Page 96 of The Crown of Nyx

That’s what the thing in the hallways sounded like now. Each time it hit the stone, it matched the thundering of my heart. Wet smacks, over and over again, until something finally appeared in what once was an archway.

The stench of rotting flesh thickened the air. The breeze that had been coming off the water disappeared entirely, the air stilling.

“Zombie creature,” I whispered, eyes widening in horror.

Because there was literally no other way to describe the hulking, rottingthingwaiting to pounce. It was larger than Elias’s wolf, and not humanoid like the three shadow-creatures watching us. Nope, this thing looked like a giantrat. Large front teeth and all. It had no eyes, however, but rather maggots crawling from the sockets. And the wet smacking sound had been flesh literally falling off its body.

Oh, Nyx, I was gonna puke.

My stomach turned, and this time, I didn’t stop myself from covering my face with my hand. Even the others pulled their masks up with grimaces and shared, disgusted looks. Adrian moved in closer to my other side, his hand tightening around mine protectively.

The rotting, zombie-rat thing made a hissing, whining sound that made my blood run cold. And as it lowered itself on its haunches like it wanted to pounce, I strengthenedthe wards around us. Forget propelling this thing into the air, toasting it might be the only way to get rid of it.

From the corner of my eye, the shadow-creatures didn’t move. Not an inch. They watched, but they appeared to have no intention of helping—either it or us.

When the rat pounced, I tightened my hold on our protective shield. The team lifted their weapons, but they held their formation around me. The shield was alight with violet lightening, and it crackled across the surface of the bubble. As soon as the rat-zombie hit the shield, it made an even louder whining sound.

Flesh fell right off the bone, the stench of death quickly replaced with the odour of burning meat. And yet, it didn’t stop the creature at all. It tried to dig claws into my shield, attempted to sink its rotten teeth into it, but with each attempt, more of its body fell away.

“This is just sickening,” I muttered. “Can I please just—get rid of it?”

“If you don’t, I will,” Orion said, glancing back at me with a grimace. “That’s so fucking?—”

“Gross?” Adrian finished, gagging as he did.

Cringing, I lifted my palm, which intensified the power of the shield. From the sky, I let my lightning free.

A strike of purple light hit the zombie-rat, throwing it off the bubble entirely. It hit one of the other walls with a loud thud, the hit powerful enough that the already weakened stone crumbled from the force, taking the zombie-rat with it. There was no way to tell if it was actually dead or not.

For a moment, beside the rumble of thunder, there was no other sound in the ruins. No wet flesh hitting the ground or hissing from the creature. No scraping of metal against stone?—

“The rat couldn’t have made the scraping sound,” I whispered, searching the darkness for the source. “It couldn’t have.”

Behind me, Elias cursed. Rowan raised both his daggers, and Adrian had his charmed blades at the ready. Shadows sliced through the air from Orion, and Hawk’s wings stretched out behind him as he widened his stance. Damon’s death magic whipped out from him, and Maeve palmed her own gun.

The shadow-creatures on the walls moved, fast like smoke, disappearing from my view. I searched the walls around us, craning my head for any sign of them—or anything else.

“Not a zombie,” Adrian said, shoulder bumping mine.

I followed his gaze and sucked in a sharp breath.

Definitely not zombies. But not regular creatures either.

Monsters.

39

Ivy

There were three creatures in the hallway across from me. The ones Adrian alerted me to.

But as soon as they appeared, more did too, trapping us in the centre of the ruins. I had a feeling if we tried the trap door at our back, we would find more of them. They reeked of that unfamiliar, different magic.

They were inhuman in appearance. The three shadow-creatures were now positioned on the ground around the room. And with them were other things from the gothic world. Werewolves—not the shifter kind like Elias, but rather, the ones from gothic horror movies—took up positions around the room. They were at least seven-foot-tall standing on their hind legs, with claws that gleamed silver and razor-sharp teeth dripping with saliva.

But that wasn’t all. Screw trying to fly out of here, because there were winged creatures perched on the tops of the walls. They looked almost like the gargoyles that protected the academy.

I was pretty sure there was a sea-creature looking thing with tentacles and green skin, but those monsters were shrouded in darkness.

---