Page 130 of Land of Monsters

Raven roared, her magic fizzing over my skin.

POP! POP!The bullets fired until the gun chamber clicked.

Red mist sprayed into my face, the body under me jerking from the impact before going limp. Blood gushed from the two holes ripped through Iain’s head, his dead eyes staring up, his mouth open in a hollow scream. A cry that would never reach the surface.

The memory of Lukas, seeing the same hole through his head, the same dead eyes, as bile rushed up my throat, taking me back to that night.

“Ash!” Raven’s cry was the only thing that broke me out of my numbness, pulling my gaze to her. She stood there with Iain’s gun, her eyes red flames, her teeth like daggers, but her wound still gushed with blood. She was too weak to heal quickly enough.

Sonya’s scream rattled my nerves, sliding me off her dead son as she ran to him.

“Noooo! My boy!” she wailed, dropping down, her dress soaking in the same color liquid pooling around him.

I tried to rise, but my muscles went limp, taking me back down.

“No, Ash.” Raven was at my side, realizing I could no longer get up. The adrenaline I used burned the poison faster through me. “Don’t give up.”

“Go.” I reached up, touching her face.

“No. I won’t leave you.”

“You have to.” My lids felt so heavy. “Save your family. They need you.”

“I can’t leave you here. Tell me how to save you.” I could hear her panic.

“You can’t.”

Sonya heaved out a chilling growl. Standing up, she surged with fury.

“I will kill you,” she sneered.

“Just try.” Raven bared her teeth, rising to challenge her, the blades on her back slicing through her shirt. But I could feel her magic was thin, her body trying too hard to heal itself to be a real threat.

The few guards around Sonya pointed their weapons at us. But instead of ordering them, she lifted her attention to the tall tower right next to us, a cruel gleam in her eyes. “Kalaraja,” she called out, “Kill her family now!”

The outline up in the tower a story over us stepped out, the moon casting a glow on half of Kalaraja’s face, a long scope rifle in his grip.

“Shoot the queen first, then her father, her aunts and uncles,” she ordered. “So she can watch her family die before her eyes. Then take out every one of his, starting with Brexley.”

He cocked his rifle, peering through the scope down at the garden, right at Queen Kennedy.

“Nooo!” Raven wailed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gun fired, a bullet cracking across the air. Raven screamed, waiting for the mark to find its target, to see her mother drop to the ground.

Every guard around Sonya fell to the ground like dominoes, a bullet in each of their brains.

Confused, stunned silence descended on us as we took in the dead sentries, following the path of the bullets back to the originating spot.

Kalaraja’s weapon pointed down at Sonya. The man who had shot me, who had hunted Brexley, was standing on our side. At least for now.

“What? What are you doing?” she squawked, sounding more like Nyx. “How dare you shoot at me! Go against me!” Her jaw twitched, fury blasting in her eyes at him.

Bang!

He fired again, the bullet getting within inches of her before it went off course, skimming by her. Kalaraja never missed. I could see the area around her judder, the layer of magic blocking her from harm. Sonya’s protection not only came from the trinket around her neck, but a spell cast around her.

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