Page 103 of Slayer

Shadows spilled from the walls and ceiling, crawling closer as my mother turned her back on me.

“Get me out of here!” I screamed.

“Uh-oh.” Emilie laughed as the shadows wrapped around my throat. I collapsed, choking, the world dimming.

Stay strong, Stella.

Asher’s voice echoed faintly in my mind, but I couldn’t breathe.

Then pain exploded across my cheek.

I gasped and snapped back into my body and into the room, lungs burning. Akari was bent over me with shaking hands as black shadows danced across the ceiling above us and then retreated into nothingness.

She stared around the room, panting, terror written across her face.

Her eyes were back to their normal color, but she was looking at a rune on the top of my arm near my bicep-shoulder area with trepidation.

“I shouldn’t have asked you to keep going,” she said with fear in her voice.

I peered down at my arm and gasped. The entire thing was covered from wrist to shoulder. I counted them all.

Eight. Eight hunter runes. I peered at the one she was staring at. It was at the very top, the last rune she’d tattooed, and it wasn’t like the others. I couldn’t yet read runes, so it was hard to say what was different about it. The lines were sharper, more sinister. It looked like a star had exploded or a phoenix was rising from the ashes.

She pulled the cap of my sleeve down to cover it as she stepped away from me. “I…think we should hide that for now.”

“Why? What does it mean?”

She looked around the room as if expecting more shadows.

“Are you okay, Stella? I thought I was going to lose you. You turned blue and…”

I reached up to rub my throat, taking in a deep breath. “I’m okay.” I wasn’t sure what to say. Yeah, maybe we should have stopped at six. I wanted to be the best of the best. I was an A student and an overachiever. And I’d almost gotten killed by a vision.

“I need to lie down. I don’t feel well, to be honest. That took a lot out of me. Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked me.

Now that I looked at her, I noticed the sweat on her upper lip, and her hair was damp as if she’d just run a marathon. I hadn’t thought of what this cost her until now.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Go lie down,” I told her.

She stood, and I got up as well, swaying on my feet a little.

My mind was spinning with everything that I’d just experienced. The dark thoughts, the vision of my mother helping the vampires. It wasn’t real, right?

“What the Veil Stone shows us…isn’t real, right?” I asked her as we made it to the door.

She seemed to consider my words. “The Veil Stone doesn’t make anything up. It shows you what’s already there. It’s real to us.”

It was very real to me. But that wasn’t what I meant. Still, I didn’t have the energy to clarify, and she didn’t look like she did either.

No one will love you. Your mother is helping the vampires. Asher is just using you. The thoughts I’d had while in that chair lingered, and I suddenly felt so alone.

We reached the door that led back to the waiting room, and Akari stopped me. “Don’t show people that top rune unless you trust them, okay?”

I frowned. “What do you mean? Like hide it? Why? What does it mean?”

She chewed her lip. “Just cover it for now. Okay?”

She looked…afraid.