Read Online Seals by Kim Richardson - Free Book Online

danced
on the blade, and thunder cracked. The steed neighed loudly, and
black spit oozed between its sharp teeth. Kara felt a cold shiver
roll down her back.
    The knight grinned, and pointed its sword at
them. And before she could react, before she could even blink—black
tendrils shot out at each of them—all but her .
    Her friends were encircled by the black
vines. The coils of darkness tightened, and Ashley screamed as the
black shadows cut into her angel flesh. Then Jenny, Peter and David
howled in pain as wisps of black mist looped around them. And then
something horrible happened.
    They all began to wither.
    Like the dead animals in the valley, their
faces wrinkled, stretched, and shrunk down as though their M-5
suits had been drained of their lifeblood. They looked like
hundred-year-old corpses. Their eyes lost their brilliance and
became hollow, gray and glazed. Famine was draining their life
force in the same way it had drained the earth of its natural
resources.
    “NO!”
    Kara cried out. She didn’t have time to
ponder why the knight had spared her. She only had time to
react.
    Grasping her blade firmly, she stroked hard
with her wings and charged at the beastly knight, aiming for its
eyes. She would gouge them out.
    The knight raised his other arm lazily and
pointed a finger at Kara. A fist of shadows crunched into her
chest, caught her in midair and spun her around. It squeezed her
wings and arms together until she was cocooned in a web of black
shadows. She dropped to the ground like a rock. She strained with
all her strength, kicking and screaming. But she couldn’t break the
hold.
    “Stop! I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!” she
cried.
    She raised her head to look up at the
knight. Her malice poured through her. She knew that the creature
was going to kill them, and she knew that she wasn’t strong enough
to stop it.
    Helpless, she watched in horror as her
friends began to die.

Chapter
6
A Connection
     
     
     
    I t began as a
tickle in the darkness inside her, and it developed into a sudden
surge of power.
    Kara broke through the web of tendrils and
managed to free her wings and her arms. She hacked and hacked with
her sword and cut herself free.
    The knight stared at her, and she recognized
the surprise in his soulless, red eyes. She wasn’t as weak as it
had first thought. She used the knight’s hesitation to her
advantage.
    Faster than she thought possible, Kara
rocketed in the air and ploughed into the knight, putting all the
weight and force she could into her attack. Crazed like a rabid
animal, she thought only of death. She would kill the creature that
had harmed her friends…that had harmed her David.
    It worked.
    She pushed her blade into the creature’s
left bicep and used her body weight to slice into its flesh. Black
blood splattered onto her face. But at the same moment she sliced
the knight’s exposed flesh— she cried out in pain.
    Kara yanked her blade out and looked down at
her own arm. She had a deep laceration on her left bicep, exactly where she cut the creature.
    She hesitated in confusion for a moment and
looked up at the knight. It stared back at her and smiled evilly,
exposing its mouth full of black needle-like teeth. Then it
backhanded her with a brutal blow that sent her flying.
    She lay sprawled in pain. She was dazed and
unable to wrap her head around what had just happened.
    Before she had a chance to gather herself
again, she felt strong arms lift her to her feet. It was David.
    She whimpered slightly in her confusion.
David looked a little disheveled, but otherwise he bore no signs of
Famine’s wrath. His handsome face was back to normal. She collected
her wits and inspected the others. They appeared to be unscathed
and safe, for the moment.
    “What just happened?”
    David let go of Kara and looked from Kara to
the creature.
    “I think…I think I injured it. I stabbed it,
and it broke the connection somehow.”
    Kara’s sudden fit of stupid-fury had