City of the Falling Sky
Page 31
“Please!” Seckry begged. “Let her go!”
The Rabbit Man snarled as Eiya tried to shake herself free.
“No!” Seckry shouted. “What do you want? Anything! Anything! Just let her go, please!”
The Rabbit Man held on firmly to Eiya with one hand and reached into his pocket with the other. He pulled out a compact knife and flicked the blade open.
“Eiya!” Seckry screamed.
The Rabbit Man pressed the knife against Eiya’s throat.
But then something in his face changed.
He suddenly dropped the knife and let Eiya go.
Eiya ran to Seckry and grabbed a hold of him, squeezing him as tight as she could and burying her face into his chest.
Seckry was frozen, his mouth half open in mid sentence, as the huge beast of a man looked towards the window. His facial expression was slowly changing from pure malice and hatred to something of curiosity and confusion.
In the silence, all that could be heard was the faint sound of Mrs Plum outside, singing her lullaby as eerily as ever.
The Rabbit Man made his way over to the window slowly, dragging his huge frame like some kind of mythical stone golem.
Seckry was paralysed, wondering what on earth was going to happen to them, and Eiya was shaking uncontrollably in his arms.
But the Rabbit Man had lost all interest in them. It seemed as though he was . . . listening to the song.
His eyes were so bloodshot and puffed up that Seckry couldn’t be sure, but it almost seemed as though they were welling up with water.
With a cracked voice, the Rabbit Man said, “Mum?”
Chapter Twenty Eight
Into the Earth