With that comforting thought in mind, I finally drifted off to sleep.
I awoke toa dark room, the fire having burned low, and clouds blocking most of the three-quarter-full moon. Waking inthe middle of the night had become my new normal here, but I immediately knew this night was different. My heart slammed repeatedly against my chest as though I had awoken in the midst of a nightmare. I had this terrible sense that something watched me from the darkness. My eyes scanned the room, landing repeatedly on the deep shadows.
“Future Empress?” a voice called, familiar and yet slightly distorted, like the speaker had something caught in their throat. It came from the shadows.
I sat up in bed. “Raven?”
Shuffling footsteps, and then Raven moved into what little light came from the window. I let out a low groan of horror and threw myself out of bed. I immediately saw why her voice sounded strange. Her throat had a gaping, jagged wound where the blood had blackened over time. She looked at me with black-rimmed eyes, her scraggly, blood-soaked hair hanging in her face.
The legends were true. The Devourer could turn people into walking corpses, and somehow she had gotten into my locked room. Fear paralyzed me. I couldn’t even cry out.
She shambled to me, her clothes covered in that black blood and hanging from her in tatters. She kept her hands out, fingers curled into claws. I held my dagger at the ready, slowly backing away from her.
“Please don’t do this, Raven,” I said.
She didn’t answer, only continued in that unnatural gait.
I dashed past Raven, but she lunged faster than I expected and latched onto my arm. Her clawed fingers dug deep, past skin and into muscle. I screamed as she tore a gash into my forearm. With the other, I brought my dagger down, driving it deep into her chest with a terrible crunching sound. It did nothing to stop her.
With tremendous strength, she grabbed me and threw me to the ground. Before I could gain my footing again, she was on me like a rabid animal. Her yellowed teeth snapped inches from my face as I struggled to keep her from biting me. Her clawed hands tore my skin, and I screamed in pain. From my door, I heard a repeated slamming sound, and it rattled on its hinges.Talon,I thought and remembered that the door was still barred shut. Before I could call out to him for help, Raven opened her mouth again, and black shadows poured out. They engulfed me, thick as fog.
The wind.
It was there, just outside my window. It would burst through the glass and come to my aid. Agony ripped through me again as she clawed me, and my panic blinded me. She came at me again, grabbing hold of my arms, her dirty nails digging into my flesh. I cried out. I couldn’t think—couldn’t focus enough to call the wind.
“I need your strength,” Raven said in a voice that sounded like her own but deeper. Her fetid breath blew in my face as I struggled to free myself.
And then suddenly, Raven flew through the air. Her body crashed against the wall. The shadows receded rapidly, and Talon was there, his face murderous. He stood above me like a vengeful god.
“Zara, are you hurt?” he asked, his face twisted with worry as his eyes scanned my body for injuries.
While he focused on me, Raven got to her feet again.
“Behind you!”
Talon turned with his sword raised. Raven launched herself at him. In one clean motion, he severed her head from her body.
My former maidservant fell to the floor in a heap, finally still.
“Can you stand?” Talon asked, and when I nodded, he bent down and carefully helped me to my feet. I stood there shakingso hard my teeth chattered, and Talon instantly pulled me against his warm chest. He wrapped strong arms around me and gently rubbed my back.
“Skies, Zara,” Talon said, letting out a sharp breath. “How did that thing get in here?”
“She came out of the shadows while I was sleeping,” I said shakily, my skin breaking out in goose bumps as I remembered my sudden nightmarish awakening. “She was my missing maidservant—Raven.”
He tensed around me. “Then the legends are true. The Devourer did this.” He pulled back, sweeping his gaze over my body. “Are you hurt?”
“Just my arms,” I said. My arms were shredded where Raven had dug her sharp nails into them, and blood poured from the wounds. I thought of the shadows that came from inside her. It could have been so much worse.
“Do you want me to send for a healer? These wounds need treatment to prevent festering.”
When he moved like he was about to leave, I grabbed hold of his wrist. “No, please stay. I can clean it myself.”
It may have been child-afraid-of-the-dark level of fear, but I couldn’t stand the thought of being left alone right now.
“You sure you’re not hurt anywhere else?”
“Just here,” I confirmed.
