Red eyes glowed through the darkness. Patchwork faces opened their mouths, displaying bloodied daggered teeth. Shrill roars cried out into the icy night while mist billowed from their lips. Hundreds of monsters lined up at the edge of the forest, growling and shrieking with war cries and stomping their feet in a terrifying beat.
Fear sat on my chest like barbells, pressing my feet into the earth. Strighoul.
Two stood in front of me, one whose broken front teeth gave his ghoulish appearance an even more alarming cast. He settled a step behind the other and bounced on his toes like he wanted to inch forward and take the lead. I knew the man in charge. He had been close to tasting my flesh once before.
Hovek.
Still dressed in a faux fur vest with a worn long-sleeved shirt, Bermuda shorts, and cowboy boots, he took the role of leader with a smug grin.
“Come out, come out,” Hovek taunted, his red irises burning right through me. He snapped his fingers at the toothless strighoul. “This one may not give us much power, but we will enjoy her just the same.”
It took me a moment to see Toothless was gripping a person. Her stout but short frame stumbled forward as he yanked her in front of him. A gasp caught in my throat.
“Marguerite!” I screamed and lurched toward the woman. Her silvering hair was neatly styled, and her normal smock was replaced with a flowery dress, long coat, and small-heeled shoes. Her Sunday outfit.
Stuck deep in the mud, I couldn’t budge to move near the woman we had all grown to love like a grandmother.
Her face was set in an angry line, and her eyes glared up defiantly at the strighoul.
“If you harm her in any way.” A deep voice rang out behind me, and I twisted to look. “I will personally see every one of you gutted, drawn, and burned alive.”
Tall, broad, and sexy, with jet-black hair, olive skin, and eyes black as night, Lars took a step toward the border of his property. Rimmon and Goran were right behind him. Normally his irises were an intense yellow-green color, which could pierce you with a glance, and have you on your knees groveling. The dark pits meant we were well past that. Fury pumped off the Unseelie King, choking the air with his magic. Lars was protective of his own, and we all knew how special Marguerite was to him, the one human he truly let get to know his heart. She had been with him since her childhood and had become the foundation of his home.
“You shouldn’t let your things run free then.” Hovek took her from Toothless, pulling her into him. “All alone on the bus. Poor lamb.”
“¡Pinche idiota!” Marguerite barked at Hovek, wiggling in his grip, looking more pissed than scared.
“Don’t we have a feisty señorita here?” Hovek’s lips split in an unnatural smile. “She will be like a fiesta in my mouth. Crack her open like a piñata.” Hovek leaned over, his gray slimy tongue trailed up the side of her face, his gaze still on Lars. Marguerite fought against him, but it only put a bigger smile on Hovek’s face.
“I warned you…” Lars growled, his eyes creasing, and the skin of his face paled as his toes bumped against the property line. Goran and Rimmon stepped forward ready to protect their King if he crossed the boundary. I knew all of Lars’s men were there, hidden somewhere in the darkness, getting ready to protect their ruler.
“No,” Hovek growled. “I’m here to warn you!” He pulled Marguerite into him. His long nails dug into her throat, and his hand squeezed down. Lars froze, seeing pain flinch across Marguerite’s face. “Our current benefactor has a message. You back off, call home that dark dweller, or we…” Hovek eyed down the line of strighoul, waiting on his word. “You will get a fight, one even the almighty king can’t stop.”
“There isn’t anything I cannot fight,” Lars growled. “No one challenges my power.”
“Oh, really?” Hovek let out a chuckle, the other strighoul joining him in a sinister chorus that chilled my bones. “We almost breached your walls last time. This time, now that I am leader, we have the magic to do it. We walk away if you agree to the terms, if not…you will be on the menu too. And how I have dreamed about tasting you.”
Lars’s face remained impassive. “Let her go.”
“Nope, we get one parting gift. We don’t work for free.” Hovek’s nails dug deeper, slicing Marguerite’s neck. Trickles of blood pooled on her pretty dress.
