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Bryn knew what that meant before anyone else did.
Everyone in the group in front of her stopped listening to Daran as he yelled to shoot her. Instead, they focused on what the horns meant, turning like mindless creatures sharing a brain cell as they looked to where the gate stood just behind them.
“Here comes the minions of your god,” Danu yelled over the deafening sound of the horns. “Now you reap what you’ve sown!”
The wraiths were here.
Chapter 43
Theskywasdarkening,the small amounts of light the sun was putting off as the rays broke over the horizon were lost to the cloud of darkness rolling in.
It was not another sandstorm, though. Instead, it was the very evil that Daran had just accused her of being. The people of Ifreann were about to learn the truth of their savior’s lies in the worst way.
“Wraiths?” Jace whispered from behind her, and she nodded.
Daran and Arioch had finally stopped biting and clawing their way to Bryn, only to end up pushed back by a bullet or three. Turning away from her with the promise they’d finish Bryn and her friends off once they dealt with the reason for the horns, they too looked toward the black cloud of death coming toward the town.
Bryn was quick to move to Saints’ Road, her boots throwing up sand as she skittered to a halt, the gate several buildings down from her, the black cloud behind it ominous.
She watched as the sentries along the wall aimed their guns, firing down on the wraiths. The bullets did nothing to penetrate the cloud of black-cloaked bodies moving in far too quickly. Bryn could barely make them out, the veil of darkness keeping them covered until they struck out, only to disappear back into the darkness again.
All too soon the firing of the guns turned to the screams of the men as they died at the hands of the wraiths.
Bryn watched, gripping her knife as the black cloud overtook the metal and wood structure that was their gate.
Please, Travis. Please have gotten out of there in time.
Kian appeared next to her, his silver eyes on the incoming darkness, before turning quickly to Bryn as the wraiths took the form of humans cloaked all in black. An army of darkness on her doorstep.
“They are not natural, so they cannot be killed naturally. Remember what I am telling you. They are soulless and can kill without striking a mortal wound by taking a person’s soul if you look into their eyes. They are called Sluaghs, and the only way to kill them is to behead the mortal body they’ve stolen. The only way to get them immobilized enough to take their head is to strike the king’s brand on their forehead, but you have to be quick.”
“I will,” she responded, Kian’s eyes staying on her as if trying to recall something. “I’ll stay alive. I promise if I am to die, it will be at your hand, not theirs.”
The smile that crossed Kian’s face gave her the boost she needed to stand before enemies that would tear her apart.
A hand softly touched her shoulder, and Bryn turned to look into the glowing gold eyes of Danu. There was something ancient in them as she whispered words to Bryn that made no sense until some part of her mind translated them.
“Call for their deaths, child.” And with that, Danu was gone. Disappearing into the wind as if she had never stood before Bryn at all.
Justin was running through the streets, just as he had in her vision, yelling for people to get inside before making his way back to where the truck was.
The itch Bryn knew meant a vision was coming started in the back of her mind again, but so much worse than before. The predator inside her danced beneath her skin, singing the song of war, ready to be released on the threat in front of them.
“Bryn!” Declan grabbed her arm, swinging her around to face him. “Get to the truck!”
Screams were at a deafening decibel as the men that only moments ago had held a gun pointed at her, were running toward the assassins, and literally being torn apart.
The only ones actually faring well in the fight, if that was possible, were Arioch and Daran in their beastly forms. They tore apart wraith after wraith, clouds of dust falling where the wraith had been.
Bile rose in her throat. The predator from before being lost to Bryn’s human revulsion at the macabre scene before her.
“They are here for us! We can’t let them kill everyone who stands between us and them!” Jace yelled from where he stood near the alleyway Bryn had just run through.
“He’s right.” Bryn looked up at Declan as she said this.
“There are too many.” Declan grabbed at her again, but her hands pushed his away.
She should be here, but deep down, she knew only coming into her powers so recently did not mean she was ready for battle and war.
