Page 75 of An Oath at Midnight

Failure wasn’t an option.

* * *

Bram

I gripped the railing, refusing to rub at the ache in my chest. No, I let it sink deeper. I’d done this to myself. I’d known she wasn’t ready, and I’d pushed for more anyway. I’d ruined everything.

Gritting my teeth, I dragged in a breath, then another, trying to calm the fuck down. It didn’t work. Nothing worked.

I didn’t know what to do with this feeling inside me. This violent twisting behind my ribs, the knives in my gut, the hammering in my skull—it was unbearable.

Magnolia was my everything, but right now, being with her was as painful as being parted from her.

The thud of boots on the deck came a moment before Payne grunted, then growled something under his breath. I turned to find him pacing, lips peeled back, fists clenched.

He’d been acting weird since yesterday. He glanced at his watch, again, something he’d been doing all day.

“What the hell is up with you?”

“Fuck.” He growled and planted his hands on his hips. “Fuck,” he said again. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“Just fucking follow me.” He looked at Talon and Rook. “You two as well.”

The three of us looked at each other, then at Payne’s retreating back.

Talon rolled his eyes. “Guess we’re following.”

I pushed away from the railing, strode the edge of the deck, and jumped to the ground after my brothers. Payne walked to the chain-link fence between us and the wide clearing that bordered the forest beyond it.

“Okay, we’re here,” I said to Payne, then stilled and tilted my head. Roars and howls, a fucking lot of them, echoed from the forest beyond the clearing.

“Something’s riled them up,” Talon said, walking up to the fence as well. He shaded his eyes and searched the tree line.

Payne’s jaw tightened, and he looked antsy as fuck. “You.” He pointed at me. “Stand here.”

“You having some kind of episode?” Talon asked our older brother.

Payne ignored him. “Here, Bram, now.”

I frowned and walked up to the spot my control-freak brother was pointing out, confused as hell.

The demons and other creatures in the forest grew louder, their howls and snarls filled with excitement, with hunger and rage. “What the hell’s making them lose their shit like that?”

Rook shifted, a look suddenly crossing his face like a lightbulb just switched on before his gaze sliced to Payne, then back at me.

“Why the fuck are we standing here?” Talon asked, sounding pissed and just as confused as I was.

The roars from the forest grew in volume. I’d never heard anything like it. I felt it in my chest, in my gut. Why the fuck was my heart racing?

Payne looked down at his watch.

“Payne?” Rook growled out.

Payne looked up and grabbed my shoulder in a bruising grip, then pointed to the edge of the forest. “Watch.”

There was a strange note to his voice that had every muscle in my body locking tight, that lifted goose bumps all over me. I turned, searching in the direction he pointed, when the creatures in the forest lost their shit to a whole new fucking level.