Page 83 of Venomous Lies
His pale eyes were focused on the forest.
“Do you sense anything?” Julian questioned.
“No,” Bones replied softly. “But she’s alive, that much I can tell.”
“Anything else?”
Bones was about to answer when a hum of magick filled the air. My mouth immediately dried, lips parted in shock when a rush of pain, fear, and dread teased along my body. Bricriu and Julian hissed in pain, then the world went dark.
An unnatural night had taken over. I closed my eyes, bathing in the screams I could hear in the distance as that feeling of dread spilled over the campus like a dome.
“What the hell?” Julian muttered from somewhere in the darkness. “I can’t see.”
“You wouldn’t be able to,” Bricriu stated, calm and unbothered for the moment. “It’s Unseelie magick.”
“It has been a while since I’ve felt this,” I commented, trying to keep my voice even. “But the real question is, why is someone here doing this?”
Before we could speculate further, a keening wail made everything freeze. My body, my mind… I had never once felt like prey until that very moment.
Fight or flight was a human response… yet this thing inspired it inme.
Whatever the hell that was… was new.
The keening wail transformed into a howl, then a scream. There was no pain in that sound now, no anger… Just hunger.
“What was that?” Bricriu asked.
“We’re going to find out,” Julian answered, somehow keeping his voice even. “We need to try to protect the students.”
“How the fuck are we going to do that in this?” I asked, waving around at the suffocating darkness even though he couldn’t see it.
“Figure it out. Let’s go.”
I grumbled until screams of panic sounded from somewhere nearby, followed by Falke yelling at them to get inside the buildings.
“I’ll go to Falke and provide back up.”
Not waiting for a response, I carefully made my way toward the sounds of fighting.
No… No. This can’t be happening.
Calm down. It has to be someone else.
Of course it’s someone else.
Anyone else.
“Kian! Where are you?”
“Ambrose!” Falke roared, then I heard the clattering of hooves against the stone of the steps. “Is that you?”
“Obviously,” I replied dryly, dodging out of his way as he fought whatever was near him. “Where are the students?”
“I told them to go into the buildings..”
“That won’t help,” I informed him grimly. “I’ve faced this before, and there is no hiding from it.”
“What are you talking about? It’s not the time for riddles.”
