Seals by Kim Richardson Read Free Book Online Page B

wild,
panicked animal. She was blind. She tried to pry her eyes open, but
the locusts pinned her eyelids shut. She felt them biting her
navel, and she panicked even more as they scrambled into her ears.
When she opened her mouth to scream, more locusts climbed in.
    Kara spit out the bugs, overwhelmed with
terror. She felt tiny legs, likes needles trying to pry open her
mouth, to get in and devour her from the inside. She thought of the
animals and how this was the way they must have died, eaten from
the inside.
    Over the constant humming in her ears, she
thought she heard screaming. Was that David? Were the others under
blankets of bugs? If only she could fly. Yes!
    She yanked and pulled, desperately trying to
open her wings. But as soon as she made to move her wings,
thousands more locusts attached themselves to her, as though they
could sense what she was about to try. Were they
communicating? She shuddered at the thought of smart bugs.
    She punched out with her arms and tried to
loosen their hold on her wings. She kicked out, trying to shake
them off. But it was useless. The weight of the locusts pulled her
down. She couldn’t fly. It was like they knew what she was about to
do before she did it.
    She fell, and it took tremendous effort to
keep her mouth clamped shut. She was thankful she didn’t need to
breath. The locusts were crushing her.
    She couldn’t move. She couldn’t scream. She
couldn’t think. There was only one thing left to do, something that
she had sworn she wouldn’t. But what else could she do?
    The darkness throbbed
inside her. It was like cold blood that wanted to be free. Kara had sworn never to call forth the darkness
inside her or to succumb to its power. It was too dangerous. The
black veins were proof. The darkness was slowly taking control of
her. She would lose herself to it. What if she couldn’t control it?
But she couldn’t let herself be eaten by bugs. It was just too
lame. What kind of guardian angel dies of bug bites?
    No. She wouldn’t. She
couldn’t. She wished for her elemental power…
    Jenny cried out, and it was like something
inside Kara snapped.
    Without thinking, she let go, and a tiny
spark of dark energy pulsed through her. It was enough. With
renewed strength, she jumped to her feet, thrashed her wings
violently, and then spun like a top.
    The locusts fell. She was surprised at how
fast they came off. It was almost too easy. With a last loud
hum, the locusts rose in a massive cloud and disappeared into the
dark sky. It was almost as though something had compelled them to
leave. It didn’t matter. They were gone.
    With a victory smile on her face, she looked
back at her friends.
    Jenny, Peter, Ashley and David staggered to
their feet. Their faces were streaked with blood, but the locusts
were gone. Where had the locusts gone ?
    Kara moved toward her friends, but a sudden
fear in their eyes made her stop. They weren’t looking at her. They were looking past her.
    There was something behind her.
    Kara whirled around, and her victory smile
vanished.
    A ten-foot humanoid creature sat astride a
giant skeletal horse with glinting red eyes and a mouth filled with
too many fish-like teeth. The horse’s ribs protruded through its
thin, stretched, hairless, sickly skin. It was so thin it was as
though its bones alone held it up. The rider’s white skin looked
like crumpled paper. Corded muscles sheathed its arms and legs like
pale ivy. A war helmet with horns covered most of its face, and
body armor covered its skeletal frame. It looked like a
two-thousand-year-old mummified corpse. A gleaming black sword the
size of a small tree dangled from the grip of the rider’s enormous
hand, and the great white horse stared at her with fiery red eyes
and pointed teeth.
    Kara let out gasp. She was standing face to
face with one of the four knights of the apocalypse.
     

Chapter
5
Famine
     
     
     
    “ W hy didn’t they
tell us the knights would be giants?” grumbled David as