Up here, chaos reigns.
Humans are screaming, shoving past the Fae, tearing through the banquet in blind terror. Trays crash to the floor. Goblets shatter. Food and wine spill across stone. Fae voices rise in outrage as their decadent display is torn apart, beauty giving way to panic in a heartbeat.
I turn back once and see the flash of a blade at the bottom of the stairs.
I move again, faster this time as hysteria spreads like wildfire.
The Fae flee as quickly as the humans now, bodies surging together toward the front doors of the castle. There is no dignity left in them. No hauteur. Only terror.
I hear a scream behind me and glance over my shoulder just in time to see another body hit the floor. A man, his eyes wide and glassy, his mouth frozen open as blood pools beneath him.
The screaming swells, rises to something almost unbearable.
Then a loud clatter comes from the banquet hall, followed by a voice begging for mercy.
It cuts off abruptly.
Where is Luceran?
Why isn’t he here?Why isn’t he stopping this?
As everyone else rushes for the doors, trampling one another in their desperation to escape, I turn away from them toward somewhere I feel safe.
My fingers fumble for the library key in my pocket. I drop it once, curse under my breath, then snatch it up again and jam it into the lock. The door opens and I slip inside,slamming it shut behind me. My hands shake so badly I struggle to get the key back into the lock, to turn it, to make it catch.
Lock. Lock. Lock.
The screams outside dull until all I can hear is the blood pounding in my ears.
But as it fades, I hear footsteps instead drawing closer.
I abandon the lock and move fast and quiet, darting between the towering shelves. I barely make it three aisles in when I hear the door groan open.
Footsteps cross the stone.
No. Not footsteps.
They’re too soft. The rhythm is wrong. Different from boots striking stone.
It’s an animal. My eyes widen. A wolf? Luceran?
I take a step forward instinctively and then freeze.
Was it a blade I saw in the basement? Was it a knife that opened that man’s belly? That slit that woman’s throat?
Or was it teeth? Teeth and claws.
That look in his eyes when I asked him about his wife. The fury that flared so fast it terrified me. The anger that has lived inside him for centuries.
Did I push him too far? Did I wake the monster that has stalked Brunemar for generations?
I press myself hard against a bookshelf, wishing I could sink into it, vanish into one of the books and never be found. My breath comes shallow and tight as I strain to listen, every sound magnified in the dark.
He moves through the room.
I hear his breathing reverberating through his chest, the weight of his steps as he pads down the aisle on the other side of the shelf. The air grows colder with every step he takes.
Can he smell me? Is he toying with me? Will he tear me apart the way he did them?
