Beauty In Her Madness (Winterland Tale #3) - Stacey Marie Brown Page 0,28

opened my mouth to respond when pain cracked across my skull. “Ow!” I yelped, my hand going to the sting at the back of my head, looking around. “What was tha—?” A chestnut knocked hard into my shoulder, drawing my eyes up to where it came from, my mouth dropping open.

“Turtle doves…” Blaze peered up at the trees behind me.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of chipmunks covering the branches of the trees, staring down at us. They were cute and fluffy with big chubby cheeks.

“Sagging berries and nuts,” Dor squeaked, his eyes wide.

“Awww. They are the cutest things I have ever seen.”

“No. Not awww, little one.” Frost stood rigid.

“What are they doing in this part?” Blaze’s feet treaded backward, horror striking his face. “Thought they stuck to Tulgey Forest?”

“Fuck if I know,” Frost gritted through his teeth, his lids narrowed on the trees, his chest expanding, the wind whistling around us. “They’ve never dared to come to my land before.”

I looked at the brothers, their trepidation prickling alarm in me. “They’re just chipmunks.”

“Move slowly back to me.” Frost kept his scrutiny locked on them as he motioned for me.

“Why? They’re so cute. What are chipmunks going to do?”

“Cover you in cranberry sauce and roll you in crumbled chestnuts for dinner,” Dor replied, staring in terror at the animals.

“What?”

“Chipmunks eat your flesh, little Liddell.” Frost took a slow step back. “What they lack in size they make up in quantity.”

“Eat my flesh?” My voice rose. My head darted around, waiting for one of them to say this was a twisted joke.

“Dor, run.” Frost nudged his friend.

“I can’t leave you.”

“Get PB,” he demanded. “Go!”

Dor nodded, scurrying down Frost’s arm and leaping onto the snow and darting away, the tiny thing disappearing quickly into the night.

A high-pitched chirp rang out from the trees, drawing my attention back to the chipmunks, my stomach dropping.

One stood on the farthest limb, its arm pointing at us.

“Fuck,” Frost said. It was like clouds and thunder rolling over the mountain. The swarm charged for us, making the ground appear as if it were moving. The noise of them all moving together sounded like a drum. “Run!”

We turned, bolting for the fortress in the distance, our feet sinking in the snow. The light creatures gained ground quicker than us.

“Come on!” Frost paused and reached back for me, yanking my arm to pull me along faster as Blaze came in next to us.

“Hurry,” Blaze yelled at me, the brothers’ long legs carrying them farther than mine could. I was a runner. I could run for hours, keeping pace, but I wasn’t a sprinter. This was totally different. Also, I was no quitter. Pumping my legs harder, I dug in deep, trying to keep up, using the adrenaline in my body. It still wasn’t enough.

Claws dug into my leg as teeth burrowed into the back of my calf and thigh, a howl exploding from my chest. More and more leaped on me, pins and needles tearing through my tights into my skin, gnawing my flesh.

Agony thrashed at every nerve. Screaming, I stumbled, the pain making my knees buckle.

No, Dinah! Keep going.

I was good at shutting down and compartmentalizing. I could lock on the goal and push forward, ignoring my side ache or cramps in my legs when I ran. Grunting, I tried to push on, but more leaped on me.

“Dinah!” Blaze reached back for me as a swarm jumped on him.

“No!” Frost’s anger burned through the throng covering me, my body growing numb to their bites. A hand swept down, grabbing me, but the blood caused his fingers to slip through mine.

“Frost,” I tried to yell, but like the sea crashing down, I was going under, the swarm burying me under their bodies.

This was how I was going to die?

Death by chipmunk?

It sounded like something that would happen to Alice. Not me. I was supposed to have a boring, ordinary death. I would peacefully slip away while Scott and I rocked on a porch together. No one would ever know if I died here. What would my family think happened to me? Dream or not, I knew I would die for real, my heart straining as the blood left my body, pain blackening my vision.

I even started to see and hear things.

Odd things…

“Dinah,” a man’s voice I didn’t recognize spoke to me. It felt like it was inside my head, wrapping me in warmth and security. “Eat the cookie.”

Cookie? What the hell? I was being eaten alive, and my mind