Page 37 of Night Fae
Malik didn't like where this was going.
Darius stepped forward. "We've been wondering. What happens when something like you touches one of these?"
Malik didn't want to find out. "No."
"You misunderstand, dear." Lady Morvena's smile was almost maternal. "I'm not asking."
"You promised Zev my safety," Malik pointed out.
"Don't worry. You'll survive." At a signal from Darius, a guard grabbed Malik's wrist. Another seized his shoulder, locking him in place. They began to drag him toward the excavated pit.
"Stop!" Malik struggled against their grip. "You don't know what will happen!"
"That's precisely the point," Lady Morvena said, following at a leisurely pace. "We want to know."
The guards forced him down the wooden stairs built into the side of the pit. Panic surged through Malik as the cold emanating from the darkness touched his skin.
He fought harder, desperation lending him strength, but the guards were implacable.
Malik cursed.
If only he had more strength.
Or more skill points in persuasion.
But he didn't, and the guards thrust his arm toward the darkness that pooled at the bottom of the excavation.
"Please," Malik gasped.
Lady Morvena just watched from the edge of the pit, head tilted with interest.
His fingers breached the edge of the shadow path.
A hot sensation exploded through Malik's hand, racing up his arm, tearing through his body. He might have screamed—hecouldn't tell. The world dissolved around him, reality shredding like confetti.
And then he wasn't there anymore.
He was somewhere else.
Everywhereelse.
The visions came like hammer blows. Daniel and Caelen in a vast room, arguing over maps spread across a table.
Adrian and Knox near a lake, laughing with each other.
Lyrian shouting at an older Siren whose voice made the water around them boil.
Jamie—in his bookstore?
And then?—
Zev.
Standing in a forest brighter than the one Malik had just left. His face was expressionless. Blood dripped from the knife in his hand.
At his feet lay the bodies of two werewolves. Their throats had been cut.
The vision shifted again. Zev kneeling in darkness, whispering to shadowy tendrils that reached for him like lover's fingers. The same tendrils that now wrapped around Malik's consciousness, hungry and curious.
