Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) Read Online Free PDF

long, needlelike teeth. Weird, hairlike growths protruded from the tops of their heads, swaying with their effortless movements.
    No. Noooooo.
    One was only inches away. It bent its grotesque head, ready to take a bite out of Zekin’s feet. With as much strength as she could, Paige rammed her body into his.
    He let out a startled sound, then pulled his legs up—away from the creature—as though to stop a fall.
    “Stop fighting me,” he hollered.
    “I’m not. One of those things behind us was about to chew off your leg.”
    He looked over. The creatures were still behind them, clearly not wanting to give up the chase. Zekin muttered a word Paige had never heard before and couldn’t possibly understand. He swam them in a zigzag pattern.
    The monsters lost their tight formation, clearly bewildered at Zekin’s odd moves. Their confusion didn’t last. Again, they tore through the water, intent on catching up with them.
    She shouted, “Hurry, they’re coming, they’re—”
    Paige’s words died on her sharply drawn breath. Within the inky depths, something moved, making the water bubble intensely. Another volcanic eruption? An earthquake?
    The creatures scattered, darting in every direction. From within them rose a leviathan, neither fish nor whale, rather an unholy union of squid and eel, with several writhing snakelike heads. The lidless eyes followed her and Zekin’s every movement. Jaws snapped. Scores of deadly sharp teeth flashed inches from them.
    Blue light pulsed from within its tentacles, which appeared to confuse the other creatures further. Many seemed drawn to the eerie illumination. As they swam close, the giant whipped out its many tongues, capturing, then devouring them. The rest of the school fled. Their predator pursued, thrashing its immense body through the water.
    The current it created pushed her and Zekin farther away as though they weighed nothing. Paige’s teeth chattered. Let it be over. Please, don’t let them come back .
    The things receded into the distance. Foam marked the monster’s feeding frenzy.
    Paige heaved air, wanting to laugh in relief, while also needing to cry. This was nuts. They couldn’t keep dodging the weirdo creatures down here or escape what was on the surface by swimming beneath it. Zekin’s grip around her waist had already loosened considerably. She knew he had to be beat.
    To take the burden off him, Paige swam them from the gushing lava toward the surface.
    Instantly, his hold tightened. With surprising strength, Zekin turned them around and moved in a downward trajectory again.
    Paige yelled, “What are you doing? You’re going in the wrong direction.”
    “No. This is the correct way.”
    How could it be? “If we stay down here any longer, we’ll either get eaten or we’ll be too exhausted to swim back to the surface.”
    “We’re not going there.”
    Paige stared at him, convinced he was so tired he couldn’t think clearly any longer. Sweat dotted his forehead and upper lip. The small beads glittered in the lava’s faint reddish light. He pulled in more air, straining with the effort.
    Was he ready to pass out? Paige increased her grip around his waist. “We have to go back to the surface,” she argued. “There’s nowhere else left.”
    “Yes there is.” He swallowed, then spoke on a weary sigh. “Ahead.”
     
    Fire glowed from within the rocks’ slender cracks, flooding the area with light until the water was nearly the color of blood rather than a solid black. Steam belched from both the rocks and marine floor. Within the phenomena stood a series of large, circular pods constructed of a transparent material that allowed those confined within to see freedom but never experience it.
    It was what the rulers of Zekin’s dimension had demanded for their newest penal colony, one unknown to their people, the same as the Pleasure Palace.
    Confinement to this prison had been the penalty Zekin earned for his crimes, the same as the other