Page 45 of Veradel
I creep along the shadows at their backs, listening to their low mutters of confusion and shock with a smirk twisting my lips.
“What’sthat?”
“The Monster, obviously.”
“More like a hundred Monsters.”
Fifteen,I correct silently. Fifteen werewolves decided to form a distraction for me tonight, including Gabriel and some of the older ones. But I’m glad the fear of the unknown is already making these sentries exaggerate the threat in their minds.
Then one of them whispers something that wipes the smirk right off my face.
“Maybe it’s a bad omen for what we did.”
What did they do? I peer around at what I thought would be bedlam judging by what Lucan and I saw from the top of Eversnow Peak, but the streets are empty except for the sentries. No rioting citizens. No unrest. Just a ghostly stillness.
Mapping out the quickest way to the Healing Center in my mind, I choose the third alleyway to my left and zigzag through Xantera.
The more I walk, the more my worry builds.
Signs of a dead riot stain the city. Boarded windows, glass littering the ground beneath them. Splatters of blood that I have to avoid every handful of steps. Some buildings are nothing but a pile of ash. And the usual flags and statues of the Guardians that adorn major points throughout our society are either torn or crumbled.
Fuck. Malcolm, Walter, Gaia, Eleni, Claudia… Did they leave anyone alive? Or is this the beginning of another ghost town? My chest constricts, my slow heartbeat thudding like a drum against my ribcage.
Just as I reach the main street, I poke my head around the corner to see a Guardian, the Ninth, stalking through the night back and forth across the Blood Moon Palace courtyard.
The actual Guardians patrolling along with the sentries? Unheard of.
Breathing heavily, I time his steps and the sentries’ flanking him, watching their routine. But just when I think I’ve got it down, the Ninth Guardian snaps his neck in my direction.
I suck in a breath as I fly back into the alleyway, hoping like hell it was too dark to have seen me. But now I know just how sharp their eyesight truly is.
Turning on a heel, I choose a new path, eager to get off the street as soon as possible in case anyone chooses to investigate. Twisting through the night with a little extra speed, I’m finally here.
Not the Healing Center, but my old housing unit. I’m hoping against hope the detour won’t take more than a couple minutes. I just need to make sure Malcolm is still alive.
Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead,I pray, and I turn the unlocked knob.
The door squeaks open. Everything still sits in its usual place, only darker than I remember. No moonlight cuts through the shuttered window.
I search for the dim red light of the camera along the back wall but find nothing. Squinting, I see wires hanging from a rough hole in the wall where the camera used to sit. What happened here? Did Malcolm do that, or did a sentry? Or a Guardian? My blood runs cold when I realize that Arad might have come straight here to take his frustration out on my old partner immediately after I jumped off that Wall.
Curling my fingers into fists, I sneak across the room and open Malcolm’s bedroom door. It creaks slowly, echoing in the tiny space.
“Malcolm?” I whisper into the dark. The lump under the covers doesn’t move.
I tiptoe forward, dread filling my gut, knowing without a doubt that whatever lies under those covers isn’t alive. There’s no breathing, no heartbeat, no subtle movement.
“Malcolm,” I nearly cry, ripping the covers off, knowing I’ll find a dead body.
Instead, I’m blinking at a configuration of pillows—
Just as a large, grunting shadow charges at me from the dark corner with raised fists.
I shriek, my first instinct to cower starting to take over before I realize I don’t need to do that anymore. At the last second, I stand up straight, rooted to the floor.
“Malcolm, it’s me,” I say after he lands a punch to the side of my head that feels surprisingly like a subtle bump—and makes me feel incredibly stupid for thinking a vase would make any impact against Arad’s head.
I scrabble behind me and flip on the light.
