Read Online Seals by Kim Richardson - Free Book Online Page A

worked.
But she didn’t have time get into the details. Her friends were
safe. She could work with that. She turned around slowly and faced
the knight again.
    She gave him a giant smile and challenged
him, “Is that all you’ve got, knight of the apocalypse?”
    She did her best to hide the terror she
felt. Something had happened between her and the knight, something
that felt wrong and terrifying.
    She looked at the knight’s wound as she
brushed her fingers over the corresponding wound on her arm.
    How was this possible ? What did it
mean ? Why wasn’t the knight retaliating ?
    The knight had a clear shot now. It only had
to swing its giant sword, and she would be sliced in half. But the
knight had a strange calmness in its eyes, like it knew something. But what ?
    Something had definitely passed
between them.
    Kara steadied herself and resisted the urge
to jump in again. She hated the knight more than ever now, but she
didn’t want to have any sort of connection to this demon.
She wanted to gouge its eyes out, to make it stop watching her. She
couldn’t explain it, but she knew the knight knew exactly what she
was thinking. It knew what had happened.
    If they were connected, what did that really
mean? If she killed the knight, would she die, too?
    David was watching her closely. If she
weren’t careful, he would figure out that she and the knight had
identical wounds, that somehow they were linked.
    “What?” she taunted the knight in spite of
her fears.
    “You scared now? You should be. Didn’t think
I could get that close, did you? Next time, it’ll be your
throat.”
    “Kara, what are you doing?” hissed
David.
    “Making it angry.”
    “It was already angry.”
    She took a step closer. She hated this
creature for the fear it caused inside her. If she were indeed
connected to this monster, she would have to cut it from her.
    Angling her body as she had trained, she
readied to push off hard and attack again. It didn’t matter if she
and this thing were bonded somehow. She would cut off its head.
    As her hatred pulsed inside her body, Kara
leaped into the air.
    The knight opened its mouth
    She halted.
    It opened its jaws abnormally wide until its
chin rested on the back of its steed. Kara could hear humming
emanating from somewhere deep inside the creature’s throat. It
sounded like thousands of drums beating.
    And just when things couldn’t get any worse,
masses of locusts shot out of its maw like bullets from a machine
gun.
    The locusts swarmed and circled the
guardians. But just when Kara thought they were going to attack
again, the locusts separated into groups. The locusts in each group
drew themselves together, and Kara could see that they were
transforming themselves into something. They were forming humanoid
figures. Locust-men!
    “What in the souls do you call those?” Jenny
swung her bow over her shoulder and nocked an arrow.
    “I don’t think there’s an actual word for
those,” cried Peter. He parried with his blade dodging invisible
blows.
    “I don’t care what they’re called, as long
as we can kill them.” Ashley advanced with her sword clasped
securely.
    “I’m with Ashley.” David gave Kara a
sidelong glance.
    But Kara wasn’t watching the bug-men. She
was glaring at the knight.
    “Coward!” she bellowed. “Fight us! Fight
me!”
    Fury fuelled her. She could hardly see the
knight, who appeared to be hiding behind the wall of bug-men.
Perhaps it knew she was the only one who could kill it. Maybe it
even feared her. She needed to cut her connection with this
monster and find out, once and for all, if she’d kill herself in
the process.
    There was no time to think.
    The locust-men steadied themselves and then
charged.
    “Get ready!” was all Kara could voice before
a locust-man launched itself at her. With a beat of her wings she
leaped from the ground, but not fast enough.
    The locust-man caught her leg, and with an
incredible force for a thing made of just insects, it