Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 90404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
No longer able to fight, I go limp, all my adrenaline spent.
My body is spiraling in the wind, the swoop of his huge wings stirring the air all around us and making a loud whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
I expect a hard landing, if not to be dropped again.
Instead, when the clawed hands do release me—
I scream, but do not hit anything hard. Not even cold, packed snow.
No, I land on a soft…?
I look down and then scurry so that I’m sitting up, tangling myself in sheets and a fur blanket.
A bed?
He’s brought me to a bed.
And then I scramble to the wall, remembering what I promised in return for my healing. To be his consort. Oh shit.
I hold up my hands as the creature drops down to…hooved feet!
He takes a step toward me, and the light comes in full through the window. I look furiously around, trying to get my bearings.
The walls are stone, like I’m in an old castle, and the window looks out on a vista of white snow and the iced-over lake. He’s just flown us in through the window.
I scan the view frantically, but there’s more snow. More lake.
And that’s all.
I don’t see the lights of a town, or any other human habitation. Where the hell am I?
I look back to the demon.
He takes another step toward the bed. His enormous black wings span the entire width of the room, and while his face is fairly human, his nose is still somewhat leonine. His lip is split in the middle, and his eyes have cat-like slit pupils. Instead of skin, he’s covered with short fur, and sports a lion’s mane for hair. Now that he’s clean, I can tell his fur is a golden color, but the curling horns extending from each side of his crown are an intimidating, inky black, like his wings.
The short fur also covers his man-like chest but it stops when it gets to his—
I drop my gaze then feel my eyes grow wide. Naked. He’s totally naked.
Oh God. He’s man-like down there, too. Exceedingly manlike, and… excited, if that log hanging between his legs is any indication.
I back up even further against the wall, even though I don’t have anywhere else to go. I burrow my back against the corner and hold up my hands.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy! Let’s just slow down a second here!”
“Slow down?” he growls. “I did not see consort slowing down as she ran away. You run, I will chase.”
I laugh nervously, still keeping my hands up as a useless barrier between us. “That was just a misunderstanding. You flew away like that and I—”
I’m not sure how, considering all that fur, but I can tell he’s lifting a sarcastic eyebrow at me. “And you run the opposite direction from me, forgetting your promise after you got what you wanted?”
I shake my head. No, not that, definitely not that. “I wasn’t sure if you healed me.”
“Now you see. Your legs work well. See how fast you run.”
My mouth drops open to make an intelligent retort. To point out the moms-lifting-cars-thing. But then… then I really stop and think about it.
The way I was running… sprinting really. I haven’t been able to do that… ever. Not even when I was a kid. It was one of the things that had my parents thinking something might be wrong with me. I couldn’t run around like the other kids. Instead, I just tripped and fell a lot.
I certainly didn’t sprint so fast I felt the wind in my hair. Like ever, in my whole life.
“But I—” I start, and that furry eyebrow of his arches even higher.
What can I say? I asked for a miracle and didn’t really think the consequences all the way through, even when I agreed to… gulp… forever?
Oh shit, I’m gonna be dizzy.
I swoon a little forward.
“Yes,” says the demon. “Lie down for first time as my consort. Good idea.”
I reach back and scrabble for the wall stones again. “Whoa!” I say, “Not so fast.”
“Why not fast?” He reaches toward me with one dark-clawed finger. “I healed you fast. Did we agree or not? Should I take back the healing?”
I freeze, hand still out toward him, his finger halted an inch from my palm.
Shit, this is all happening so fast. Why did I agree to it? Now he expects me to— To give my body to him?
I start shaking my head, my refusal on my lips. Ready to tell him that yes, I want him to take the healing back, that I want out of here, that I’ve made a terrible mistake—
But the words freeze in my throat.
Because running like that, even if it was while experiencing the most terror I’ve ever felt in my life, was also… exhilarating. I mean, it was beyond. I’ve been trapped in the cage of my body my entire life. And just because I couldn’t escape today doesn’t mean I never will.