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Clinging to Rowan as I took it all in, I felt so complete. Surrounded by friends and my budding family, gathered to celebrate our wonderful town, everything was perfect.
The bond inside my chest was overwhelmed with adoration and fondness, and I was glad to see how excited Rowan was to be there. Despite the occasional staring, he was handling it well, and I was proud of him.
I knew it wasn’t easy for him to face everyone in Rose Valley after what happened, but he didn’t fuss or bail on me, and that meant a lot. He really was determined to make the most of things, even if it wasn’t ideal.
The winners were being announced when I felt Rowan’s arms drape around me, holding me close to his chest. I leaned back and soaked in the subtle affection, so blindly attached to him that I had surprised even myself.
It was almost euphoric just to have our skin touch, thanks to the fated mate bond, and I couldn’t get enough of it. He was on his way to being my first real, genuine love, and I never would’ve imagined myself in that situation even six months prior.
When the kids found their parents and River and some others were preparing the pumpkin launch, something felt odd.
A weird sensation crawled across my skin and made every hair on my body stand on end. Chills ran through me, and I couldn’t tell if it had dropped several degrees or if I was in the middle of sensing something.
Looking up, I found Hayley in the crowd, looking just as perturbed as me. The same went for Alora, Sara, and all our coven sisters.
There was no missing it then, as the air itself seemed to change. Even the shifters started looking around, and a slight murmuring carried through the meadow.
Like there had been a sudden change in weather, the sun was blotted out by thick clouds that got darker and more ominous looking. A sharp chill made me shiver, and every nerve I had stood on end.
Rowan’s hold on me tightened into a defensive one, and he tensed against me. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” I said, glancing around nervously while everyone around us did the same. “But something’s wrong.”
The wind picked up and rushed in all different directions until it formed a cyclone in the middle of what had been the racetrack. Everyone held their things to them and attempted to shield their loved ones from whatever was coming.
It grew stronger and stronger as it whistled, and that darkness settled in. Chilled to the bone, everyone froze in their places and tried to get through whatever phenomenon was unfolding around us.
Then, a familiar figure appeared at the center of that funnel. Dark, haunting, and so sinister you could feel it even from afar.
Rowan growled from behind me, and some others joined, baring their teeth at it.
My skin went completely cold, and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even warn anyone. I was trapped in my place and forced to collide with that realization over and over again.
It was the same one from my vision.
The figure seemed to float in mid-air as the wind circled her legs, lips twisting into a black smear of a smirk. Skin grey like she was sickly, it seemed impossible to tell exactly what she was or how it was even possible.
Her equally dark hair almost had a mind of its own as it hovered around her in black tendrils, reminiscent of Medusa and her snakes. With a mysterious and intimidating beauty about her, the raw, blood-chilling edge she had was enough to make the former redundant.
She felt like evil incarnate, and it only made me wish I could do more about it than stand there and gawk.
While everyone else pulled back, confused and afraid for what was to come, Kai stepped forward and stood his ground.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” He asked, voice firm and domineering. His eyes changed colors, and his fangs elongated into a partial shift.
A distant, hollow chuckle moved everywhere around us at once, and it felt like a taunt—a brief show of unfathomable power outside of anything we possessed.
Her eyes turned black from top to bottom, and her wide, threatening smile stretched nearly the width of her face, exposing sharp, jagged teeth. Her features kept changing in quick, rapid movements like they couldn’t decide what they wanted to be until she settled on that horrifying smile again.
Her energy felt almost demonic, like pure evil incarnate. It made me wonder if that was exactly it.
“My name is Keres,” she began, voice echoing in the most impossible way. Her body flickered and vanished in an instant, gone so fast that nobody could have anticipated it. To our left, she appeared even higher in the sky. “I am older than every lifetime spent on this soil; vaster than the galaxy you inhabit. Stronger than bone and deadlier than disease. I am nowhere, yet everywhere at once.”
She moved again, popping up in the grass, a mere two inches away from Kai, with her smile spreading. “I am the soothing voice you hear before your last breath and the vulture that feeds on your corpse after you are long dead.”
Before Kai could lunge at her, Keres flickered away with a ghoulish, terrifying cackle.
Panic rose in the crowd of people, all desperate to leave, yet unable to move a muscle.
