by Lynn Best
She felt her core clench and then release as the wave of ecstasy crashed over her. This went on and on, the orgasm lasting longer and burning brighter than what she’d experienced with Langdon. It was like her whole body was soaring through the brilliant blue sky outside. She threw her head back, letting it consume her.
When she was done, she lay back, exhausted.
Stenton lifted his head, still gripping her thighs in his broad hands. His face glistened with her juices, and a wave of embarrassment washed over her again. Yet, he looked happier than she’d ever seen him, his tussled hair and torn shirt making him appear as if he were the one who was thoroughly sexed and not her.
“You’re so sexy when you yell my name, Seela. I do hope my brothers were around to hear.”
Seela could feel her blush burning. She pulled her skirts down, then adjusted her bodice. “That was…”
“Spectacular,” Stenton said, moving around to sit beside her and caress her hair. He put his arms around her. It felt so good to be held and comforted, snuggled against his strong body. But the experience with Stenton had not turned off the fountain of desire that had started overflowing since she’d arrived. He’d seen what was under her dress, and now she wanted a peek into his trousers. Maybe more than a peek.
She turned to tell him so, but then spotted Langdon running at them from the cavern behind them.
“There you are,” he shouted, skidding to a halt. “Hurry. We’re under attack.”
17
They ran down the dim cavern hallways like their lives depended on it. Yet, Seela had no idea what was going on. They were under attack? From the horde? She thought they were regrouping. That they had time to formulate a plan.
“How bad is it?” Stenton asked Langdon as they ran.
Langdon, out of breath, was barely able to answer. He must’ve sprinted all the corridors in search of them. “At the door,” he panted. “Attacking it.”
“Attacking the door?” Stenton’s eyes went wide. “They’ve never attacked the door before.”
Langdon didn’t answer. He was too busy sprinting into an open entryway that had appeared on their right. He rushed out, holding two old swords. That was what they would have to use to fight those monsters? Two rusty dull blades?
“Is there nothing else?” Seela asked in a panic.
Langdon’s eyes flitted to Stenton. “He can still shift.”
“Only for a few minutes.” Stenton looked stricken.
“It’s all we have,” Langdon said, his voice already flat with defeat.
“There has to be something else,” Seela said, the panic building. “Some other weapon.”
The brothers exchanged a look. “Well, there is something we haven’t tried,” Stenton said.
But before he could continue, there was a horrible shuddering that reverberated through the stone. Bits of the ceiling fell, clattering to the floor. The brothers exchanged a terrified look. “The door,” Langdon said.
They sprinted down the hall.
The door had been breached. They were doomed. Seela did the only thing she could think to do. She ran after them, hearing battle sounds grow louder as she got closer.
She rounded a corner to a shocking sight. The horde had broken down the enchanted door. They were spilling into the cave like a swarm of spiders. In the few days since she’d seen them last, she’d forgotten how hideous and nightmarish they were—six hairy legs tipped with claws, red eyes, and large jaws with rows and rows of knife-like teeth. They were bigger than she remembered—about the size of a large dog—and they moved fast, skittering and jumping to attack. The smell was rancid, like decay and death.
Seela shuddered, her whole body rejecting what she was seeing. Her legs felt like backpedaling, fleeing as fast as she could from the monstrosities that poured into the cave.
But then her eyes landed on Langdon fighting for his life. He punched one off the table as it reared up to bite him, front legs spiraling in the air, and then ripped another off his leg, the tearing sound letting Seela know the beast had its teeth sunk into his flesh just before being thrown into the dark hallway.
To his left, Jerrard was smashing two together, their spidery legs scrabbling over his arms in one last desperate attempt to harm him as he crumpled their bodies. The scratches and bite marks made Jerrard’s skin bright with blood.
How could they possible stop the massive numbers that were attacking them? Seela saw dozens more pouring in. They gathered around the princes’ legs like a bog, biting and jumping, carpeting the room in roving hairy blackness.
Where were the swords? She spotted them on the table. The quarters were too close for any weapons to be effective anyway. The brothers would risk cutting each other as much as any beasts.
Two of the horde climbed up Stenton’s back and attacked his neck, teeth piercing his skin. Three more jumped at his face. He just barely got his hands up before the beasts dove for his eyes. They clawed at his forearms, struggling to hold on before falling into the scrum of bodies on the floor.
“Shift!” Langdon yelled at Stenton. “Now.”
“Are you crazy?” he hollered, swinging his arms wide to throw the beasts off. “If I shift in here, I’ll tear myself and all of you apart!”
He was right. A dragon form was big, much bigger than the little kitchen. His body would morph, filling the space until there was none left for any of them. Had the horde planned it this way?
“Sssurrender,” the beasts hissed in one voice, the awful, grating sound of nails down a chalkboard. “Sssurrender and we’ll let you live.”
“Lies!” Stenton shouted, kicking a beast into a far wall where it tore a painting in two. “You’ll kill us all.”
“We won’t,” they all answered. “Trussst usss.”
Stenton laughed, but it was cut short as a beast plowed into his chest and cut off his wind.
