A wave thundered in and withdrew, sucking at my legs and wrapping about the Nightmare King’s waist but not dislodging him from his rigid stance.
Beyond him, a mountain of sea reared forth, spewing tons of water and calving more waves. The loops of a monster arrowed landward, heading for his back. My Loch Ness creature would soon be here.
“Leave him! Leave Val!” I rasped, while I plucked at the hand about my neck. “Leave! Find another or my Nessie will rip you apart.”
I prayed it could do that.
Sedately, he turned and surveyed the oncoming behemoth and the plumes of spray venting yards into the evening sky. His assessment was casual, as if it were a gnat.
“Watch, bitch, and learn.” He shook me. I coughed and clutched at his arm, struggling to reduce the abuse of my neck. To the right of Nessie, a massive tangle of tentacles disgorged from the ocean. They wrapped over and detained my monster. Rolling, both creatures sank under the sea, still wrestling, until only a few lashing limbs betrayed their battle.
That thing must be his. But could the Nightmare King defeat the others?
His hand tightened on me, and he growled in satisfaction.
Better question. Would I die first?
Black spots and smudges rained in from the periphery of my vision. I shut my eyes. Thoughts turned to sludge and sound petered out then grew louder then died. He gave a deep-throated chuckle and was surely watching my distress. Gasping, I squirmed weakly in his hand, feeling distinctly like a worm on a hook.
“Undress you before we eat you?” He waded deeper, walking backward, thrusting me at whatever followed us into the sea, as if I were a patented shield. My toes touched the surface, fleetingly. My bikini top and bottom were ripped away.
Wrapping both hands around his forearm and feeling his hold on me loosen, I dragged in air.
“Going somewhere?” The King brought me to his face and smiled. “The creatures know I can kill you with one squeeze of my fist. We exit, seaward, together. Their limitation is their land preference, whereas I can swim with you. You’re a weak female. Resist and I will drown you as many times as I need to. I have a place to take you where I can eat you at leisure.” His tongue swiped noisily over his mouth. “You can sing for me, girl. With tears of blood and burning bones, as I roast your feet and toast your cunt. Sing, sing, sing.”
The words were in a playground tune that escaped me. This wasn’t a good time for identifying songs.
He ducked my head under the water then pulled me out.
“Last chance to breathe? Don’t worry about the knife. I’ll get it later.”
Wriggling my legs, I pulled at his fingers, desperate to loosen his grip, but they were like iron. “You can’t…touch the knife.” I wasn’t sure but maybe it was so?
“A Possessed will get it for me. You see, I am collecting the objects owned by immortals.”
He thrust me deep under the sea. When he pulled me out, I dangled, waist deep and coughing up water.
Was this to be the end of me?
His threats were never false. That he meant to burn me alive while he fucked me; it threatened to send me into a spiraling panic.
Calm, calm. Don’t give up. “Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.” The words came out in a strangled whisper. But…there was something wrong with his logic. I chased after that thought. What was it?
He shook his head and tsked, pretending to be dismayed.
“Why am I collecting them, you ask? They look good on my mantelpiece, of course.”
Bullshit. “You can’t kill me! You—”
He clamped his free hand over my mouth and laughed. “Shhh.”
I wasn’t going down easy and I twisted and kicked my foot into his chest. Pain splintered up my leg and I shrieked. Was he now made of rock?
“Was that a kiss?” Then he held me higher, at arm’s length, admiring me and clacking his teeth together. “Which part to eat first? This is such a—”
Stalling his conversation, a blue-sheened monster snaked from the sea to the left, tall as the mast of a yacht and sliding silently.
His mouth twitched into a sneer. “Another of your—”
A whistle warned of something incoming, fast. It whipped by as the Nightmare King swiftly stepped sideways. My sharpened vison gave a hint of something round and gray, the size of a cherry. Blurred violet symbols spun, and it was gone.
The King swore.
That had been the occult-inscribed musket ball. The one I’d left with the armorer.
“Let her go!” a man yelled from the beach.
Whoever this was, they wanted to help. I flailed at the King, scratched his wrist. He ignored my efforts, clearly trying to see past me.
Sirens wailed into existence. The blue snake monster swirled nearer. Waves made by its passing smacked at us, and the King’s eyes widened. His mouth writhed with anger.
“Let her go or we will do worse than throw piddling balls at you, dipshit!”
Piddling! Did they not understand? I strained to twist and see them. Four people stood on the beach at the water’s edge. Writhing tentacles flared high, sprouting from the back of a man as if they belonged to him. A black dog…no, it was a flame-licked, red-eyed hound, galloped to the water and plunged in, paws deep, to stand there howling and laughing, its long tongue lolling.
“What the…”
Oh, he was really annoyed. If I wasn’t being choked, I would have teased him.
A cat trotted forward to sit beside the hellhound.
“Fuck. Who are they? An immortal and three shitty humans?” The sheer ire and annoyance in his voice amused me despite everything. The sirens wailed closer. The blue snake reamed the waves ever closer.
I grinned when he turned to eye me.
“You laugh at me?”
Naked, and with my neck in his fist, what’s not to grin about?
“You wanted your lover? Have him then. I will see you again, girl, when your world is mine.”
Then he pulled a knife and plunged it into one side of his neck, pivoted the blade in a semicircle and tore out the front of his throat.
Blood geysered. He toppled in slow motion, staining the sea red, red, red.
I was floundering to him and screaming, and I heard myself but couldn’t stop. I couldn’t hold the wound together and he was dying. More blood spilled in those seconds than anyone could survive.
Was this defeat? I firmed my jaw to hold back my cries, as my hands disappeared under the blood. The sea lifted us, lowered us. Then he found and held my hand in his. His eyes opened slowly and locked onto mine.
Silently, he mouthed my name, Zara.
Val was in there, still.
No. This is not defeat.
I closed my eyes and let my mind sink into the halfway realm between life and death where the dying trod. When I opened them, I could feel myself drowning in the real world. I shrugged it off. There was more important work here. The Nightmare King had moved on to another body and I was going to haul Val’s sorry ass back from the gates of Hell or Heaven.
I set my feet on the path, following the back of the figure just ahead of me. It was Val, and he had no fucking right to die.
CHAPTER 3
HALFWAY REALM
Val
Spotlight dreams of whirling dust and a fog that cleared and ran like rain on a window. A rushing rattling wind followed as I wandered, ever onward. Here were things that once had been and wishes that might have been, if only I had gone this way not that way.