Is it just me or…is the bridge beginning to sway in the still air?
Nia’s grip on me tightens. “Look at the bridge.”
A distant howl pierces the silence, lifting the hairs at the nape of my neck.
“The wolves!” Ivee screeches. “They’re back! They’re going to kill my prince, and it’s all your fault, Kerris Dawn!”
She’s right…itismy fault. If I hadn’t asked to see The Divide, none of this would’ve happened?—
A shadow slices through the blackness.
Ronan sprints toward us, his face as pale as his shirt, his arms pumping up and down. “Run!”
Nia and I whip toward the city lights, but my feet get tangled up in my skirts and I go down hard, cracking my knees on the road and dragging my poor cousin down with me. By the time we stumble to our feet, Ronan has already raced past, a cloud of dust lifting in his wake.
So much for his promise of protection.
Like the fool I am, I look back over my shoulder to where three distinct shadows wait on the bridge. Not of wolves, but of men.
The shadows make no attempt to follow, but there is no doubt what they are.
Taller than any man I’ve ever seen, broad of shoulders, and dark as the night around us.
Unseelie fae.
“Kerris!” Nia shouts, her hand in Nolan’s as he leads her back toward the cobblestones.
Hearing my name kickstarts my heart, and I hobble to catch up. We sound like a herd of cattle as we run toward the safety of the city to where the others wait beneath the streetlamps. Ivee grips Ronan’s shirt with both hands. The poor man looks as if he’s been chased by a ghost.
The prince tugs out of Ivee’s iron grip and takes a halting step toward me. “Are you all right, Kerris?”
I press a hand to my pounding heart, forcing air into my burning lungs. “I’m fine.” Not that he seemed to care only a few moments ago.
“Did you see them?” Aurelia asks, her voice high and childlike.
Ronan shudders, bracing his hands on his knees as he gasps. “Yes, and they were disgusting. With horns and blood dripping from their fangs. And there were bones everywhere.”
That does sound terrifying, except… I squint toward the darkness behind us. “Were there lights on the other side?”
Ronan shakes his head. “Only darkness.”
If there were no lights, then how did he see them so clearly?
6
Everett
“Lethan Wolves can grow up to seventeen hands tall. If you see one, seek shelter as quickly as possible.”
Surviving the Unseelie Lands, Author Unknown
Maddox’s legs swing off the side of the bridge, dangling into the canyon. “How far down do you think it goes?”
“Who the fuck cares?” Gryffin mutters, poking the end of his sword into the fire, sending sparks swirling into the fog.
“I the fuck care,” Maddox shoots back, collecting one of the stones from the pile beside him and launching it into the void of nothingness that lives between our world and theirs.The Seelie fae. A bunch of colorful, smiley bastards who love nothing more than to show off their flat, useless teeth and their sprawling gardens.
The only thing that grows wild out here is death and despair.