by the size of the door in proportion of myself, would only be an inch or two for the giant. I pressed my back against the wall, scuttling along sideways, like an unskilled spy in a B-grade movie.
Actually, I probably look more like an inebriated crab.
My eyes widened as I fully absorbed the inside of the shack, swallowing as I noticed how enormous all the furniture was. Nevertheless, my observations came to a swift halt and I froze mid step. The floor shook violently, causing me to throw my arms out to the sides for balance, thunderous footsteps sounding on the opposite side of the wall I hid behind. My brain throbbed painfully and tried valiantly to think of a way to make it out of this alive, yet I could only bite the inside of my cheek, failing to come up with anything other than to run like the prey I most certainly was.
I pushed off the wall and bolted straight for the table, skidding to a stop behind a gnarled table leg. A hand flew to my chest, the other covering the lower half of my face, muting my obnoxiously loud breathing. My heart conspired with my lungs and threatened to pound right out of my chest and spill onto the ill-kept rough sawn wooden floor. I watched as the grumbling giant stooped to clear his head and crossed the threshold.
I stood there, my breath heating the side of my hand for what felt like hours but was more than likely only a couple of minutes. However, I surmised internally, it's impossible to keep time when forced into back-to-back life-threatening circumstances. I am so unequivocally out of my fucking element. I wish Mo was here. At least she would try to make me laugh before we died.
