Book Four: Chapter 18

Beth felt her stomach drop, watching the vertebra exit the neck hole one at a time until his entire spine was now outside of his body. Sulyvahn gave the spine a flick and it expanded, the bones now dangling loosely from a cord made of the same smoke that leaked from his body. He cracked the whip over her head and she felt a paralyzing chill wrap itself around her.

“What do ye think?” He did a couple more practice strikes, and she could hear the bones rattle against each other every time he allowed the whip to coil in on itself. “Those I can’t reach, I can catch.”

“Wow. I really wasn’t expecting that. May I?” She moved closer to examine the whip, which Sulyvahn presented for her inspection.

“Look, but don’t touch. You won’t like how it feels,” he warned her.

“Fair enough.” Her fingers hovered over the whip, and she could feel the immense cold coming off of them. “But I get the impression that you’re trying to make me squirm again.”

“Maybe a little,” Suly