Page 123 of Every Shade of Shadow

It’s Ava’s voice. Loud and clear in my head.

“Run!” Lily screams, leaping over a short hedge.

I do the same and round the corner of the castle on her heels, the shed in front of us. I can see the light coming from it and inside a burst of flame that has to be from Ava trying to defend herself.

This isn’t good. Lily’s not prepared. And why the hell is Ava out here alone in the first place?

I lengthen my strides and pass Lily. Without much thought, I barge through the shed door, adrenaline rushing through my veins and hands raised ready to unleash all hell.

The stranger is in my path, shifting fast towards Ava with the knife about to come down upon her head just like I saw in my vision. The top of their hood is only a couple of inches from the ceiling. I lunge and throw my arms forward, burning with determination to end this, once and for all.

There’s an acrid stench of magic in the air from Ava’s defenses, but she’s up against the wall looking lifeless and spent.

She closes her eyes and lifts her arm to shield herself.

The stranger looks sideways, nothing but black inside that hood. They stop, almost in surprise to see me, and then just as I’m going to reach them, my fingers close around…thin air.

They’re gone.

I almost stumble into Ava instead, shifting left. My hands smash into her kneecap. Throwing her arms backwards, she braces herself against the wall as I land flat and hard on her chest.

“Shit,” I shout, trying to lift myself. “Where the fuck did they go?”

Lily makes it in, looking around.

“Gone,” says Ava, shellshocked, turning her head frantically right and left like the hooded figure is going to appear again at any moment.

“Fuck me,” I groan, rising up from the floor. I shake some dust off my shirt, my heart continuing to race in my chest. I look to Ava. “You okay?”

She gives a timid nod. “My laptop wouldn’t power on. I thought there might be tools in here, a screwdriver or something…but then that thing came. I tried calling you, projecting…but I don’t know if it worked.”

“Oh, it worked,” I tell her. “Kind of.”

Lily crouches down beside Ava, placing a hand on her forehead, which strikes me as weird, because she’s in shock, not looking for a day off school. “Did you see who it was?”

Ava swallows, pressing her eyes closed but shaking her head. “No. I’m sorry.”

“From now on,” I say, “I think no one should go anywhere alone. If we weren’t so close…”

Lily looks up to me. “Ana’s right. Next time you’re feeling up for a stroll in the dark, let us know, okay?”

Ava sniffles, seems genuinely shaken. “I get it. Can we please go back inside?”

I’m not sure inside the castle is any better, but it seems there is some safety in numbers at least.

Lily helps her up and the three of us head with caution back to the castle.

I trail behind trying to see if I can place anything about Mortis, but nothing sticks.

This was too close a call.

Training probably helped Ava fend him off enough for us to get there, but holy fuck, if it wasn’t for that projection…our proximity is all that really saved her. A second more and she’d be done.

Gone.

Frustration begins to fester within, a wound left too long in the open. I was so close to that bastard, but what’s crazy is I wasn’t scared or terrified.

I was hungry.

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