Lexa
Austin brushes my shoulder as he moves in front of me, the two of us towering over the beach on our perch high above the waves. Without the fires, the beach is practically invisible, but it’s the silence that’s unnerving. I look out over the water with the slightest turn of my head. It’s a clear, beautiful night… at least, it was. A strange storm funnels toward the shoreline, smoke-like tendrils of dark mist creeping over the sea in whirls and swirls that carry the unmistakable taste of… copper. The mist floods the beach. Strange orange-hued lightning crackles in the silent storm beyond without the warning of thunder.
Magic. It has to be.
I try to step forward, but he stops me with a hand curled around my forearm, his grip tightening in warning. Neither of us breathe. Neither of us move. I can feel the tingle of magic between us as we send our silent commands for an explanation to the screams through the mind-link.
I tug out of his grasp and take a single step toward the edge of the bluff. A rock comes loose, pinging off the boulders below.
The second the sharp chord of another guttural scream pierces the air again, I’m moving, shifting into my wolf form before my mind has a chance to catch up with my body.
“Lexa!” Austin’s voice fades as my paws meet the smooth edge of one of the wave beaten boulders below, but I’m airborne before his voice cuts out, leaping through salt and smoke scented air onto the rocky beach. Shale comes loose beneath my paws, but I don’t feel the pain as it slices and breaks away. Panic ghosts through my body, settling deep in my muscles, burrowing into the very marrow of my bones–then dread. Then confusion.
Bodies move in a frustrated dance. My warriors–my girls–draw weapons in slow motion like time is standing almost perfectly still as the mist spreads over the beach, snaking over their feet, curling around their ankles.
Austin screams my name again. Another howl of fear. Another gust of copper tasting magic.
Time returns to normal, and it’s violent.
I tumble into my human form, drawing the twin blades crisscrossing over my back, fastened by a halter worn by every warrior in my regiment. My blades sing as they cut through the mist, but the dark shadows tearing onto the beach curl like fog, my blades piercing… nothing. Nothing but air. It’s a madhouse everywhere else. Every warrior–whether from my regiment or the Ghosts who’ve yet to set up their camp–hurdles into action against an unseen, but obviously aggressive, force. I watch in mingled horror and confusion as a Ghost warrior gets flung twenty feet from the shoreline, his howl of pain fading as his body spirals through the darkness blocking out the stars.
I grip my blades and sprint toward the group of women still in their human forms, weapons of choice drawn with no foe in sight.
“MEG!” I shout as smoke-like dark mist spills from the waves, tangling and twisting as it swallows the edge of the beach.
Before the mist completely shields my vision, I see Meg’s fiery red hair whip around her body as she whirls in my direction. Her short blades are poised to strike, but the fear in her eyes is sharper than any knife. In a split second, she disappears, a shrill scream of what I can only describe as panic left in her wake.
The mind-link erupts in chaos with my warriors struggling to find their bearings in the darkness consuming us.
Another warrior bursts through the mist only feet away from where my feet are firmly planted, my heart racing out of rhythm. We lock eyes, and her look of pure relief sweeps through me before it gets torn away in a rip current none of us can fight.
I don’t have time to even think of raising my blades toward the towering mass of onyx that cuts her down in a single swipe, her blood spraying in a sheet of hot crimson that coats me from head to toe.
My scream of horror dies in my throat. I freeze, paralyzed by fear that fills my mouth with acid when the force–the beast of air and mist–glides past me.
The warrior’s head falls at my feet.
More screams of terror and pain jolt me back to reality. I take a single step forward, and a beast of shadow appears above me. Gnarled claws the color of polished obsidian careen for my face, but I dunk at the last possible second. A clicking, grinding noise follows, but I press my belly to the ground, holding my breath, silent as a fucking mouse.
“Stand still!” I scream through the mind-link. “This is a direct order! Stand fucking still! Do not move!” Desperate, unorganized chaos reigns through the mind-link. Screams echo all around me–male and female–as the beasts cut through every warrior stationed on the beach.
I reach through the link for my mom, gritting my teeth as the shadows dance above me, like they’re hovering a few feet off the ground, waiting to strike, but they can’t see me if I’m not moving.
“Don’t move. Don’t move at all. Stay where you are, and don’t fucking move!” I repeat with force, but the voices in the mind-link–my entire battalion, start peeling away, blowing out like a candle.
Boots crunch over the coarse sand in a sprint. A Ghost warrior nearly steps on my head. I grab his ankle, and he falls to the ground with a sharp cry, unable to catch himself.
“Don’t move!” I snarl, trembling as the air above us shifts, swirling like a void. “Don’t fucking move. They–they sense movement–”
He jerks his leg from my grasp, signing his death warrant. A shadow bursts out of the mist and grabs him, dragging him away. The scent of blood is suddenly so thick I can’t breathe past it, but then there’s Chessie, sprinting out of the mist, her eyes wide and glowing with the promise of transformation, and I–this is my regiment. My warriors. My girls.
And they’re dying. I hear it with every passing second. I can feel it in the quaking sand beneath my body. I can smell it–the fear, the pain.
And I can’t do anything about it.
“Chessie!” I shout, jumping to my feet as the darkness swells behind her. Onyx arms reach for her, for us, and she stretches her arm out to me, and I–
Austin steps between us and the shadow, still in his human form but battered, his Ghost armor hanging in strips from his shoulders. Chessie launches into my arms, knocking me backward, but my eyes are locked on Austin standing like an immoveable force–a shield between me and certain death.
