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Back Maya and the Lord of Shadows Save as PDF
Chapters (34)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Acknowledgments
  33. About the Author
  34. About the Publisher

While Zeran and his brother argued, I had to find a way out of this cocoon. My hands were glued against my sides. I blinked, and Black Mamba was suddenly standing in front of me. “I was going to turn you over to the Lord of Shadows as a gift, but you smell too sweet.” She smiled, and I saw rot between her teeth, which were sharpened into fine points. “I’m going to enjoy drinking the blood of a godling.”

I swallowed hard and said the first thing that came to mind. “You don’t want to drink my blood; it tastes like vinegar.”

Black Mamba leaned in close to me and laughed. “I shall soon see.”

Twenty

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BLOODLUST

AS BLACK MAMBA moved in for the kill, her teeth grew longer and sharper. If only I could get one arm loose from the web, one hand, one finger even. I didn’t want to go down without a fight. Black Mamba was two seconds from sinking her teeth into my throat when Zeran launched one of his prods. It slammed into her back, and electricity buzzed in the air. Black Mamba’s whole body went stiff as the prod clanked against the floor. Once she regained control of herself, she whirled around.

Zeran was still hanging upside down. Billu’s Darkzilla monster dangled him by his ankles. “Did I get your attention?”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Black Mamba hissed. Her nails grew into long talons, and the shadow she cast in the room was suddenly tall, lumbering, and hunched over. She stalked toward Zeran, taking her sweet time. “I have curbed my appetite, but perhaps I shall have my first taste of darkbringer blood tonight, too.”

“You can’t have my brother!” Billu shouted. “You said that you’d free me and the other recruits once he brought the guardian. You have what you want. Leave him alone.”

Okay, Real Talk: The Lord of Shadows was wrong for sending a bunch of children to win over the adze, especially since the adze consumed the blood of children to stay young. It was almost like he had sent them as gifts to Black Mamba. Of all the low-down, dirty things to do, this was the bottom of the bottom.

“I’ve changed my mind, little boy,” Black Mamba snarled. “You children have enough blood to sustain my youth for centuries to come.”

“Billu, let me go!” Zeran said, but his brother was already in motion.

Darkzilla quickly lowered Zeran to the floor as Black Mamba launched herself at them. She was a blur of puffy blue dress as she practically flew across the room. Billu’s Darkzilla moved between her and the brothers, but she dug her talons into its smoke belly and tore right through it.