More tendrils shot through the stage, wrapping around limbs and trapping students and parents in place. Dark creatures pulled themselves from the cracks in the walls and stalked over the seats, their growls as deep and dark as fear itself, the kind of sound that made your teeth sting and your knees buckle in terror.
The shadows stalked and circled, snarling and snapping jaws of midnight, driving the students back toward the center of the room. I scanned frightened faces until I saw Andre and Loretta huddled together, hemmed in on all sides by other students. I had no way to get to them.
Pull out Andre and Loretta.I gave the thought as a command.They don’t belong here.
Two of the shadow creatures leaped into the crowd, their teeth closing around Andre’s leg and Loretta’s arm. Students dived out of the way as the shadows dragged my friends to the exit and dropped them over the threshold. Andre bundled Loretta away, and the creatures sat down, guarding against anyone else who tried to escape. Behind me, I sensed shadows moving to block the stage door – as if the wall of fire wasn’t deterrent enough.
Quinn’s wide eyes bore into mine. His fingers froze in midair. He knew without knowing that I was in control here. “Hazel, what are you doing?”
I opened my mouth to tell him to run, to take Ayaz and Trey and get out. But I was distracted by what was going on in the auditorium.
Are the seats… warping?
I assumed my ruined mind was playing tricks on me. But no… the seats sloped inward, disappearing into the floor, where a cold wind blew from someplace far below. Dust and debris rained from the ceiling, and the cracks widened. The earth rolled and rumbled. My nails clawed for purchase on the pitching stage.
Inside my head, the god cried.Together, we crack open the ebony gates of oblivion.
Something shot from the center of the room, spewing mangled chairs and stone and plaster in all directions. Tremors coursed through my body, shaking me with such force and ferocity I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. My eyes glued shut. Whatever was coming for us from below, I couldn’t face it. I didn’t have the strength.
Quinn flattened his body over mine as debris rained down on us. I felt rather than heard him yell as the stage cracked and jerked, sending us sliding. We slammed into another body. The world spun out of control.
The god screamed in triumph.
The tremors stopped.
Silence reigned.
White, hollow, deathly silence – even the god didn’t trouble my mind. He had gone somewhere. He had no more need of his conduit.
I opened my eyes.
What.
The.
Actual.
Fuck?
Chapter Two
In the center of the room stood a square pillar with four sides, its pointed tip nearly touching the collapsing auditorium roof. It reminded me of the obelisks of Ancient Egypt, only the geometry didn’t seem correct. If I stared at a single point for too long, the angles appeared to recede into and overlap each other, revealing layers beneath that my human eyes could not fathom.
The smooth sides caught the light of the intact chandelier and the scattered fires, illuminating pulsing veins against its sleek black surface. About halfway up one side, I noticed a sigil ringed in fire. A coldness not unlike the chill of the god’s void emanated from the stone.
What fresh horror is this?
I staggered to my feet. Quinn clung to my arm, but I shoved him off. I stepped over a squirming Vincent Bloomberg, still pinned down by the shadows and by the pain of his wounds. He hissed at me, the sound of air rushing from a tire. I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t remember how.
I kicked Vincent in the head. It felt good.
Around the room, others lifted their heads and noticed the pillar. Some wept, others cried or whimpered or screamed. I could no longer distinguish student from parent or faculty. My ears buzzed, and the rising noise around me receded into the background. I transcended the pain in my body until it became a siren call, urging me forward. The pillar called me, begged me to come closer.
“Hazel, what are you doing?” Trey cried.
I jumped off the stage, crashing my way through the smoldering orchestra pit. Smoke and shadow curled around me as I vaulted the broken chairs, kicking Damon Delacorte’s hand from around my ankle.
The pillar towered over me, ice and malevolence rolling off it in waves that shook my bones. I pressed my palms against the stone. A hum that was more than sound pulsed through my fingers – the heartbeat of the universe coursing through the monument.
