Thorn
nd led our grim procession through a reinf
to the bedrock of the mountain. With every turn downward, the air turned col
came th
ting flesh, and an overwhelming, choking aura of pure, predatory madness. Yet beneath that animal musk, my t
nerve con
locked. At the very end of the subterranean corridor stood a monolithi
the metal ca
k. C
sounded less like a man and more like a dying, rabid wolf suffocating on its own venom. The entire iron
key from the ring at her be
eee
open with a sound
toward the yawning, pitch-black
glittering with lethal certainty. "Consummate your vows. T
ing into the hidden slit of my skirt to touc
or swung open on
the suffocating blackness of the pit, two piercing, savage eyes
across the
L
and the heavy bolt dropped into place
t sealed out every trace of the living world
uffocati
ter, dried iron, and an overwhelming, predator
LE-C
shrieked aga
eeding through the ceiling grate, a blast of foul, scorching wind hit
impossibly fast-cleared fifte
predator doesn't waste
straight for the soft hollow above my collarbone t
my nervous system was forged in the radioactive ash-wastes,
agstones. The razor-sharp claws whistled through the empty space where my windpipe had b
hair. I pivoted inside his guard, step
is skin was scalding hot, radiating an acute, neurogenic fever that indicated catastrophic septic
g in his own
twisted his massive torso. His free arm swept inw
ss my chest as I was lifted off my feet and slammed backward
ormous hand clamped around my th
y vision. In the faint moonlight, I finally saw his eyes: not the intelligent, calculating
eeth, blood trickling from my bottom li
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