My breath catches as she glides closer, and the light hits her. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Long, ink-black hair spills down her back, swaying like liquid darkness with every step. She moves as though she owns the ground she walks on, as if the shadows follow her out of fear.
With her chin tilted slightly, she stops just in front of me, looking down with a sneer that makes my skin crawl. I force myself to meet her stare and immediately wish I hadn’t. Her eyes are pitch black, with endless dark voids where white should be. When they lock onto mine an icy shiver rips down my spine.
There’s a lot of evil in this woman; I can feel it. For the first time since this whole ordeal began, a sliver of real fear needles its waythrough my ribs.
The cold silence wraps around me, sinking icy claws into my bones as the three of us stand frozen. I can’t tear my eyes away from her. It feels as if I’ve met this woman before, there’s something about her that feels like a half-remembered nightmare I can’t quite place.
She breaks the silence first and with the slow grace of a serpent, she steps closer to my captor. One long black nail drags down the side of his red jaw; the scraping sound making my teeth ache. Her claws look sharp enough to gut him where he stands.
“What do we have here?” Her voice drips as though it’s poisoned honey, every word wrapping around my ribs, squeezing my heart. She grips his chin as if she might snap it in two. “Why is this human here?”
And it’s as if her touch burned him because he jerks away from her. The disgust on his face is raw, almost enough to make me flinch. He shifts, stepping in front of me, his broad shoulders blocking her gaze like a shield I didn’t ask for. “That is none of your business, Saoirse. Do yourself a favour and leave.”
With gleaming black voids that promise ruin, her eyes narrow. She tilts her head, a smile curling on her lips. “Everything you do is my business, Thorne.” Her heel slams down, the sharp crack of it striking the stone floor makes the whole room quake. The vibrations crawl up my legs, slithering into my chest.
Instinctively I push myself back until the wall bites into my spine. My breath rattles in my throat as that gnawing familiarity scratches at the inside of my skull. Where do I know her from?
Within seconds, the whole room twists into something torn from a horror movie. Saoirse steps closer to Thorne, and her hair starts to move as if it’s alive. It slithers through the air, splitting its shadowy tentacles, like it’s tasting the air for prey.
My lungs burn raw as I hold my breath, wishing I could vanish through the wall behind me. Thorne stands his ground for all of two seconds before her hair lashes out, wrapping around his arms, coiling around his torso as if it’s a nest of serpents. He snarls, fighting it off at first. However, the more he struggles, the tighter it binds him. I watch in frozen horror as the writhing strands snake up to his throat.
“Saoirse… you’ll regret this… mark my…”
His voice cuts off in a wet choke as her hair smothers his face, strangling the last of his words into silence. The only sound left is the slick, sinuous hiss of her hair tightening around him.
Terror claws up my spine. Inch by inch, I edge toward the door, trying not to breathe, or make a sound. My body shakes so hard I think my knees might give out. I force one foot in front of the other. I don’t know where I am, or where I’m going but anywhere is better than here. Anywhere away from her.
Thank my lucky stars that her eyes are still fixed on Thorne when I reach the door. Just a few more steps and I’m free… or so I think.
Out of nowhere, Fionn barrels through the doorway with the weight of a freight train. He slams into me with the force of a wrecking ball, sending me sprawling backwards. I hit the floor hard, the breath punching out of my lungs as pain shoots up my spine. I have to bite down on my tongue to stop a scream from tearing free. I can’t risk drawing Saoirse's gaze. Not now.
Fionn positions himself between us, his massive shoulders squared. He unleashes a volley of vicious barks that rip through the room, so sharp they stab right through my skull. I press my palms over my ears, my eyes watering. However, Saoirse doesn’t so much as flinch. If anything, the sound seems to needle at her patience rather than frighten her.
She turns that bottomless black stare on Fionn, her head tilting just slightly, as if she’s studying an insect before crushing it. Her hands curl into fists at her sides, tension coiling through her as though a storm is about to break.
Fionn doesn’t back down. He lowers his head and growls, a deep, rumbling warning. She’s done with warnings. In a flash, she swings her fist upward, impossibly fast and it connects with Fionn’s jaw in a sickening crack. His yelp of pain slices through me, raw and helpless. He crumples to the ground and thick ropes of blood spill from his muzzle as he tries to curl in on himself, whimpering through broken breaths.
My stomach twists. All I can do is lie frozen, my heart hammering against my ribs just like a drumbeat counting down to my own execution.
With Fionn helpless and whimpering at her feet, Saoirse turns her black, pitiless eyes on me. My breath catches in my throat as she begins forward, dragging the cocooned Thorne behind her like a rag doll, his muffled groans buried somewhere inside that writhing mass of hair.
Not daring to blink as she closes the distance, I force myself upright, each click of her heels slicing through the silence as if they’re a threat. She doesn’t stop until we’re nose to nose. “What are you doing here?” she hisses, her voice like poisoned silk. “What does Thorne want with you?”
My tongue betrays me and I want to spit in her face or say something smart and defiant. Still, no words come out. Instead fear chokes off my breath. I clamp down on it. I won’t beg and I definitely won’t cower.B’fhearr liom bás a fháil ná meon a thaispeáint.(I’d rather die than show weakness.)
Her grin is sharp enough to draw blood all on its own. She grips my face in one clawed hand and her nails bite deep into my skin. Hot pain flashes under my cheekbones as she squeezes, harder and harder, until I feel warm blood trickling down my jaw, dripping onto my collarbone.
The sight of my blood delights her. Her lips curl into something wicked, a part smile, part snarl. I command myself to move, to shove her off. I can't. I’m rooted to the spot, locked inside my own useless flesh while the monster drinks in my helplessness.
In an almost mocking delight, she pulls her hand back and sticks out her tongue. I flinch at the first hot drag of her tongue as it crosses my cheek, the sickening slickness of it licking away myblood. Bile crawls up my throat and my stomach knots so tight I think I might vomit right in her face.
“Delicious,” she purrs, her breath ghosting against my skin.
Forcing down the nausea, I swallow hard and beg my limbs to obey. If I’m going to die, I will go down fighting. She leans in closer, her eyes blazing hellish red now, her pupils swallowed by the glow like twin pits of flame. She looks at me as if I’m nothing but prey, a warm thing to tear apart and savour. My heartbeat drums so loud I can’t hear anything else.
Then, darkness shadows over me.
A black fog drifts over my vision, thick and suffocating. I can’t see. I can’t move.An mar seo a chríochnaíonn sé domsa?(Is this how it ends for me?)
