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When I turned my head toward the window, a dark shadow loomed over me.
My heart leaped into my throat. Before I could scream, the dark shadow moved, the face becoming visible in the dim light that came from the hallway where I’d left on a light for Emmie.
It was one of the security guards that patrolled the grounds all the time. He stood close to my bed and pressed one finger to his lips to tell me to be quiet.
“What is it?” I breathed, almost inaudible.
The shifters could hear better than my human ears could, and I knew despite how silent my question was, he’d heard it.
He didn’t answer me. He only shook his head and turned back to the door. He crouched a little, knees bent, as if he was waiting for something—waiting for a fight.
I sat up in bed.
Where was Emmie? I started to get up, but the security guard held out a hand for me not to move.
It took everything in my power to do what he said and not jump up and run to my daughter’s room.
Somewhere outside, a low growl sounded. It was so low I barely registered it at first, until the growl turned into a snarl, and then a roar. It sounded like a tiger, but I couldn’t be sure. A panther? A wild cat? No, it had to be something bigger. The roar was followed by a very human scream, which cut off a moment later.
My blood turned to ice in my veins, and my heart thundered in my ears.
Somewhere else, two animals fought. I couldn’t tell by the growls, snarls, and yelps what animals they were, just that one moment there were two, and then it stopped, and I assumed there was only one left.
Which one?
The security guard in my room crept to the door. He moved so quietly, like a cat himself and with muscles in places where humans shouldn’t have had muscles. He was a shifter, too—all the guards that Wesley had left here were. I’d known they were when they’d arrived, of course. I’d seen the way they talked to each other, the way they shifted in and out of animal form like it was a second skin. After Wesley had left them, I’d been terrified of them until they’d reassured me they were here to help me and nothing else.
The last two days, I’d grown used to them, and I’d become calmer. I’d truly believed that having them here would save us.
Now, I wasn’t so sure anymore. The fighting came closer. It wasn’t just one fight here and another fight there. The growling and snarling and fighting could suddenly be heard all over, and the guard in my room didn’t try to keep it quiet anymore.
“To Emmie’s room,” he ordered. “Move fast, and don’t take anything with you.”
I didn’t have anything to take, and I wanted to get to my daughter. That was all I cared about.
I ran down the hallway that ran along the front of the rooms and into her room a door down from mine.
Another guard was with her. Emmie sat curled up in bed. She didn’t look half as terrified as I felt.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But we’re safe here.”
The two security guards stood at the door, blocking it so we were safe inside.
A shadow grew outside the window. The night was cover enough to hide, but the moon was full, and the shadow was outlined against the light curtains, showing off a monster with menacing teeth. My skin broke out in goosebumps as something pushed up against me and shivered down my spine.
Magic.
I’d never felt it before, not until I’d talked to Circe about what was going on and she’d told me about this world. I’d become more aware of it then, but this was incredible—a giant hand that shoved me and Emmie against the wall.
Neither of us could move, and for some reason, the guards still had their backs turned, facing down the hallway.
Couldn’t they feel it?
“The window!” I hissed to alert them.
One turned, but the shadow moved fast. It shattered the glass and ripped its way through the security bars as if they were straw. With a giant claw of something big and ugly—a dragon, I had to guess—the beast grabbed one guard and crushed him, slamming him against the wall before crushing the body like an empty can. I watched in horror as the guard’s eyes dimmed, the light going out of it.
