Seals by Kim Richardson Read Free Book Online Page A

killed the crops and the
animals. It destroyed our source of food, and now millions of
people are going to starve. Death would have left the crops and
just focused on the animals.”
    Her face became hard as she realized the
truth to her words.
    “Do you think we’re too late?” asked
David.
    Kara could only look at him.
    Ashley stepped forward, a long silver sword
hung in her hand. “Check your rings. We’ll know if one of them is
gone.”
    As one, David, Peter and Jenny stuck out
their hands. Their golden rings glimmered on their fingers. Kara
reached inside her pocket and felt around for the ring. For a
horrible moment she couldn’t find it. The gloves made it hard to
feel anything. But then her fingertips touched something solid, and
she pulled out her golden ring.
    “We’re not too late,” she said hopefully.
“The seals are all still intact. We still have time—”
    Suddenly Jenny screamed.
    Kara looked where Jenny was staring.
    The animal corpses moved. The tangled bodies
rolled and pushed awkwardly. Their limbs moved without purpose.
Their stiff bodies jerked and popped like bad animation.
    And just when she thought the animals were
possessed and were coming back from the dead, millions of insects
poured out from the mouths and eyes of the dead animals. They
pushed the corpses aside as they scuttled toward the guardians like
a moving carpet. Their glinting red eyes glared with eerie
intelligence, and their black carapaces glimmered in the soft
light.
    At first Kara thought they were spiders, but
then a swarm took flight like an angry black cloud. Earsplitting
noise filled the air as the insects beat their wings. It sounded
like knives being honed. And as they got closer, she recognized
them. Locusts. Millions of locusts.
    “Well, now we know where the secretions came
from.”
    Peter glared at the wave of bugs and swung
his blade around like a fly swatter. “I hate bugs.”
    Kara hated bugs, too, especially locusts.
She hated how they used to cling to her clothes when she would go
for long walks in the fields at her grandmother’s cottage. She
remembered the neighboring farmers complaining about how they ate
entire fields of corn in a matter of hours. There was something
really creepy about how much they could eat.
    But these bugs looked different. They were
bigger, much bigger, and they were as black as night. From what she
remembered, normal locusts didn’t devour animals.
    “Is it me or are their beady eyes staring at
us?” asked Jenny.
    Ashley took a careful step back. “They’re
staring at us.”
    David cursed. “And to think that I forgot to
pack my bug spray.”
    “I doubt bug spray would work on these,”
Kara said dryly. “They’re not normal bugs.”
    The light vanished from David’s eyes. “You
got that right. They’re more like demon bugs.”
    Kara watched as a cloud of bugs hovered in
the air, turned, and looked as if they were preparing to
attack.
    “You’ve got a brilliant plan?”
    “Nope. You?”
    Kara shook her head. “No. Maybe if we walk
back very slowly, they won’t attack—”
    The giant swarm of locusts dived at
them.
    “MOVE!” cried David as he spun around and
ran back.
    Kara just had time to drop her ring back in
her pocket, before the cloud of bugs hit her like a brick wall. She
went sprawling on the ground, and the locusts covered her body,
clawing and biting at her skin, her wings, and her face. She beat
her wings and waved her hands frantically in a panic to get the
bugs off her. But there were too many. The buzzing of their wings
and the chomping of their tiny mouths on her skin blocked out all
other sound. They crawled up her sleeves and down through the
collar of her t-shirt, all the while their teeth like thousands of
death blades pierced her skin. She could feel her skin being pulled
and eaten. She could feel the acid-like poison seeping inside her
body. The tiny insects tore her angel skin like wild piranhas.
    She thrashed out widely, like a