Vriabbedolon Breaking the Curse

Chapter 7

"What the fuck is that thing doing here?" Jace demands.

I stick my hands out, stopping him from stepping any closer. How am I supposed to explain any of this to Jace when I don't even comprehend it, myself?

"I really don't know where to start," I say.

Jace shakes his head. "Just—start with why you brought that fucker in here."

I nod and look back at Nightclaw. "He. . . he talked to me," I say. "I can control him."

"What?" Jace breathes.

"That guy Niko told us about—Sukumar—he sent this thing here to kill me."

All of you.

I spin around to face Nightclaw. "All of us?" I ask.

Jace steps forward, grabbing my wrist. "All of us what?"

"Sukumar wants to kill all of us," I repeat after Nightclaw, staring up at Jace. "Because he wants to overthrow Vriabbedolon."

"And what the fuck does that have to do with us?"

I pull my hand from his grasp. "We're the heirs to the thrones of Vriabbedolon."

Jace scoffs and throws his hands up, walking away. "Insane," he mutters, brushing past Niko. "Fucking insane."

Niko stares at me, then at the dog sitting behind me. "So it's real?" he asks.

I nod. "Apparently."

"We don't have time to fucking deal with this!" Jace hollers from the top of the stairs. Breanna and Dakota break in their tracks behind him. "We already have to find a way to wake up the whole fucking world, I don't have time to deal with supernatural shit on top of it."

"Maybe it is the supernatural shit," I say.

It is.

I turn to Nightclaw and relay his message to the others. "Sukumar cast a curse," I say. "One to make every human fall asleep."

Breanna pushes past Jace. "What are you saying?" she asks. "That we aren't human?"

I rake my fingers through my hair. "I guess not."

Jace sits down at the top of the staircase. "So, what? We kill this Sukumar guy, then?"

"How the fuck are we supposed to do that?" Dakota asks.

The world unfolds beneath me. I scream as my stomach rises in my throat, threatening to spill out of my mouth, and then I land in a blanket of snow. I feel the skin of my shoulder slit back open. Drops of blood fall to the ground, contrasting horrendously with the bright snow, and gush down my torso. The fabric of Jace's shirt is now pasted to my body with blood.

Nightclaw prowls ahead of us, his paws leaving no tracks in the snow, and squashes a frozen flower beneath him.

Jace and Niko slink closer to where I sit leaned against Breanna. I wipe my damp hands on my jeans. Snow seeps through the legs of my pants, chilling my bones, and I shiver.

"What is this place?" I shudder, looking up at the forest surrounding us.

The snow-coated ground is layered with flowers, except they're created totally of ice. The tree branches hanging above us are covered with snow, icicles hanging down in treacherous looking spears. The sunlight reflects off the ice encircling us, refracting across our faces.

Miseaxath

Nightclaw sits in front of me. "Miseaxath?" I ask.

He is alert, back on his feet with his ears standing as he growls towards the woods. The branches shudder, rocking snow down to the ground.