Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ORION
Ibroke the surface of the water, gasping for breath. The current pushed me onward, the water spraying my face. I spat it out, calling for Basil.
No answer. No sign of him.
“Answer me!” I cried.
A speedie swam past, reaching for me. She went under. I kicked hard to get away from her.
“Basil!”
The current did not relent, dragging me in a straight line as if some river god deliberately kept me away from shore.
“Basil!”
“Eat!”
A zombie made a grab for me. I went under, swimming in darkness, resurfacing between two of the assbugs.
“Basil!” Brackish water smacked me in the face, stinging my eyes.
“Eat!”
There were hands on me, the stench of rot terribly close. I hit out with a punch, getting myself free.
“Basil!” I swam on, eyes half-closed and burning. “Basil!”
If he died, I wouldn’t forgive myself. Whatever his true reasons for being here, he’d risked his life for me. Irritating qualities aside, he didn’t deserve death in this wretched river.
I had to find him, heal him, give him something back in return.
“Basil!”
So many zombies swam around me, every one of them a speedie. They really were evolving. Would they go on to speak more words? Exchange a few sentences before they bit your face off?
Basil’s blood did something to that speedie. A restoration of the man’s last living memory, maybe.
My belly rolled with unease. Could fae blood somehow help cure the effects of Dawn? Wow. What if the answers to a cure lay in my veins all this time? That would change so much, take the pressure off Miko.
Survive first!
“Basil! Where are you?”