Page 188 of Villainous Intent

God, I was pathetic. I was thinking about his eyes while he had probably compartmentalized me into the past already. A data point with no relevance now.

I froze mid-thought as a familiar sensation crawled up my spine, that unmistakable awareness that prickled across my skin whenever a Trueborn super was nearby. It wasn’t anyone I knew.

The curtains billowed again, and I stifled a scream as they revealed the silhouette of a stranger against the moonlight, tall, broad-shouldered, and utterly still. I scrambled backward across my bed until my back hit the headboard.

Something was wrong with the shadows. They stretched across my floor, elongating toward my bed like grasping fingers. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe as the darkness itself reached for me.

The figure stepped into my room. I couldn’t see anything except for his eyes, glowing red like embers in the darkness, casting a sinister crimson light across what little I could see of his face.

“Annie Bishop,” he said, his voice so soft, so safe sounding. “The last Warden.”

“Who are you?” I managed to ask, hating how my voice trembled.

The red eyes narrowed slightly, and the shadows pulse around him, as if they were extensions of his body, living, breathing darkness.

“Someone who’s been looking for you.”

My eyes strained in the darkness, gradually adjusting until the shadowy figure became clearer. The red glow from his eyes cast enough light that I could finally make out his features. The sharp angles of his face, the cruel set of his mouth.

Dread.

Everything about him felt wrong. The way the shadows clung to him, moved with him. The unnatural stillness when he breathed.

And something else, that unmistakable signature of a Trueborn that I could sense. Yet he wasn’t registered as one. The League database listed him as serum-enhanced.

“You’re the one who stole the Tinkerer’s Hammer,” I whispered.

His eyes widened slightly, the red glow intensifying for a moment before settling back to its eerie, steady burn.

“Does that matter right now?” he asked, his voice still unnervingly gentle.

I pressed my back harder against the headboard, wishing I could melt through it. “What do you want?” I demanded, trying to sound brave while my heart beat wildly.

He took another step forward, and the shadows around his feet rippled across my bedroom floor. “For you to join Reeves,” he said simply. “Eventually.”

I fought to keep my breathing steady as Dread moved closer, each step bringing the living shadows with him.

“I didn’t get the luxury of testing Reeves. The old man needed to die quickly. But now...” His red eyes gleamed brighter and a cruel smile spread across his face. “Now that I have you in my possession, I have all the time in the world.”

My mind raced through options, none of them good. I couldn’t overpower him. Couldn’t outrun him. But I’d be damned if I’d just sit there and let him take me.

I launched myself off the bed and hit the floor running. The door was only a few steps away, if I could just reach it⁠—

I crashed to the floor as something cold wrapped around my ankle, yanking me backward. The shadows themselves had grabbed me, cold as ice.

They shouldn’t have been able to touch me, not really. Maybe they technically weren’t, but they hovered over my skin, close enough that the difference between touching me and not it didn’t matter.

I kicked and thrashed as Dread dragged me across the floor, the darkness coiling around my legs, my waist, my arms. The shadows slithered over my mouth, hovering and muffling any sound I tried to make.

“Such spirit,” Dread murmured, hauling me to my feet. “Reeves trembled and begged. This will be much more entertaining.”

He dragged me toward the balcony and I fought against his grip, but the shadows only tightened, constricting around me until I could barely breathe.

At the balcony’s edge, Dread pulled me against his chest, one arm locked around my waist. The shadows retreated from my face, allowing me to gasp for air.

“Let’s see what you’re made of, Warden,” he whispered against my ear. Then we were flying, the lights of Chroma Bay spreading out below us as Dread carried me away into the darkness.

“Let me go!” I gasped.