Page 109 of Cursed Shadows 5

The strangers are litalves.

Light males dressed head to toe in black.

My hand starts to lower, the plum on a gradual decline to my side.

They strangers are moving for the lane.

Their muscles ripple with the silent, deadly turns of their bodies, and—

My heart slingshots into my throat.

Their waistbands carry the gleam of weapon belts.

Before the panic can settle or surge, I stagger off the ledge. The plum hits the cobblestone, and I leave it behind for the parade.

I shove my way into the crowd.

22

††††††

A strangled shout rips through me. “Eamon!Eamonnn!”

I call out for him again, and again, each cry more strangled than the last as I barge and duck and push my way through the street.

But the shouts are useless.

Between the bangs of the drums, the thrums of strings, the songs flooding the air, the shouts and cries—my own pitiful voice is silenced.

My shoving is violent now. I smack and shoulder and barrel into everyone in my way.

I duck under arms and jump up to look over too-tall heads; but I am not near the edge, yet.

The sharp strike of an elbow hits my spine.

The force of the barging is enough to stagger me into the female in my path, and I grunt at the impact.

The female whirls around to glare at me.

Niamh.

She blinks, a twist to her mouth, the recognition starting to soften her glare. “Narcissa—”

“Not now!” I start and shove by her, my shoulder hitting hers, hard, and staggers her back. “Eamonnn!”

Her hiss is fast swallowed by the sudden explosion of sparks in the dark.

I jerk back, my spine colliding with the snarl of another fae, but my gaze is fixed above, bursts of sparks alighting the dark skies.

It’s loud.

Deafening.

Even when I get to the edge of the parade, there is no way either Daxeel or Eamon will hear me over the crackling above.

The panic is clawing through me.

I smack the shoulder of the male ahead of me. His kind eyes turn on me, the joy of the festival a lazy grin on his mouth.

---