It was horrible to watch, the princes fighting, the beasts tearing chunks out of them, more with each passing second. And she was doing nothing to help. Nothing to stop it. But what could she do?
Her eyes spied the open door. Now that all the beasts were inside attacking the princes, there was a pathway out. If she could draw the beasts out into the open, then Stenton could follow behind and shift into his dragon form in the bigger corridor beyond. It could save them.
Once the thought was in her head, she decided it had to happen. Without thinking about the consequences, Seela sprinted toward the open door.
The princes didn’t see her until she was in the doorway and barreling through. She heard a sharp cry and then her name. “Seela, no!” one of them shouted, but she didn’t look back to see which.
She ran.
Into the dark, she sprinted, the rocks tearing at her feet. She’d forgotten she wasn’t wearing shoes, had no need for them on the worn smooth paths inside the princes’ cave, but here, the rocks cut at her feet mercilessly. She ignored the pain, running headlong, but the light soon dimmed. Without the princes’ magic to light the gems, it became pitch dark. She was reduced to feeling the wall with one hand and jogging forward with the other stretched out in front of her. Twice she bashed into rock outcroppings, sending more jolts of pain into her shins and hip.
But worse, she could hear the horde behind her. The bait had worked. They were coming.
Hundreds of legs were skittering over the rocks behind her. Horrible scraping noises reminded her of the wicked claws each had at the bottom of their legs. They were fast, too. Soon, they would catch up to her and then what?
She shuddered and ran.
“Seela!” a voice echoed from behind. The princes were coming, too.
The plan was working. All she had to do was make it into the open cavern, the one where they’d been when Langdon had shifted. Stenton could shift, and all would be wel—
Something caught her ankle and pulled. Seela pitched forward. First her wrist, then knee, then her side hit the hard rock. The air huffed from her lungs as she skidded forward, feeling the
skin on her knees and palms shred against the gravel. When she rolled to a stop, she lay on her back, too stunned to do much of anything. What had caught her ankle?
Something brushed over her. Then another shape, hairs trailing over her skin. Skittering by her head sent her heart blasting into her rib cage.
The sharp bite of claws in her arms made her gasp. She screamed as more and more knife-like appendages punctured her skin.
“We have the girl,” the voices said in unison. More claws sank into her.
She fought, but there were so many. They lay on her legs, pulled at her hair, bit at her neck. The feel of their bodies climbing up and down hers made her want to gag.
Then they began to drag her backward.
“No,” she cried. “Stop!”
“Seela?” One of the princes was close.
“Here,” she cried in hopeful desperation. It sounded like Jerrard. “Over here.”
The beasts’ movement became more frantic. They dragged her faster, her body skimming against hard stones. She fought again, hitting one and sending it spinning away, but there were always two to take its place. Her hands flailed helplessly, her legs pinned.
“Let me go,” she screamed.
A bite on her neck made her yelp. She could feel its mouth latched on, the teeth pulling against her skin. The smell of it was like rotten animal. She’d never felt so disgusted.
But then another feeling stole over her—a feeling of fatigue so great it descended over her like a fog. Her eyelids weighed one hundred pounds. Her limbs went limp.
“Sssleep,” they said in one voice. “Sssleep.”
18
Jerrard awoke with a start. Where was he?
Opening his eyes did no good. There was no light to see by. He was able to sit up, move his limbs, but when he crawled forward, his hands swept through a curtain of something solid and sticky. It came off on his fingertips, trailing after him like cobwebs.
Those goddamned mutant spiders.
The last thing he remembered was tearing off after Seela. She’d been so brave, throwing herself headlong down the corridor, no doubt trying to save him and his brothers by putting her own life in danger once again. But the horde had followed her. All of them. They knew if they could kill the sacrifice, the brothers were done for. There would be no curse breaking, no salvation. It would be the end.
Had the horde killed Seela? He’d seen them dragging her body away, and it drove him mad with anger. He had plunged into the fray as the fastest of the brothers, fighting like a maniac against a hundred beasts at once. They’d taken him down. Of course they had. What could he do against that many? But he’d fought hard enough to make his brothers proud. Of that, he was sure.
Oh, Seela. Where was she? He couldn’t bear the thought of her dead. Killed because they could not protect her. Making a fist, he vowed to kill as many horde as he could before they drained him dry. That had to be their plan, why they’d kept him alive.
And where were his brothers? Alive? Dead? Jerrard felt awash with grief, regret, and anger.
“Where are you, you bastards?” he shouted, reaching out for the gauzy material in front of him. No matter how far he stuck his hand into the wall of web, it never seemed to end. And the further his arm went in, the more tangled he became. He was just barely able to extract himself before becoming permanently stuck.
He decided that instead of trying to go through the web, he’d feel around to see if there was another opening. Shuffling with his feet, he ran his hands along the web and traced its perimeter. What he found was a very wide oval shape with a cave wall at the back. He tried scaling the wall, but the surface was too smooth. He also tried slipping through where the rock met the web, but it was just as sticky and thick.
“How do I get out of here?” he said aloud.
