Free Ruby Shadows by Evangeline Anderson Page B

way you look now,” I said. In fact, I liked it a
lot more than I wanted to. But was the Laish I liked just a mirage?
Maybe I should let
him show me his true form. It might rid me of the ridiculous
feelings I kept having every time he touched me.
    I
thought about it…and rejected the idea. If I was walking about Hell
with a ten foot tall, cloven-hoofed, forked-tongued monster, I really didn’t want to know it. Ignorance is bliss and
all that…
    “ We’re here,” he murmured, breaking my train of thought. “When
the guards begin to move, the gates will open. You and I will slip
through and be on our way.”
    “ All right.” I didn’t much like the idea of “slipping through”
a huge gate guarded by enormous, muscular, beast-like demons, but
there didn’t seem to be much choice.
    As
if on cue, the
vast iron gates swung silently open, emitting a gust of hot, dry
air that smelled faintly of burning. They were so colossal I
thought the mechanism that moved them must be the size of a small
city. Or maybe they were opened and closed by some kind of dark
magic. Whatever the case, the moment the gates swung wide, the two
huge guards lumbered inside, carrying their pitchforks—which looked
about the size of telephone poles—casually over their
shoulders.
    “ It’s time,” Laish murmured to me. Up until then, we had been keeping to
the wall and the long shadows it cast. Now he took me firmly by the
hand and pulled me right through the middle of the
gates.
    “ Uh, shouldn’t we keep to the side?” I asked, out of the
corner of my mouth.
    “ More chance of running into one of the guards,” he said. “Go
ahead of me, Gwendolyn—once you are past the threshold, they cannot
turn you away and danger is more likely to come from
behind.”
    “ Fine,” I muttered. I felt incredibly vulnerable stepping out
ahead of him but I did it anyway. The space we went through felt as
wide as a football field—though it was probably only the size of a
tennis court. I kept my head down, looking at my feet. Ho-hum,
nothing to see here. Just a subservient concubine just out for a
stroll with her demonic master…
    And that was when I
heard the growling.
    Abandoning my subservient routine, I looked up…and up…and up,
into the eyes of a huge, bristling dog. At least, I thought it was a dog. Except no
kind of dog I ever heard of grows as large as a horse. Also, I’m
pretty sure the American Kennel Club doesn’t recognize any breed
that has three heads—which this dog had. So when I say I looked
into its eyes, I mean I looked into all six of them. And every single one was filled with a
murderous desire to rip me apart like a piece of beef
jerky.
    I’ve never been a dog person—witches and cats go together like
peanut butter and jelly—which is why Grams and I always had at
least one feline stalking around the house. But even if I had been a canine enthusiast, I don’t
think I could have gotten too enthusiastic about the beast which
was blocking my way and growling at me with all three heads. In
fact, I was about as far from enthusiastic as I could get—I
was terrified .
    “ Laish,” I whispered, my voice suddenly dry. “What’s
go ing on? I
thought you said there was more danger from behind?”
    “ What’s going on is that some fool has gone and left Cerberus
off his leash again.” He sounded more irritated than anything else.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let him hurt you,” he added.
    “ Um, thanks…” I still couldn’t raise my voice above a whisper
and I didn’t dare take my eyes off the huge beast. All three heads
were still growling and snarling and two of them were drooling on
the ground. I couldn’t help noticing that where the ropey strings of saliva touched
the broad black paving stones, little wisps of steam arose. Either
the dog-thing’s spit was supernaturally hot or some kind of acid.
Neither option seemed very comforting.
    Suddenly the dog
lunged at me, all three heads barking in a deafening