Shards of terror pushed up through my inners like nettles, their stingers embedding deep in my lungs. I needed to stop this.
“Wake. Turn light on.” A squawk came from a tree near me, whipping my head around. “Free from dream or all is lost. You can stop.”
“Grimmel!” I exclaimed, spotting the black raven sitting on a limb, his head tilted. Wake? This was a dream? It felt so real. I glanced around again, realizing no one seemed to notice or acknowledge my presence.
Wake up, Kennedy! This is not real. Wake up, now! I screamed in my head. Nothing. If anything, I felt the vision cling on tighter, brushing the cool wind against my cheek.
“Help me. What do I do?”
“Told you.”
“I can’t wake up.”
“Then lost in the land of dreams forever.”
“Grimmel, please.”
“Light has the power to shine, but keeps locked in a chest.”
If I could ever figure out what the damn bird was talking about, I’m sure I’d have the answers to the great mysteries of life, but his words were as much an enigma as he was.
“Grimmel. Help Queen,” he said.
“Yes, please help.”
“Listen.” He slanted his head the opposite way, his wings flapping. “Receive.” Then he took off flying into the night, squawking loudly.
Hovek let out a wail, breaking my attention away from Grimmel. Hovek’s mouth opened like a shark’s. Hundreds of glistening needles dove down into Marguerite’s neck. She screamed as he tore into her flesh. With a waggle of his head, he ripped her throat from her neck, and her body crumbled to the ground in a heap. Her eyes went wide and vacant. This expression hit me so deep all I could feel was bile rising in my throat.
Ian’s image flashed before me first, then Jared’s face enveloped the body, his head cranking toward me, lips parting, and blood dribbling down his chin. His eyes went white with death. “You’ll always be mine...”
A scream drew up from my lungs, but Hovek’s bellow stopped it.
“Now!” Hovek turned my gaze from Jared’s grotesque expression to his. Gore slid from Hovek’s teeth as he shouted at his troops.
Like a branch snapping, the tension splintered into pieces, bringing everyone to life. The strighoul leaped forward, their teeth clanking together in anticipation. Fireballs of green and red flew in the air like fireworks and rained down on the protective shield, tearing at its surface. Lars had been attacked only months after the war, but the shields had held and were able to fight them off. This time, the magic sizzled through the armor around the compound, shredding it like paper, the power burning away the so-called unbreakable fortress.
Lars, Goran, and Rimmon barreled across the boundary while Lars’s other men leaped from the darkness with thunderous cries. The sound of bodies and weapons smashing into each other pounded my ears with a sharp tune, like a badly played cello or bagpipes.
Raindrops of magic ripped through the protected field, landing on my skin with a painful sizzle. A hiccup of fear shut my eyes briefly, and panic rose up the back of my throat. The vision touched me, breaking the third wall. I was no longer an observer; I was falling deeper and deeper in.
Kennedy, focus. You need to get out of here. Distress swirled my brain, and I fell to my knees, feeling the gush of the soft mud. A scream billowed up. Anchor. I need an anchor.
His face flashed into my head, but I quickly shoved it out. No. I needed to find a way out. I rocked back on my knees.
1.) This is not real.
2.) This is not real.
3.) This is not real.
The problem was it felt just as real as anything else. I could smell the pine-scented perfume of the forest and the musky damp dirt. I could hear the thudding of bodies in death. I could feel magic crackling over my skin.
My body shook as I gazed on Marguerite lying before me. Her eyes were open and dead, blood pooling from her mouth.
“Save me,” her mouth moved.
I scrambled back, my head hitting a tree with a crack. Pain zoomed up my spine, knocking me flat on my back, blinking through the sharp sting. I stared at the sky as it burst to life with color. Half the shield had already torn away.
A black object circled above me. It took a moment to realize it was Grimmel, circling overhead like a vulture waiting for the final breath of its next meal.
I closed my eyes, the noise reducing down to only his continuous screeching. I focused on him, which allowed my body to soar up and glide along with his wings, the squawking growing louder till it pierced my eardrum.
Flash.