It’s not enough.
I drop back into the chair, a heavy exhale scraping my throat.
The shadows pulse, screaming their own demand: Move. Run. Get back to her.
“Is there anything else I should know?”
Sweat trickles down my back while I battle the spots threatening to take me under. By the way they look at each other, it’s obvious Luca and Astrid are keeping something from me.
“Out with it then! Please!” As I said, I’m not above begging when it comes to Aurora.
Luca’s jaw tightens, his voice quiet but unshakable.
“Isa might be lying. Twisting the truth. But if she’s right—”
My breath catches as a shadow wraps around my chest.
“—then the Daughter has to activate it willingly. And when she does …”
The shadows go still. They know what’s coming next.
“… she dies.”
“Motherfucker!”
My shadows detonate. The folder explodes from the table, hurled across the room by a whip of darkness, pages fluttering through the air like startled birds. The air thickens, packed with heat and fury.
I close my eyes, forcing a breath in. Then out.
“Okay.” I swallow over the lump of fear in my throat and try to wrestle down the panic clawing through my chest.
The beast in my brain rattles its cage with a slow, dark laugh that makes my shadows shiver.
They don’t like thisthing.
They know it’s waiting for me to lose control.
Waiting to be unleashed.
Its laughter grows, slow and rhythmic.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Like the second hand of a clock.
A shadow hesitates at my spine, pressing close.
Holding me back.
Keeping me still.
Stopping me from stepping forward.
“Hrædlice,” the beast whispers in the dark recesses of my subconscious.
The thing in my head has never spoken to me before. That’s … deeply fucking alarming.
But I shelve the existential dread for later. I’ve got more pressing horrors to address.
“What does this thing look like? And how would they get a Daughter to detonate the Vermilion Maw willingly? That seems like an impossible task, especially for someone as headstrong as Aurora.”