His certain death.
The word no barely leaves my lips before the mist-like claws of the creature slice through the man who just–just professed his love to me on that bluff. The man who said we were mates— he was almost certain.
He tries to turn back in my direction, but his eyes are already hollow and glassy with death when I see his face, and he twists, falling… lifeless.
I clap my hand over Chessie’s mouth to block her scream of terror and let us fall onto our backs, side by side. Grief and shock slam into me, crippling me. My entire body jerks with the sudden, piercing knowledge that Austin is gone. His body lies motionless only a few feet away, his hand… outstretched…. Oh gods. Oh, Goddess have mercy.
“Stay perfectly still!” I plead into Chessie’s mind, and she obeys. My voice inside her head wobbles, broken by fear and utter, unfiltered misery.
A sob tangles in my throat. My chest tightens, threatening to cave in. A warm, wet sensation begins to pool beneath us. Copper spices the air–hot, like a forge.
Austin’s blood.
I close my eyes, biting my tongue to stop the scream threatening to kill us both.
Shouts ring out nearby–sharp and shrill. A sudden burst of light pushes back against the mist, and the sound that comes from the creatures will forever be embedded in my mind, seared like a brand. The clicking, gnawing groans turn to panicked screeches as the light bursts a second time, and then I see its source. A single golden arrow zooms through the night, shattering the mist to the point I can finally see the beach and what remains of the camps.
Bodies. Bodies everywhere. Pieces of bodies. Limbs, hands… heads.
Chessie trembles violently as the arrow tears back in the direction it came. New warriors storm the beach–a mix of Ghosts and Teskan warriors.
I hear Mom’s war cry lift above the chaos, but she’s far enough away I can’t see her. A sliver of confidence creeps back into existence, and I start to sit up, but my leg brushes Austin’s shredded torso and I see him and I–
Chessie launches out of my arms. I flail, trying to grab her hand to pull her back. The mist barrels back to the shore, pushed on a phantom gust of magic.
“CHESSIE!” I scream, leaping upright, reaching for her. My fingers graze her shoulder. I trip over Austin’s legs. A whirling void of death opens right behind Chessie as she turns around, wild-eyed with fear, and her scream dies as the mist curls around her, squeezing her in death’s embrace.
But the spray of blood doesn’t come. I hit the ground, unable to right myself, my head smashing against the rocky, coarse sand and splitting on a rock. An unearthly roar comes from the water, and the waves surge like the sea is fighting back, offended by the blood tainting its water.
“Retreat,” I say through the mind-link with little strength and no emotion. It’s a word I’ve never said before.
“LEXA!” Mom’s voice cuts through the haze threatening to pull me into unconsciousness. My face is wet with my blood, and my mind swims, adrenaline trying to yank me back to awareness, but I know it’s fruitless. My head pounds sharply in warning that I was injured badly during that last fall. My body can take a lot. I’ve been sparing my entire life. I’ve killed people. I’ve been on the front lines during the small, but violent, skirmishes that took place when the Alpha Kings of Tarsian began to fall to the rebel packs. I’ve seen war. I’ve been in the thick of it.
I’ve never seen anything like this.
“LEXAAAA!!!” Mom’s voice tinges with panic as it soars over the beach.
I get to my knees, then all fours, swaying as the corners of my vision go black. I rise, dragging one of my blades with me.
Warriors run around me, past me, heeding my command. The beach is a wash of shadows. I can’t differentiate between the monsters attacking and the warriors sprinting for their lives.
“Retreat,” I whisper through the mind-link. “Retreat. Retreat–”
Monsters of shadow lunge for the warriors. A few get snatched, drawn back with bloody, wet screams before they disappear in a tidal wave of crimson. Death is everywhere. It paints the beach, staining the sand red. The waves draw it out, scattering it, spreading the foul scent with every lapping, angry exhale coming from the sea.
I stumble, turning from the water, my mouth hanging ajar as I look up at the cliffs hanging over the beach. Warriors in their human form dart back and forth, screaming for their comrades to run, while others–Teskan warriors–send arrows flying into the mist. It won’t make a difference, but the distractions the arrows cause are at least enough for the warriors scrambling off the beach to get to safety.
But I’m too far away.
I see her then, standing on the cliff, her golden bow lighting the space around her as she aims for me, aims right over the top of my head. My body tingles as magic surrounds me. It’s surprisingly warm. The monster behind me exhales long and slow, its talons clicking together as they stretch, grazing my skin.
Mom’s golden arrow screams as it splits the air into pieces. I close my eyes when it pierces the dark force, shattering it. I feel the talons pull away. The monster screams its dying breath.
Mom’s voice in my head begs me to move.
Chessie’s laughter blocks her voice. Meg’s sarcastic teasing laces through me. Austin’s determined touch and the look in his eyes when he said we were mates washes me into a current I can’t fight.
Dead. They’re all dead.
“LEXA!” Mom’s panicked scream forces my eyes open. Her golden arrow has returned to her, and she’s drawing it back, but it’s too late.
I feel the talons of a second beast curl around my upper arms and yank me back into the mist, swallowing me whole, and the world as I know it collapses into ash and dust.