Filed To Story: The Saltwater Curse Book PDF Free
“Can you get me out of here?”
He snorts.
“I need to get out of here. My friends will be?—“
He slaps me with his tail, as if to say,
“Shut up. I’m trying to sleep.”
“Are you going to eat me?”
I contort my neck to watch him turn to look between me and Ordus. He shakes his head no but shows me his teeth in a confident yes.
That’s not very assuring.
Vasz—or fucking
Vaszeline
—lies back down, effectively dismissing me.
If someone really did lace my drink, I must be absolutely tripping balls to be able to come up with any of this.
I swallow, attempting to lubricate my mouth and throat. I’m half tempted to wake Ordus up to demand he fetch me water, but I’m pretty sure he’s just going to direct me to the pool.
I can’t imagine explaining humans only drink out of clean, bottled water will go down well.
Or that I can’t eat the fish unless he’s going to start a fire.
I fight sleep tooth and nail, forcing myself to keep my eyes open and mind alert to any change in breathing, atmosphere, or twitching. But at some point I lose the battle, because everything goes black.
The sound of movement comes from all around me, and my brows stitch together at the odd sensations. The taste of salt spreading over my tongue registers in my senses as something glides over my gums. Something is wrapped around my waist and legs. I can’t move.
No.
No.
Not again.
Panic sinks its claws into me like a vice. My eyes snap open, and I clamp my teeth down without caring if something gets bitten off. The thing leaves my mouth in an instant. Screams rip from my throat. I throw every ounce of my weight against the ropes holding me down.
I can’t fucking breathe.
How is this happening again?
He’s dead
Tommy’s dead.
I killed him.
He can’t be here.
My legs hit the soft floor, and I scramble back, choking on terror as the tears start to burn my eyes. I can just make out the shape of a giant through my blurry vision, and reality comes crashing in.
Ordus. The kraken.
Not Tommy. Not the Gallaghers.
But a ten-foot-tall monster who has me imprisoned, starved, dehydrated, and injured. He’s strong enough to kill me with a single swipe. And he was—he was doing something to me while I slept.
There’s nowhere for me to go. I can’t outrun him. I’m trapped with a raging bull, and I’m guaranteed to lose.
I can still taste seawater on my tongue and Tommy’s battery acid at the back of my throat.
I whimper, curling up against the wall, hugging my legs to make myself smaller. God, I wish I were anyone else but me. I wish I could rage and have the strength to tear his throat out instead of huddling up to the wall, hoping and praying it doesn’t hurt that much.
Ordus isn’t going to be happy by my reaction. I hit him, just tried to bite him. Not for the first time, but I would’ve worn his patience thin already. Bile lurches up my throat, and I swallow it back down to keep from angering him further. If I throw up, my punishment would be brutal enough to leave me twitching on the floor, unable to move.
Nothing good ever comes from sleep. I was right.
God, I want to fucking scream.
People don’t wake up and feel better, open their eyes then forgive and forget. The memory of all my indiscretions would still be fresh in his mind. I was given a pass yesterday. It never extends to the next. Tommy taught me that, and I’ve been too stupid to remember.
“Cindi.” His voice is quiet, cautious. Ordus lowers himself closer to the ground, slowly approaching me with his hands out, palms facing upward.
It’s a lie. He’s not surrendering. He’s lulling me into a false sense of security.
I swallow an angry, fearful sob, keeping my head down, gaze averted, not daring to make a sound, even though I want to scream for being the way I am, for not being strong enough to look him in the eye and tell him to go fuck himself.
I wish I buried that blade into his neck yesterday so I didn’t have to discover every fear I had was true.
Ordus is a monster, one as bad as the rest of them.
I was beginning to think maybe he isn’t a monster. Maybe he’s just misunderstood. Maybe he’s nothing like the faces I passed day after day, fooling me into believing the true monsters are the ones hiding beneath the bed while they smile with their straight teeth.
I’m a fool for thinking he held any goodness in him last night when all he wanted was to wait until I was asleep before taking advantage of me. I don’t know what he’s done to me. My underwear feels like it’s in place. My dress is right. It doesn’t feel like anything has been in there.
Still, I have no way of escaping. Scaling the wall to get to the hole proved impossible. With Vasz playing guard dog, I won’t make it far. And what? Do I think it’d be even remotely possible to outswim Ordus if I fail at killing him?
This is all my fault.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.