“Jerrard?” a groggy female voice said from somewhere in the middle of his cell.
“Seela?” In a panic, he shuffled toward her voice. “Are you really here?”
“I’m here,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
He found her in what he decided was the center of the oval prison. She’d been passed out on the floor, and he’d skirted around her in his exploration. Now, he found her and settled his body down beside hers. Feeling forward, he ran his hands down her arms, making sure she was intact.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think so,” she said slowly. “They were attacking me, dragging me back, and… one bit me. I think I passed out.”
“You’re okay. I’m here,” he said, holding onto her hand to maintain contact with her since it was pitch black.
Her skin was warm as her fingers squeezed his back. “I’m glad I didn’t wake up in here alone.” The sound of her body shifting let him know she was sitting up. That was a good sign. She was more resilient than he gave her credit for. His father had always maintained that human females were weak, even joking that way about Jerrard’s own mother before her death. And when the human king killed her so easily, he’d chalked it up to her frail human body.
Yet, Seela was nothing like his mother, or what he remembered his mother to be. She was bold, tough, and brave. His poor dead mother had been none of those things. But then, maybe that was why Seela had been the lone survivor as the dragon sacrifice. Maybe that was why she was alive right now.
“Are you feeling all right?” he asked again.
“A little lightheaded,” she said, “but yes. Better than I was expecting considering I had all those monsters on me. There aren’t any in here with us, are there?”
He could hear the fear in her voice, so he gently put his arm around her. She scooted closer, accepting his comfort by leaning into him. “I don’t think there are. I made a full circle around the perimeter.”
“And we’re locked in?”
He nodded, but then remembered she couldn’t see him. “With some horrible web-like material. I tried to break through, but just managed to get stuck. I could try again.”
He started to get up, but she pulled him down. “In a minute,” she said, her voice still laced with fear. She didn’t want him to leave her. “I just wish we could see.”
It hurt Jerrard not to be able to provide light for her. But then, he hadn’t really tried the tiny bit of illumination magic they always used to make the gems imbedded in the walls glow.
This time before he got up, he offered her reassurance. “I want to try something. I’ll get up for a second, but then I’ll be right back.”
“Okay,” she said, but he could feel her uncertainty.
He gave her hand a squeeze before standing and walking with his arms out until he bumped into the back wall. Once he’d placed his palms on the rock, he pushed out what little remained of the magic within him.
The tiniest pulse of light began to glow from the jewels that resided amongst the stone. When Jerrard glanced back, he could make out Seela, just a dark shape in the middle of the cave. And he could see their webbed prison. The sticky walls were so thick he couldn’t see beyond them.
“You did it,” Seela said happily as he returned. Now that he could see her up close, it was clear what kind of ordeal she’d been through. Her dress was ripped nearly to shreds, and she had small cuts on the exposed skin. But her face was just as beautiful, maybe more so since it reminded him of what she’d sacrificed to save them.
“Light from the gems is not much.” He folded down next to her, letting his leg stop just inches from hers. “But it’ll help.”
“It helps a lot. It isn’t quite as terrifying if we can spot them coming.” She glanced around the space. “I see what you mean about the webbing. How do they make that?”
“I’m not sure,” Jerrard said. “I’ve never seen webs like this.” He didn’t want to say it, but he suspected the horde was growing in strength as they were weakening.
Seela frowned. “You would’ve thought if they could do this, they would’ve used it when they imprisoned you in the first place.”
“Maybe
they didn’t have time.”
“Maybe,” she said in a way that let him know that excuse didn’t sound quite right. “Either way, we need to get out of here before they do whatever it is they plan on doing to us.”
Jerrard winced. He didn’t want to scare Seela, but they were in big trouble. If his brothers weren’t waiting outside to rescue them, there was little hope. “Stenton and Langdon will come,” he said with as much hope as he could muster.
She nodded, her eyes roving around the web as if testing it with her mind. “It’s too bad we don’t have fire to burn our way through.”
One more way he was letting Seela down. “Only Stenton can shift. Let’s hope he’s still able.”
Seela nodded thoughtfully, her head drooped to his shoulder. The smell of her hair, even after all they’d been through, was like a field of wildflowers. He gently leaned his head against it, taking comfort from her presence.
“I wish I could’ve helped more,” she said, sighing. “I really thought drawing them out would allow Stenton room to shift and finish them.”
“It was very brave what you did,” he said. “But please don’t put yourself in harm’s way again. My heart can’t take it. When I saw you barreling into the hallway…” He whistled low.
Seela’s head shook a little underneath his. “They were so damn fast. Anyway, I tried. I can’t just sit around while those things kill us all. I wish there was more that I could do.”
Jerrard bit his tongue, thinking of the prophesy, the curse. How could he tell her what they suspected without making her feel like she should give up her virginity? The simple answer was he couldn’t. He would have to find another way.
“We’ll get out of this.” He punctuated his words by pounding his fist against his thigh.
As if she’d been reading his mind, Seela sat bolt upright. “Wait! Wasn’t there something about breaking the curse? Stenton mentioned there was something I could do just before we were attacked.”