Chapter 25

My stomach spasms. Saliva floods my mouth. I grab my head.

What is happening?

Eyes wide, I begin to crouch-walk away behind the boulders.

More hallucinations.

Varujan’s my friend, not a monster. My mind’s playing tricks. Right?

All of it?

The girl in the cell …

The rooks …

My hands quake. I have to be sure.

I creep back around the boulders.

Varujan fully emerges from the water, his figure pale but trim and toned. In a pivot, he bends and gathers his clothing from the shore, his back in full view.

Apprehension, stiff and blunt, stabs the nape of my neck like a blade. You will know it when you see.

His disfigurement is obvious now: a long, thin tail curls upward just above the crack of his bare ass. Its tip is tufted with black hair like a lion’s.

Sour bile coats my mouth. My temples throb.

I can’t think …

But my eyes are ultra-focused and alert, and I know it’s not an illusion. In a scramble, I turn and kick my feet up at the start of a sprint.