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The first creature screamed again, shoving her shoulder through the narrow gap of the corridor window and twisting madly to make headway. Bones cracked. The scent of blood filled the air. She was breaking her own body just to get inside.
“Go!” Dex ordered. He grabbed Gwyneira, moving her ahead of him as he retreated. “Stay away from the windows!”
“They’re the Voidborn, aren’t they?” Niko cried. “They’ve possessed those creatures like they did Lord Thomas’s people.”
“Fucking monsters is what they are,” Clay snapped back.
I snarled at the description, and Ozias’s eyes darted to me. I fought to keep from baring the fangs I didn’t have.
Yet.
“They’re harpies,” Byron called. “I think.”
“Harpies?” Niko threw him an alarmed and confused look.
“Those are myths!” Lars sounded incredulous too.
Casimir made a sound so wry, it practically could have come from Clay. “Rather like that lovely dragon in the Wild Lands, yes?”
Grim looks crossed the other men’s faces, and I gritted my teeth, holding back another snarl. Gods only knew how or why that enormous beast had burst from the depths of a mountain in the Wild Lands, but the demon had known it was there. I’d felt the beast stirring deep beneath the dirt and stone even before Ozias had picked up on it.
And damn if that didn’t scare the shit out of me.
I shook my head hard, my thoughts blurring so much, it was difficult to even see the hallway.
Except, no, now we were on stairs instead.
And now we were in the hall again, but on a different floor. Servants were running ahead of us, all of them moving like they knew where they were going, even if I didn’t have a clue. But Lord Thomas had probably put plans in place for if the castle came under attack. The servants were just following them.
They were fools. We could fix this.
We’d kill them all.
I gasped. Cold sweat clung to my skin. I was hanging onto the demon with everything I had, but with each passing step, it felt like the monster inside me grew larger. Stronger.
“—then use whatever you can find, dammit!”
The lord’s voice came from beyond the corner of the hall, and I staggered to a stop at the sound. The humans were a threat to my mate. They needed to die.
No, we couldn’t kill them. The princess wouldn’t want us to?—
“Roan.” Gwyneira suddenly appeared in front of me. In the blur of fire and darkness that was crowding my vision, she shone like a star, the one bright spot in my world.
Anguish choked me. I didn’t want to kill her. Gods help me, I was losing control, but I didn’t want to?—
She put her hand to my cheek.
Everything went still. The demon. Me. The whole damn universe froze like a crystalline moment of perfection at the heart of winter.
“Breathe,” she urged me, and her voice was the only thing I could hear in the world. “Whatever it is, just breathe, okay? We’re going to be all right.”
Air entered my lungs on her command.
A smile crossed her face. “Good.”
She lowered her hand, looking back at the others.
I blinked, dazed. My friends were staring at us. Most looked confused.
