HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 192

Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Two

Grain... blood... sand?

The muted colors under my face didn't make sense. It flickered like an old film, unstable, shifting, and I slowly lifted my arms to push myself upright. Lifting my head, I planned to look around to figure out where I was and what had happened, but to my immediate shock and horror, a bloodstained golden muzzle the size of a semi-truck was right there.

Lips drawn back in a snarl, whiskers drifting, the beast breathed against me.

A pulse of icy static went through my chest.

"You opened the door," Huang's voice rumbled ominously into my head. "I told you not to open the door... you stupid, foolish child."

I was confused for a second, but then, reality sank in. The world flickered and turned grey, insubstantial, as I realized that I had been knocked out by someone possessing Nikki's body in the waking world. Dread and panic filled me, but before I could react, Huang's maw opened.

I jolted when the tip of his massive, forked tongue slid across my torso, gently.

"The second your eyes open," he hissed into my head, "you are going to use the barrier spell to protect yourself. Then, you are going to take the remaining gems from your pocket and you are going to use them to transport yourself to the glamour barrier in the woods."

'I'm not dead?' I silently asked him, confused and absolutely terrified. 'Huang, Nikki is--'

"Shut up. I can't See what's going to happen to you," he told me urgently, and with a zap, his breath wafted across me again. "The second you opened that door, in every future, there's a blank space... but in almost every single one, you wind up dying someplace I can't see. Get the hell out of there until I can get to you! Don't waste a single second! Understand me?"

"Huang--"

"LISTEN TO ME!" he screamed in my head, throwing his long neck up and roaring at the sky, deafening my mind, heart, and soul. His blue eyes were glowing when he looked down at me, rearing back with a hiss. "YOU WILL DIE IF YOU DON'T LISTEN TO ME! I WON'T ALLOW IT! I HAVE BEEN YOU, HORST! I HAVE LIVED YOUR LIFE MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF TIMES, ENDLESSLY! YOU ARE A PART OF ME NOW, AND I WON'T LET YOU DIE! SO SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, USE YOUR MAGIC TO GET AWAY, AND WAIT FOR ME! UNDERSTAND?!" 

I stared at his massive sapphire eyes--at the dilated pupils staring daggers at me.

I saw fear. I felt fear. 

Thoughts bubbled up.

'You're on your way...?' I mentally asked, relief flooding through my chest. 'You're all right...?'

"If you want the answer to that, live," he hissed into my mind, words slithering around and around like a coil drawn too tight. "You disobeyed all my warnings. All I can do is pray I can get to you in time. I can't See what's coming from this point forward, but I swear to God, Horst, if you die... I will destroy the world. I will destroy absolutely everything on this planet, including your family. So, run. Please, just run, my faun. Run like fucking hell."

Opening his mouth, Huanglong Wu Tao spat a wall of green fire at me and--

I twitched, consciousness jerking to the forefront like it had been dragged out of cotton.

I felt numb everywhere. For a moment, I couldn't feel anything at all, but then, searing pain in my wrists, shoulders, back, neck, hands, and chest woke me up completely. Every part of me was tingling. There was a loud ringing in my head, and it hurt like hell--my whole body was aching. I slowly peeled my eyes open, dizzy and confused, fighting back a groan, hands and wrists hurting like hell. I twisted my ears, trying to figure out where I was and what was happening, but when I tried to move...?