I suppose it's not surprising that the madness-inducing Nightmare Prince can sense a fellow fear-wielding being. My nerves begin to itch as they always have around this fiend.
Damn it.
I'm a fucking idiot. I should have transported us the moment I heard that news report.
Baelfire reaches for the bedroom door handle as if he's going to grab something from another room. I cover the handle quickly to stop him.
"You can't go out there."
"A lot of our shit is in the other room, Boo. Clothes, food, cash?—"
I shake my head. "All replaceable."
"What's going on?" he demands.
The lights flicker, and for that small moment, I swear I have a heart attack despite the fact that I don't have an actual fucking heart.
"Silas, cast an illumination spell. Now. One that leaves absolutely no trace of shadows in this room," I instruct quickly.
Why?he asks telepathically, already pulling out his bleeding crystal and pricking his finger.
"He moves through darkness, even the slightest bit. He can't be in any well-lit space,” I explain, slipping on the leather gloves I discarded earlier. Grabbing Pierce and the burner phone from the bedside table and stepping into my boots without lacing them up, I turn to shove a chair aside so I'll have enough space for the transportation spell.
"He? He who?" Everett asks, frost crawling past his elbows as the temperature in this room starts to drop in accordance with his emotions.
Something scratches softly at the door, and a chorus of hair-raising whispers rises from somewhere in the hallway.
They all sound likehimgone wrong.
"Maven, Maven, sweetest raven."The taunt grows angry."Remember our game of finder's keepers?"
That voice sends that too-familiar prickle of apprehension throughout my body. As I always used to, I slow my breathing and repeat my mantra to myself.
I am nothing but deadly calm. I feel nothing.
Sangfluir?Silas's voice demands in reply to my thoughts, concern permeating his tone.
Baelfire's eyes shift to that of a dragon's as he growls, “How the hell does it know your name?"
There's a loud crash elsewhere in the suite, and the lights flicker once more. The moment they go out completely, red light fills the space as Silas's illumination spell takes hold. The metaphorical skeletal hand gripping my throat releases, and I immediately recite the words for the transportation spell.
"Hold on to me," I demand as the scratching outside the door turns into a pounding, and his whispers intensify into shrieks like howling wind.
All four of my matches immediately touch my arm, shoulder, and neck—in Baelfire's case, his arms are wrapped around me like he wants to be a shield.
Somewhere far in the distance of the dark night, a woman's bloodcurdling scream splits the air before cutting off—and then the bedroom's window shatters as a decapitated woman's body is flung through it with brute force.
11
MAVEN
One moment,we're being pelted by shards of broken glass, and then the spell kicks in, and the world turns inside out. When the transportation spell ends, we're standing in the falling snow, surrounded by deep snowdrifts, thick, white-frosted pine trees, and gentle moonlight.
Baelfire swears and picks a shard of glass out of his quickly-healing shoulder before tipping my face to look up at him. Those amber eyes scan me for signs of harm before turning hard, unyielding.
"Maven. What the motherfucking hell was that thing?"
"A wraith."
