Page 66 of Claim the Twilight
Sin slashed and punched, taking to the air to get leverage on the beasts while Kaster used his celestial light to open bloody wounds across the cold ones’ bodies. Wounds that smoked and fizzed, eating away at them.
Nyx fell into fighting stance beside me.
“Good to see you, Nyx,” Lorenzo called out before backing up to give us room, palms up as he expelled pulses of magic to push back one of the monsters.
“Let him come, Lorenzo,” Nyx growled. “Orina and I have got this.”
Lorenzo released the beast, and it charged. Nyx and I held our ground. My thighs bunched, power gathering in my limbs as I held position until the right moment when Nyx and I stepped apart, letting the beast run through the gap between us. We turned toward one another and buried our blades into it, dragging our weapons along its flank to open it up.
The stench of sulphur and death filled the air, and green gloop spurted, hitting the ground.
Nyx and I traded grins, then turned our attention to the next beast.
As we stabbed and evaded, working together to wound and bring down the next creature, a strange pricking covered myskin, scalp crawling with a dawning sensation that this whole situation was wrong.
“What the fuck do these ugly fuckers want?” Nyx asked as we took down the next beast, leaving it flailing for Kaster to finish off.
A cold wave washed over me as a horrific realization dawned. Loviator needed supernatural souls.
Souls that were inside.
She’d lured us outside!
“This is a diversion!” I ran back toward the castle. “She’s going for the south wing. The other supes.”
I ran into the castle and up the stairs, ready to take a left toward the south wing when movement on the landing above and to my right caught my eye. A slender figure with long, flowing locks threaded with silver vanished around the bend.
My heart punched my rib cage. Loviator.
Loviator was here, and she wasn’t headed toward the south wing but toward the west wing.
An icy fist gripped my nape as realization dawned.
Loviator wasn’t here for supernatural souls; she was here for Hemlock.
Chapter 27
ORINA
Laughter echoed down the corridor where my and the guys’ rooms were located, but there was no sign of Loviator. I reached Hemlock’s bedroom door, Nyx hot on my heels, and ground to a halt when I found it open.
The bed was empty, sheets rumpled. No sign of Hemlock or Ezekiel. I took a step inside, stomach quivering as I worked to catch my breath.
Nyx hurried past me into the room, the bounty hunter in her falling straight into investigation mode, something I would be doing too if there wasn’t a band wrapped around my chest, squeezing so tightly it was impossible to move. “She took them…Loviator?—”
“There’s a guy over here,” Nyx said from the washroom.
“What?” My paralysis broke, and I dashed toward the washroom. Nyx stepped back to let me in, and my gaze fell to Ezekiel’s bloody, unconscious figure sprawled on the floor.
I fell to my knees beside him, dragging him half onto my lap. “Ezekiel!” I hugged him to me. “Ezekiel, please. Wake up.”
Nyx crouched and felt for a pulse. “He’s alive. Pulse is slow, though.”
I let out a ragged sob. “Oh god. Thank god.”
“He your guy?”
I stroked Ezekiel’s cheek. “Yes. He’s mine.” There was a slight growl to my voice, and Nyx stiffened. “Look at me, Orina.”
