Page 126 of Ashen Wings

With a rasping inhale, the lurker’s outline crawls on gangly limbs out of sight. Is it…toying with us? Its movements feel deliberate like it’s herding us into its snare.

“Yeah, let’s get the fuck out of here.” Isra takes Saphine’s hand and bolts for the door. I nod, but my legs refuse to move, like time itself clings to me—thick and viscid.

Those voidless black eyes come back to me in spouts of memory. The cosmic truth in its gaze, black sludge pouring down its petrified skin. The shredding sound of skin. The groans and wails of the others. My lungs burst, but I can’t breathe. I’m trapped in the memory, pinned somewhere between terror and panic.

“Nova,” Jace urges. “Starling, look at me.”

I force my eyes to his and the world blurs at the edges.

“Stay with me.” He cups my jaw, steady but gentle, like he’s afraid I’ll splinter under his touch. The subtle octave panic in his voice cuts through the fog long enough for my next breath to claw its way in.

Behind him, the hallway shudders.

Jace’s fingers slide to the back of my neck. “Move, Nova.” Not a request, a solid, dagger-sharp command.

Then I hear it. The low, sickly moans of many. My stomach lodges in my throat.

We’re so fucked.

The air dips again, heavy and slow. Without a beat, Jace pulls me into his chest, hooking his arms under my knees. I tuck into the crook of his neck and we fly to the door.

His warmth is a betrayal of its own—comfort in a moment I should feel nothing but terror. My chest flurries with contradictions. Even amidst the unknown, he feels safe, grounding.

Fuck, he feels like home.

What a dangerous thought to have when we’re actively running for our lives.

When the frosted air hits me, I scan our surroundings. The marshy landscape, now glazed in shadows, welcomes us like an old friend. At least we’ve made it over the border, but with demons nipping at our heels, the relief is short-lived.

“Tenebris and Sera will meet us at the tree line. They’re two minutes out,” Jace says. “Once we get high enough they can’t reach us, remember, Nova? We’re almost there.”

“How the fuck did the ward break?” If the ward is down, then no one is safe. The whole damned continent could be infested with these things by now. Fuck, we need to move and fast. There’s no time for a warring body and mind, or earth-shattering terror.

There’s no time to be a fucking baby.

I swallow the raging, paralyzing fear as best I can and lock in, becoming the monster Finnick taught me to be.

“I don’t know, but we need to get Saphine to the egg. Once the guardian bond sets into place, hopefully these things will crawl back to wherever they came from,” he says, his breath ragged.

The tree line is so close, three hundred feet or so from our position. We can make it. We’re nearly there. We just need to keep moving, keep running.

We can make it.

No, we will make it. There’s no option outside of survival.

Jace’s boots skid through the muck and we screech to a halt.

“Fuck…” he growls.

Panic shreds my vocal cords when a lurker crawls into view—its limbs bending at inhuman angles. Vertebrae snap one by one as it forces itself upright. Then there’s another. Then another. And another.

The creatures pour from each sliver of shadow in the woods to our left, and flank us slowly until we’re surrounded. There’s too many to count, just a sea of greyish, papery flesh separating us from safety.

Jace sets me on the ground, his chest heaving. “Get to the marsh. Tenebris and Sera will be there.”

“You’re a fool if you think I’m leaving you.” Terror anchors me, but so does something I haven’t yet allowed myself to name…something like love.

“Nova, please just do as I say.” He brushes his thumb over my cheek. The plea in his tone slices me open, it’s the first crack I’ve heard in his armor, and gods above it hurts to hear it right now.