Gasps and cries of fear echoed throughout the square. Gabby lifted her hands.
“We must not panic!” Gabby lifted her voice, and the crowd began to calm. “From what we discovered during our interrogation of the executed, the Black Claw has broken our protective wards down around the city. The cult plans to send monsters into Dolinska. I need everyone to return to their homes as quickly as possible, before—”
As if on cue— and it was— a shrieking roar shattered the night. Everyone turned in unison to see a terrifying monster stalk into the square. It was huge, as big as a dragon, with scaly gray skin and long limbs that walked on all fours. It had the wings and head of a crow, but a muscular, humanoid body, with claws that could tear a fae in half.
The monster screeched— it reached down and grabbed a fae within its claws, tearing it to pieces before it approached the stage. Body parts rained down, and there were pleas of terror.
More roars echoed around the square— approaching from the south was a giant, a humanoid monster with green, moss-like skin who was as tall as most of the buildings, twisted antlers rising out of its head and eyes glowing red. It carried a massive club, which its giant hands dragged behind him.
From the west, a raptor-like being prowled. It had the body of a dinosaur and the head of a cat, dozens of eyes on the front of its head like a spider. Drool dripped from its many teeth as it prepared to pounce on the masses. From the east came a sickening creature, a one-eyed cyclops with ravenous fangs.
I thought of the easiest escape— to fly. But that was deemed hopeless, too, because from the air came a horrible cry. A beastly bird, one as big as a dragon, hovered above the square. There were claws at the end of its wings and a big, scaly head that could swallow a griffin in one gulp. In every direction they came, and there was nowhere to go.
“Flee for your lives! The king and I will hold them off!” Gabby cried. She and Elijah, along with their guards, turned toward the crow-like being. Gabby began firing battle orbs at it, while Elijah changed into a wolven and started biting at the ankles of the beast. With a few battle orbs to the head, the monster went down, after hardly putting up a fight.
What a fucking joke. I wasn’t fooled by this ridiculous charade. Gabby was controlling those monsters by the use of the power Droga had bestowed upon her.
But the rest of it wasn’t a charade. The other monsters moved in, and they began slaughtering the masses. I became revolted as I watched the giant, the raptor and the cyclops tear through the crowd, killing anyone in their path— men, women, and children.
We were boxed in on all sides from four various monsters. The majority of Dolinska was in this square.
“Run for it!” Ethan cried.
He changed into a wolf, and threw me onto his back. The other shifters followed suit, and we dashed through the crowd. Stefan was the biggest, so he barreled his way through, although other dragons of equal size lashed out in their own attempts to get out of the way. We forced our way out of the square, and began hurtling back to the university. As we ran through the crowded, panicked streets, I looked down and saw that Ethan’s white paws were covered in blood from stepping through all the pools of gore the monsters were creating. Bodies started piling up. I saw the lifeless corpse of a girl who’d been torn apart, barely six, and I cried out in sorrow. Some fae harnessed their wings and took to the skies, but the large bird above began swallowing people whole.
Shifters did what they could to fight back— sorceresses, too. But everywhere we looked, there was another creature. A centipede a hundred feet long swallowed people whole— a monster with the head of a woman, body of a lion, and wings like an eagle ripped fae apart before feeding on their corpses like an animal of the jungle. Everywhere I looked, it was absolute madness.
Monsters were flooding into the city— and they were all at Gabby’s command. She wanted to cause chaos… unite the city against a common foe, so they’d look to her and Elijah as their saviors once more. It’d worked at the masquerade, and now, they were doing it again, but on a much grander scale.
Students were running into the university. We burst past the campus grounds, where the teachers were stationed all around the castle. They were taking wide stances, hands burning with magic to stop the monsters if they made it to the university.
A few monsters approached the gates of the school, but once they touched Lady Magdalina’s wards, they hissed and stepped backwards. They couldn’t get past the boundary. Lord Lucien stood at the gates, shepherding students in. His face sagged in relief as he saw me pass, and he squeezed my shoulder, as if to tell me it was going to be all right.
We were safely behind the university gates, where Lady Magdalene's magic would protect us. Gabby didn’t dare cross her.
But the rest of the patrons of Dolinska weren’t so lucky. Even from within the halls of the school, we could hear the terrible screams as people died. The eight of us gathered in the courtyard with the pool, quivering as students ran past us to hide in their dorms.
“We have to stop this!” Kiara insisted. “If we don’t, more people will die!”
“What are we going to do? If we go back out there, we might be killed with everyone else!” Delmare shouted.
“Odette said we needed to get to a safe place,” Theo said, glancing at her.
“Yes, but can we really stay here and donothingwhen we know what’s going on out there?” I asked.
Odette had been quiet ever since we’d entered the courtyard. She ignored our bickering, and knelt by the side of the pool. She stared into the water, as if trying to force herself to have a vision.
I wasn’t sure if it would work— she’d said before she couldn’t command visions to come to her. But the gods must’ve wanted to give Odette a message, because a blank look overcame her eyes, and her gaze flickered back and forth for a couple moments as she stared at the water’s surface. She blinked before she rose to her feet.
“Team Phantom,” she said. “We can save lives tonight.”
“But can we keep our own?” Stefan asked.
“I’m not sure. The vision wasn’t clear,” Odette said. “But we have the opportunity. It’s our choice if we take it. If we don’t fight, many more lives will be lost. The people need a beacon of hope— they’re looking for a hero. We need to give them one.”
The desperate cries of children being slaughtered outside the university gates welled in our ears. We all looked to Ethan for an answer. He was the original Phantom. This was his call.
“Everyone mask up,” he said. “If we can save one life, it’s worth the risk.”
