Chapter 29 #2
Her too-big glasses slipped down her nose, and she pushed them back up before her hand fiddled with a loose piece of hair hanging down past her chin.
“Back at the enclosure, I was able to hook my phone up to their system to play music. Nearly fried it before I realized their whole architecture was growth based. Not binary, but just these cascading prime clusters. Took me a whole day to recognize the pattern: Fourier sequences controlling their audio frequency modulation. Once I could predict how they mapped numbers to sound waves—”
Dory cut her off. “Misty, we love you and your big brain, but get to the point.”
“Right!” Misty snapped upright. “Whatever you do, just don’t hang up. If I could just—”
I turned a corner and ran face-first into a wall and fell back on my ass.
Blood froze in my veins when I looked up to see the T.
rex’s side. I scrambled backward as she turned her massive head toward me, the chain around her neck clanking as it hooked against a statue of a woman holding a chalice.
The T. rex let out a choked sound when the line grew taught.
She jerked her head, ripping the statue’s arm clean off as it broke against the chain.
Oh fuck.
“Misty, whatever you gotta do, girl, please do it now.”
“J-just another m-minute.”
The T. rex loomed over me, its massive chest rising with each breath. Nostrils flared, and she took in my scent. Her chain dragged against the ground as she lowered her head. “Well, well, aren’t you a tasty-looking morsel?”
For a moment I couldn’t breathe. “You can talk?”
“Yes,” the T. rex answered. Her voice was smooth and deep, yet undeniably feminine in nature.
She tilted her head and continued. “It’s strange.
Ever since you and that gray one appeared in the trap I was in the other day, my mind has been…
different. Wider, so to speak. I could even understand the words of a few of my captors. ”
“But how did…” I trailed off as the memory came back. When Osid tried to kiss me, I’d knocked him into the T. Rex. “Holy shit, the kiss!”
“How curious,” she purred. “I’ve never eaten a creature I could converse with.” She stepped forward, and I crab-walked back. “Tell me, morsel, how does it feel to stare death in the face?”
A chill crawled up my spine. “Misty?” I whispered.
“I still need t-time,” came her panicked reply.
The T. rex closed her eyes and breathed deep. “Ah, fear. Now that I don’t need conversation to understand.”
I shot to my feet and held up a hand. “Wait, you don’t want to eat me.”
“I don’t?” she asked, cocking her head. “Aren’t you the one who called to me?
” She took another step closer, raising the pitch of her voice as she called out, “ ‘I’m over here.’ What was that other line you used again?
Oh that’s right, ‘T. rex, get your begonia-colored ass over here and eat me.’ ” She chuckled as she drew closer and said, “Here I am.”
Me and my big mouth.
Through the screen, I could hear Misty choke out a gasp.
With all the shouting and screaming going on behind her, I didn’t know if her fear was for my sake or the battle around her.
I glanced at the screen to see her brows furrowed in concentration as she fiddled with her phone.
Lines of code I had no hope of reading reflected on her glasses.
I tried to move farther away, but my ankle rolled on a loose root, and I fell back.
The T. rex laughed. “Well, don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind now. I’ve never had a meal beg for my attention before, don’t spoil this moment for me.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little shortsighted?” I asked. “We should be helping each other.”
A look of amusement crossed her face. “Helping? Now why would you assume I would need help from you?”
I pointed to the chain around her neck. “Don’t think that just because you’re no longer bound to that table, you’re free. As soon as you’re done with me, they’re going to use that chain to drag you back into your cage.”
Pink lips curled, revealing rows of teeth the size of butcher knives. “And I suppose you’re the kind morsel who would free me from that fate?” she asked, her tone teasing.
Swallowing hard, I rose to my feet and squared my shoulders.
My knees were shaking; sweat pooled into my palms. I rubbed them against the back of my dress, then crossed my arms, doing my best impression of a powerful woman that totally wasn’t about to piss herself.
“Look, both of us are just captured prey of the same enemy. My”—Fuck, what do I call Osid?
Friend, lover, recently redeemed mortal nemesis?
—“companion and I can’t get out of here on our own, and neither can you.
How about we work together to get out of here, and if you’re up for it, take some well-deserved revenge on the Biwban, then you can eat as many of them as you want. ”
“Biwban? What is this Biwban?”
“The little bird creatures that captured us.”
Her eyes widened along with what I think was a smile.
“Ah, the juicy feathered snacks. Yes,” she purred.
“Yes, I enjoy eating those very much. So much so that in my greed, I failed to realize how intelligent they are.” She shook her head as if she’d just swallowed something bad.
“To think I could be captured by something so disgustingly weak.”
“I know the feeling,” I murmured.
She straightened at that. “Yes, I suppose you do. Hmm, now this is a choice. I owe the little birds payback for what they’ve done to me, but to balk at such an easy meal…”
I bristled. “Hey, don’t think you can snap me up like a Happy Meal just because I’m smaller than you. I’ve taken down beasts even bigger than you, three at once, in fact!”
The T. rex let out a low rumble, a raspy sound that came deep from her throat. “Three at once, she says. Now that is quite a feat. Tell me, little one. How did you manage that?”
Fuck. In reality, I really only shot one of those pterodactyls. The giant snake and the other one were more happy accidents than anything. How would I even explain the concept of a gun to a creature that only recently gained sapience?
“Fang fish got your tongue?” she prompted.
“Blair!” Osid roared. We both turned toward the sound of an explosion. Smoke rose from somewhere in the center of the maze. “Answer me, you venomous creature!”
Fuck, he has good timing.
A smile spread across my face when I noticed the T. rex eyeing me up. “Yeah, that’s right, I’m venomous. Just last week, a giant snake and two pterodactyls tried to eat me.” I inspected my red nails, feigning nonchalance. “All it took was one scratch and they dropped like flies.”
“That was you?” she asked, voice raising. “My young and I feasted on those corpses for days. I wondered what sort of beast could cause that carnage.”
“Looks like you found her,” I said, resting a hand on my hip. “And unless you want to end up like them, I suggest you consider the alliance I’m offering you.”
The T. rex threw back her head with a laugh. “Ha! First she begs for death, and then she threatens it. Marvelous. Truly marvelous.” The T. rex shifted her weight to one side and bent down to offer her neck. “Well?”
Lead swallowed my legs, but I pushed down the instinct to bolt and closed the distance between us. I reached for the clasp of her collar and squeezed the buttons on the sides. With a click, it slid off her neck and tumbled to the ground. I stepped back and dusted off my hands.
As I did, I noticed a muscle move in the T.
rex’s jaw, and her eyes locked on to the meat of my thigh.
There was a pause, then she lifted to her full height and grinned down at me.
“I like you, little one. You’ve got guts.
And fat, blood, bones full of”—her pupils dilated—“succulent…marrow.” Drool threatened to spill down her maw like a leaking faucet. “Oh, I could just bite you in half.”
Needles rose under my skin.
“But not today,” she lamented, turning her head away.
I let go of the breath I was holding and damn near fell to my knees in relief. “Well, if things go according to plan, you’ll have your fill of Biwban soon enough.”
She looked off into the distance, her voice wistful as she said, “If only we were back in the grove, it would be a feast for the ages.”
“Does the location affect the taste?” I asked.
She chortled at that. “No, beehives. Dip the little birds in honey and you’re in for a treat.”
I let out a very ladylike snort. “Okay, Miss Ina Garten, I see you.”