{A Wattpad Featured Book}
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Her heart or her people. Only she can decide.
Hated, cursed, outcasted. It was Eleena Asterin's life ever since she was blamed to have betrayed her village. So when she is offered a task to earn back her honour and prid...
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The Sephtis were sprung from a nightmare. Covered in dark scales and nothing more, they were a horrendous combination of serpentine features and male humanoid bodies whose powerful arms ended in polished black, flesh-shredding claws.
Here were the creatures of the blood-filled legends, the ones that slipped through the wall to torment and slaughter mortals. The ones I would have been glad to kill alongside the Baphomet. Their huge, almond-shaped eyes greedily took in the Alger and me.
The four of them paused across the clearing, the Alger between us, and I trained my arrow toward the one in the center.
The creature smiled, a row of razor-sharp teeth greeting me as a silvery forked tongue darted out.
"The Dark Lords has sent us a gift today, brothers," he said, gazing at the Alger, who was clawing at the snare now. The Sephtis's amber eyes shifted toward me again. "And a meal."
"Not much to eat," another one said, flexing its claws.
I began backing away—toward the stream, toward the manor below, keeping my arrow pointed at them. One scream from me would notify Kallistê—but my breath was thin. And she might not come at all, if she'd sent me here. I kept every sense fixed on my retreating steps.
"Human," the Alger begged.
I had ten arrows—nine, once I fired the one nocked in my bow. None of them particularly special, but maybe they'd keep the Sephtis down long enough for me to flee.
I backed away another step. The four Sephtis crept closer, as if savouring the slowness of the hunt, as if they already knew how I tasted.
I had three heartbeats to make up my mind. Three heartbeats to execute my plan.
I drew my bowstring back farther, my arm trembling.
And then I screamed. Sharp and loud and with every bit of air in my too-tight lungs.
With the Sephtis now focused entirely on me, I fired at the tether holding the Alger in place.
The snare shattered. Like a shadow on the wind, the Alger was off, a blast of dark that set the four Sephtis staggering back.
The one closest to me surged toward the Alger, the strong column of its scaly neck stretching out. No chance of my movements being considered an unprovoked attack anymore—not now that they'd seen my aim. They still wanted to kill me.
So I let my arrow fly.
The tip glittered like a shooting star through the gloom of the forest. I had all of a blink before it struck home and blood sprayed.
The Sephtis toppled back just as the remaining three whirled to me. I didn't know if it was a killing shot. I was already gone.
I raced for the stream using the path I'd calculated earlier, not daring to look back. Kallistê had said she'd be nearby—but I was deep in the woods, too far from the manor and help.
