Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
As soon as I can see under the waves, I’m struck that the ball of flesh, bone, and blubber reaches so deep I can’t see the end of it. It’s so enormous the farthest parts of it disappear in the darkness beneath us.
We emerge much closer to the creature, and my heart beats unnaturally fast. As if it can sense that if I die here, it will be forever entombed in Heartbreak’s monstrous body.
The despairs now seem like barely dandruff shed by the beast, specks of dust in comparison to the size of this behemoth.
“Cold feet?” Anatole yells, even though he’s surely on the verge of losing his mind as well.
The flesh mountain pulses, as if the countless souls it’s swallowed over millennia are attempting to get out, but I know that the arms, legs, and grotesque tentacles growing out of the misshapen creature wiggle about looking for their next victim, not freedom.
Purple like bruised flesh, it’s so close the proximity is making my head spin, as if I’m standing on the edge of a cliff, but then Crab whinnies, losing balance, and I spot an intestine-like tendril wrapped around my mount’s front leg. Terror crawls up my spine, but Luke’s shadow holds me closer, and I snap out of my stupor, reaching for my sword. I let my own darkness cover the blade, unwilling to waste Luke's shadow for anything but the beast's hearts. I hold on to Crab’s mane as I lean down and sever the tentacle, freeing him.
I don’t bother to acknowledge Anatole’s childish question, too startled by the screech of dozens of mouths opening all over Heartbreak’s flank, and as I pull on Crab’s reins to slow him, eyes open to stare at me. Some are human, some in colors only elves can have, some dilated with fear, others squint at me, full of anger.
When Crab bucks under me and whinnies, I ignore the fear burning in the pit of my stomach, slide my feet out of the stirrups and stand on my steed’s back. Crab’s trembling under me, unsteady as he recoils from the reach of a long arm with skin peeling off to reveal bone. It’s shaped like an elf's but vastly longer, as if it belonged to an ancestor outgrowing me by half.
I don't want to see more of the beast, but I need unobstructed vision to succeed so I pull my mask off. I regret it when I get a whiff of the pungent stench of Heartbreak's flesh.
But before Crab can shake me off, I leap up, using my shadow to give myself momentum. Luke’s touch is constant, as if his weightless presence is a long-lost limb, not a ghost at my side. I wish us both a good judgment day as I descend onto the huge predator and stab a bloated mound of flesh pulsing in an all-too familiar rhythm.
When pus seeps out of the open wound revealing a tar-black heart, I can no longer push away the inevitable. I need Luke's potent shadow.
I stare up at him, worried he might back out, too afraid now that he's seeing the madness up close, but his expressionless face remains turned toward me. He steps closer, knowing exactly what I have to do.
My Dark Companion spreads his arms in invitation, and I press the tip of my blade to his chest. I dip the Gloomdancer into his shadow, unreasonably worried. I know what I'm doing, just smothering the sword without hurting my mate in any way, but it still messes with my head to see a blade embedded in his chest.
I rip it out, filled with fresh rage at Heartbreak and stab my sword into the black, pulsing organ. I don’t know who this heart once belonged to, but they are no longer with us.
The beast stirs, making everything around me shake, and my blade cuts into the twisted mass making up most of the monster as gravity pulls me back toward the water. I bite the inside of my cheek when I need to kick away a wretched, rotten arm. When my sword catches on a bone, I stop sliding down and grab at a misshapen appendage to steady myself before glancing to the side, at the gray figure standing next to me as if gravity didn’t work on it at all. Luke nods at me, as if to signify he's fine.
The monster beneath my feet growls, sending a tremor up my limbs. I solidify my shadow to give myself more support as I start my climb, trying not to think too much about the soft mass under my feet being the flesh of elves Heartbreak has accumulated over centuries. Countless lives lost. And for what? To feed its insatiable hunger?
Three shadow tendrils grow out of my back, assisting the ascent, and while the monster is monitoring me with fields of mismatched eyes, I ignore them, on my way to the top.