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