Bloodied Ashes
It thrashes its massive head, whipping side-to-side claws, raking long smoking crevices into the stone.
I brace my foot against its heaving chest and yank. The chain bites deep, and the hound howls, gurgling a wet sound, but I won’t let go. I pull harder, my hands burning, my wrists tearing open against old wounds. The chain sinks deeper through hide, through muscle, into the leaking rot inside.
I bare my teeth and twist sideways hard enough that something snaps inside it with a wet, bubbling crunch.
It collapses on me; a dead weight leaking black blood over the stones. Finally, when my arms shake too hard to hold anymore, I shove the carcass off me. The chain clatters loose from my fingers,
Hot Chapters