Page 71 of Monsters Within (The Creatures We Crave 1)
With a nod, I fell in step with Kylo and Elwin and noted how Lucien stayed at my back like he was expecting someone to attack me. “What is going on?” I asked once more, hating the sinking feeling in my stomach.
Walking towards the back of the forest, we came upon Estrid, who immediately opened a glimmering portal. “Come, Alexandra. I need you to tell me if you recognize the intruder at our perimeter.”
“What? Why me?” I asked, struggling to keep up with this sudden change of events.
For once, Estrid’s typical soothing energy was gone, and the tight expression on her face made me clamp my lips shut and head through the portal as instructed. Walking through the other side, I saw a wall of thick fog in front of me and looked back as my monsters and Estrid came through.
“I would normally never involve students in the security of the academy, but I promise you they can’t get through this ward. The fog is only to obscure us from being seen, but there is a very powerful invisible barrier in place,” she assured me, placing her hands on my shoulders and taking a deep breath. “We have never felt an energy like this other than with you, but it is clear they are not cut from the same cloth as you, dear.”
She let go of my shoulders and waved a hand, clearing the fog from a large rectangular space in front of us, revealing a woman with long black hair kneeling on the ground, a hand pressed into the ground.
I let out a horrified gasp as I saw all of the plant life surrounding her dying. Black shadows swirled from her, and she seemed to pump it into the ground. Elwin let out a groan of pain and cried out, “She’s infecting it with a disease. It’s making me feel sick, sensing it all.”
Something in my mind clicked. Her shadows did seem like Elwin’s after he had sucked them out of someone, but Estrid said she had given off the same energy as I did, not Elwin.
None of this was making sense, and as the intruder's face snapped up, locking onto me, my power blasted through me instinctively, almost bringing me to my knees with the force. Estrid’s hand snapped out to steady me as I let out a strangled breath and swayed.
My hair came to life with my purple energy, floating around me, and I knew without looking I’d have shadows at my disposal and white eyes. I’d come across my fair share of opponents in such a short timeframe here, but never before had my power acted like this.
I begged for it to calm down as black dots littered my vision, and my body felt like it was beginning to burn from the inside as it had when Kylo held me in the shower.
“Hello, little curse. I see you finally got let out of the box,” she purred, standing up from the ground and running her eyes over me. “How delicious that hope inside of you must taste. Why don’t you come out here so I can sample it?”
“What do you want?” Estrid asked, her voice ringing out clear and full of authority, sending goosebumps over my body.
“I told my brethren that I would come see if the beacon we felt calling to us over the past few days was real,” she mused as she began to pace up and down her side of the barrier.
A tremble ran through me at her words, understanding clear as day that she was implying I was this beacon.
“You are not welcome at my academy,” Estrid challenged, stepping in front of me. “Leave at once before we’re forced to take action.”
I heard a sickening laugh that made my blood run cold. “Don’t get your feathers ruffled, goddess. This doesn’t concern you, and I won’t be staying anyways. I get to deliver the good news to my family that the hope we’ve been waiting to crush for good has appeared.”
It was like she was speaking in riddles, but as the power coiled back into my chest like a rubber band snapping back, I knew she had left, even without looking. I took in a deep breath, desperately needing oxygen to clear the dots from my vision.
Estrid turned around to face me, her expression grim with thin lips as she clasped her hands behind her back. “Alexandra, have you ever heard of Pandora’s box?”
