Page 8 of An Empress of Air & Chaos

“Cal—” She couldn’t even get the words out as she flung one arm around her best friend. “I didn’t know where you were! When I got up, you were gone—I—I—my grandmother…” She couldn’t think straight. She closed her eyes as she heard her grandmother’s blood-filled throat warn her to run and to keep running. Reopening her eyes, she said, “We need to get out of here, Cally!”

“I went to the bathroom and when I came back, you were gone,” Cally explained. “And—and then I heard all the screaming from outside and I ran to the window. I saw the Fortfox estate house on fire. There are bodies scattered on the ground, Emara. It was Mr. and Mrs. Fortfox.” She sobbed, finding it hard to swallow. “And then—I saw it!” She covered her mouth in horror to stop a scream from curling in her throat.

Emara looked at her best friend in confirmation and nodded. “I know what you saw! One is downstairs right now. It—it just attacked my grandmother.”

Cally’s face paled even further, draining her completely of colour.

A hissing sound entered the hall and Cally sprung back against the wall as Emara put one finger to her lips to silence her. A single tear rolled down Cally’s cheek, dragging along with ita black charcoal droplet.

“What are they?” Cally whimpered, gripping her skull in anguish. “Why does my head hurt?”

The hissing sound grew louder as it made its way down the hallway, in a slow, deepened buzz. The pain intensified as the creature walked closer to the bathroom. Emara remembered how fast it had moved in the kitchen; it was clear that it was taunting them now. She had seen how it really moved. It was building up their fear, moving slowly, to enjoy this kill.

It was a predator—and Emara had just become its prey.

Emara’s throat bobbed as she looked at her best friend in the realisation that they weren’t going to make it out of this bathroom alive.

She felt the power from the creature creeping in from underneath the bathroom door like a dark mist that oozed from an ancient world, long forgotten. Stumbling back a few steps, she let out a whimper.

He was outside!

That murdering bastard stood outside the bathroom where she and Cally were taking shelter.

What was he looking for? If she could work that out, if she could find it and give it to him, would he let them live?

Emara tried to think of the conversation he had had with her grandmother, but fear took over every other emotion. If he had just come to kill her, then why did he ask her grandmother for something? Something that, if her grandmother had, she certainly wasn’t going to hand it over.

She’d died to protect.

“Emara,” he hissed from outside of the door. Her name snarled from his lips a second time and she wanted to scream or plead with him or lash out.

Why was he taunting her?

Cally’s eyes darted to Emara’s face.

Fear. Pure fear.

Emara mouthed “I love you” to her best friend for the last time as the door broke open with one burst of power released from the creature that stalked outside. Emara flung up her hands to shield her face as she was thrown against the sink unit. Her skull cracked against the solid wood.

A dizzying darkness quickly folded in around her and everything went black.

The sound of Cally’s screaming pulled Emara back from the darkness. She cradled her head in her hands as every cell in her body pulsed with pain. As she looked up through blurred vision to find Cally, nothing formed right.

Scrambling to get to her knees, a sharp ache in her arm caught her attention.

She was bleeding.

Really bleeding.

Raw flesh was peeled back on her arm like the power from the blast had evaporated her skin. She swallowed the vomit that tracked up her throat as she looked down at it, swaying on her knees.

Cally’s scream sliced through the night as the creature grabbed her by the throat. His crimson eyes glaring at her, his strong jaw contracted.

“Please, please don’t hurt me,” she begged.

The creature ran a hand over Cally’s pale face which made her look as white as a chalk.

The minute Emara spotted the creature’s hands, she knew for certain that he wasn’t human. They were claw-like as he dragged a pointed nail over Cally’s lips. His laugh broke into the air; the most hideous sound she had ever heard.

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