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“Jude,” I hissed, alarm distorting my voice. “What do we do?”
I hadn’t the faintest idea of how to stop these things. They weren’t human—or at least, not anymore. Their flesh was decayed andmissingin some places. One of the men appeared to be lacking half of his face, ivory bone poking out beneath a flap of what used to be skin.
Jude had yet to speak. I shook him, his solid frame not budging an inch. “Jude!” I whisper-hissed, my heart racing, my blood icy. “Talk to me!”
The commander’s face was frozen, apathetic, and calculating.
“Jude—”
“We wait,” he cut me off. “There is no other option I can see that doesn’t end with us right alongside them.”
My head swiveled back to my friends, my nails digging into the dirt. I wanted to scream, to slice some throats, to dosomething. But Jude was right, and I despised that even more.
The snarling and hissing ceased.
As did my heartbeat.
Raising his spindly hands to the sky, his steel eyes cast to the overly bright moon, the leader took a step in the direction of my friends. Lined up in a straight row, they quivered beneath the beast’s glare. Jake was close to losing his mind entirely, his mouth going slack and beads of sweat coating his forehead. I could see him trembling from the top of the hill.
The leader sauntered over to Patrick, who refused to lower his head. I was proud of him at that moment, knowing full well how terrified I would be if I were in a similar position. But Patrick showed no fear, his stocky frame still and his curly head raised.
I held my breath as the leader placed a gloved hand atop Patrick’s head.
I’d burn them all to the ground if—
The leader snarled in what sounded like disgust before releasing him with a shove, moving on. I sighed in relief, but that was short-lived.
The next in line was Jake, who shook violently as the beast clutched his head. I heard distant whimpers, ones I knew emerged from the deepest parts of my new friend. The desire to wrap him in my arms consumed me. Yet, just as he had done with Patrick, the leader freed Jake—though not as venomously—and turned to Alec.
He was just as defiant as Patrick, just as stoic. Alec allowed the beast to touch his forehead and didn’t flinch when those lean fingers gripped his blond strands.
While he’d been raised by the ruthless people of the north, Alec didn’t possess their hardened hearts. He’d known monsters existed, and gods knew what he’d endured while living among the warriors of the Rine.
And now, his throat bobbed as he met the gaze of one of the most gruesome monsters I’d ever seen. He lifted his head, almost daring the beast to attack, his green eyes narrowed in challenge.
My stomach churned. The leader was pausing, holding onto Alec far longer than the others…
I stopped breathing entirely as another howl escaped the creature’s sharp mouth, his hundreds of overlapping teeth glistening in the moonlight.
No.
I wasn’t given a second to react, not as the other beasts howled and shrieked. Not as the leader unhinged his jaw farther and pierced his jagged teeth through Alec’s flesh. I didn’t move as blood gushed from his neck, a silent cry trapped on his lips.
His green eyes flashed silver as he was torn apart, his muscles and skin shredded like ribbons. Still he never released that scream, didn’t give the beast the satisfaction. His clenched fists were the only sign of his agony, his knuckles so white I could see them from where we hid.
Jude’s grip was unrelenting as he held me in place. He thought I was going to run down there and try to stop this, but what he didn’t know was that I physically couldn’t move, even if I wanted to. And gods, how I wanted to.
I wanted Alec to call me his friend. I wanted that time to learn about him and his life, and I wanted him to know that he wasn’t alone. Not anymore.
But I would never get the chance now. And he’d never forge his own path.
I was helpless as I witnessed the beast grip Alec’s neck, drinking his fill and draining his body. The other masked men grunted and shouted their approval, taking small steps closer to their leader.
Alec was barely hanging on, his handsome face contorting in unimaginable pain. My hands tingled, and I curled them into tight fists, my jaw clenched so hard I feared it would shatter. When the creature released my friend’s throat and raised his head toward the moon, a wave of nausea struck me.
The leader, thatthing, held Alec’s vocal cords between his teeth.
Alec’s lifeless body tumbled to the dirt, his unseeing eyes cast to the heavens, to the stars that watched his demise.
