The portal is a long walk from the Griari empire, hidden deep in the forest where wanderers can’t find it. After the busy market where we celebrated August’s birthday, the serenity is a welcome change.
Today was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. Being surrounded by the people I love has cemented my new reality. I finally feel like I have everything I ever wanted.
But like every good thing, the peace doesn’t last long.
Out of nowhere, a heavy cloud of fear slams into my chest. Adrenaline surges through my veins, preparing me for danger.
I don’t realize I’ve stopped walking until Angel calls my name over his shoulder, but I’m frozen in place. The dreadful instinct that something evil is fast approaching sinks deep in my gut.
When Harvey’s eyes meet mine, his alarmed expression only confirms my gut feeling. Years of torment and constant fear have trained us to sense a threat before we can even see it.
“Hazel, put August to sleep. Now.” For once, she doesn’t make a sarcastic remark and quickly hums a soft tune to lull August under her magic.
A faint cry echoes from somewhere in the distance, alerting everyone to attention. I whip my head in its direction, trying to pinpoint the sound, but it cuts off abruptly as if spooked by my movement.
Angel quickly huddles everyone toward the portal, sensing the dread and discomfort clinging to the trees. We form aprotective circle around each other as we move, but I can feel it in my bones, it won’t be enough.
The longer it takes to reach the portal, the more I feel a presence rushing towards us with death and pain on its tail. Whatever it is, it’s killing the woods with every breath it takes. I’ve never seen this kind of destruction before.
Suddenly, wild rustling and scratching echo from every direction, making it impossible to figure out where it’s coming from.
We won’t reach the portal without making ourselves an open target.
Conjuring his bow, Angel forms a protective dome around us that’s charged with his Divine. My own Divine senses my mate’s worry and pushes me to loosen my restraint. Without hesitation, I let my essence seep out to fuse with Angel’s barrier, doubling its strength.
My heart leaps to my throat when a disheveled figure jumps out from behind a tree, charging straight for me. I stumble back just before it slams into the barrier and bounces off it, collapsing to the ground.
I look up just in time to see two more figures hurl themselves at the barrier. One after another, dark shadows barrel into the shield with such force that it cracks in some places.
Angel repairs them in a flash, my Divine latching onto his power to reinforce it.
The first shadow to hit our shield wheezes and coughs up a lung as it pushes itself off the ground. My breath catches when it limps closer, a familiar face coming to light.
“Is that…?” Harvey stammers, eyes wide with disbelief.
Anisha…
All I can do is nod. Standing before me is a living reminder of our past. Her hollow eyes are burning with hatred, dragging me back into my darkest nightmares.
One by one, every shadowy figure stands upright, surrounding the barrier, and that’s when I see it.Twelveidentical replicas of a girl I once knew.
I don’t know what made me count, but the message becomes clear once I do.
Visha ripped twelve souls from this world to sculpt her version of the future. This is her way of reminding me that she’s always watching, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to finish what she started a decade ago.
Anisha’s clothes are ripped in places, and when my gaze drifts to her shoulders, I bite the inside of my cheek to stifle a gasp. Her arms look as though they’ve been torn apart more than once, then carelessly stitched back together.
Whatever Angel reads on my face makes him lace our fingers and tug me closer. I lean into him, struggling to breathe, but my heart stops completely when the limping figure opens her mouth far wider than naturally possible and unleashes a wail that shreds the silence.
Bile rises in my throat at her cries, but her face remains blank. No tears, no emotions. Her cries are as hollow as the girl before me… because I know that’s not Anisha. It can’t be.
A strong gust tears through the forest, and the fake replicas ripple until only one remains. Her wails are muffled now, but not entirely gone. I’m too stunned by the sight to even try to unravel how Visha pulled this off.
I was just starting to think that facing one instead of twelve replicas of a supposedly dead woman was good odds, but I’m proven wrong when Anisha takes every move I make as a threat.
I risk a single step back and flinch when the figure slams her head against the barrier in front of me. Every inch I move, whoever this is in Anisha’s body screeches and hammers her skull against the transparent shield until I freeze.
It’s like she doesn’t want me to do anything but stand still and wait. But wait for what?
