Page 66 of How to Woo the Undead

No.

No-no-no-no! no! You can’t have him!The world shattered. Glass fragments of reality separated from each other as an unknowable despair filled her chest. Hyacinth shrieked. Trees sprouted out of the ground, impaling two of the clerics, bark dripped in crimson as their faces were embedded in wood. Dryads creaked, reaching with their hand branches for the other clerics. Their screams echoed as Hyacinth’s feet touched the ground. Her dryads ripped another cleric from seam to seam, the air filling with the sound of his skin and its terrible ripping. The sky opened up with torrential downpour, their black flames going out with a hiss. Hyacinth whirled around in the mud, her toes soaking in it, she stared at the three still left alive.

You all die—you die! You took him from me!Something climbed up her throat till it slithered out over her lip. A snake made of mud-brown scales and red eyes dropped into the mud at her ankles. It snapped at one of them, getting him by the ankle. His death rattle cut short as his body went rigid instantaneously.

Hyacinth didn’t even have to kill the other two.

A bundle of black fur whizzed through the rain. She saw him between flashes of lightning. Her rabbit stretched up on his back legs.Crack…crack…crack…Two antlers ripped out of his forehead, bloody velvet dripping from their gnarled ends. His once round belly flattened as he stretched to a taller size. Once silky fur turned into matts of mud and moss and underbrush.She could see his ribs protruding around the outside and swirling red eyes stared at the two cleric he had cornered. While a dryad held one in place, Snuffles launched on his newly, oversize feet, into the belly of the other. His antlers tore the cleric to pieces. He kicked. Tore. Shredded. Destroyed until the cleric was a pile of parts in the mud.

Hyacinth found the last cleric. Her feet heavy, they slapped against the soggy ground as she lumbered toward him. He writhed in her dryad’s arms. Snuffles dislodged himself from his kill, her mud snake at her other ankle, she stared at the cleric. There was nothing but ice in her chest as she grabbed him by the cheeks.Flesh that was so warm, so alive, so fresh!Everything spun. Her world existed off kilter.

“Yooooouuuu,” she wheezed through clenched lungs, drawing out the word. Her fingers clamped down around his jaw, feeling how easy it would be to snap the bones holding it together. “Youtookhim fromme!”

He was a young thing.Much too young. He didn’t even have circles under his eyes. A round, freckled, youthful face. Green eyes like the color of fresh mint wavered as they searched her face. The cleric was maybe an inch shorter than her, hair still a mop of brown tendrils in a vague bowl shape.

“I-I didn’t—I don’t—I didn’t!” The cleric rambled, tears streaming down his face. Even with the rain drowning the world around them, she could tell he was crying. It was the way his lip quivered.

Her lips, however, curled up into a cruel smile. “You’re right, he did that. He took him.He took him!”

The cleric shrank back as she yelled in his face. Frenzy vibrated through her as she shushed him. Petting his head, she matted up his hair with blood and mud.

“Show me where hetook him. Took my Austin,” She giggled, the sound cracked. She was loose like glass clattering to the ground from an old mirror hung on the wall. Everything felt fake and real, too in focus and too far away. She giggled louder, stumbling back in the mud, Hyacinth pointed at the trees. Snuffles and the snake bared their teeth at the cleric as he lurched out of the dryad’s hand. “Show me.”

“I can’t—”

The dryad twisted up the cleric’s arm and he yowled in pain.

“You can. I know you can,” she laughed, hand to her aching stomach. Hyacinth cupped the pudgy, dirty cheeks of the terrified cleric and squeezed. “I believe in you. Now…Show me!” She shrieked into his face. He bolted, racing off into the trees. And Hyacinth followed him, her collection of dead monsters hot on her heels.

Chapter Thirty-Two:

Austin

Austinawoketothesmell of smoke. Burning oakwood, to be precise. He, unfortunately, was familiar with the smell. His body was pinched in an uncomfortable upright position. It wasn’t till he tried to move his wrists that he even realized he was tied.Hog tied. Roast pit. Oh, I do not taste good.

“Sorry guys, the meat’s a little spoiled,” Austin groaned as he blinked back into focus. He was in some circular temple with no roof. At least, no roof over him. He glanced left and right, trying to find any sense of direction. They were on a rocky cliff side, which meant they were north of the city. Plus, the trees were dusted with snow beyond the temple.Not good.

“Silence the beast,” the cleric from the fence grumbled.

Austin finally managed to look down at his body. Two chains per arm, enchanted with glowing purple runes, one around his torso, two per leg.Oh, that’s nice of them to think so highly of me…too bad they’re trying to burn me.He grimaced as he glanced around the massive pyre of fire logs surrounding his ankles. He smelled the first torch working its way from the outside in.

There was movement and his head snapped to the right. A cleric dropped an arm full of logs and skuttled back from the pyre. Austin arched a brow. “I’m not going to bite you.”

“Hush you! Viridian, hurry up with that fire. I want him sacrificed to our Lord before nightfall.”

“Why? What happens at nightfall?” Austin teased, glancing back at Marquis.That’s what Hyacinth called him.

Back in the clearing, there had been only one thing on his mind: Keep Hyacinth safe. The clerics needed Marquis to complete their cleansing ritual. Austin intended to just tackle him to the ground, maybe pummel him a little. The easiest way to stop a spell is to break it before it’s cast. That’s something Sebastian taught him.

“None of your concern, heretic! Once I’ve burned your abomination from this world, the others will have subdued the witch and will bring her here to join you!”

Austin raised both his brows, finally focusing on Marquis. That’s when he saw the man behind the illusion of divinity and power. His face was covered in scars, little bites from locusts, he would presume.That’s what Melody and Smith said came flying out of Hyacinth’s mouth.Burns licked up his exposed arms and left most of his skin patchy. His religious symbol dangling from a leather chord, broken.That’s probably my fault.

“Only, I don’t think that spell works without you, does it?” Austin sucked in a deep breath through his nose.

“And what wouldyouknow of magic,” Marquis stepped up to the base of his pyre. He was dressed in loose fitting bottoms and a tunic style top, his sleeves rolled up and pinned at his shoulders. Drenched in sweat, his face was pained as he threw another flaming stick into the pyre.It’s not lighting like it’ssupposed to…which means they’re trying to use a magic fire. And someone’s all out of magic.

“My creator, Lord Rosemont, is a Lich.” Austin surveyed the temple. Empty. Nary a soul, minus the young acolyte that carted large logs over to the fire.Why so much? I’m big but I’m not that hunky.