Page 214 of Of Nine So Bold

At the sight of us, their glowing eyes went wide. They tried to halt.

My ax cut them down. The Voidborn within them tried to flee only to meet my blade as well.

The floor quivered with heavy footsteps. Crouched down with his wings tucked into his sides, the demon stalked around the corner. Irritation twisted his gray face, the expression growing more pronounced when he spotted his prey already on the ground.

But he didn’t comment on the fact I’d killed his quarry. He merely kicked one of them and then harrumphed when they proved well and truly dead.

“Demon,” Dex said. “Take the lead. Ozias, you’re the second line of defense behind him. We’ll find the princess and then we signal the witches.”

“What about the twins?” Niko asked.

“We’ll find them.”

My friends nodded. I hefted my ax, staying well enough back from the demon to hopefully keep from hitting him if I had to swing the weapon.

The demon only scowled. Awkwardly, he turned around. “These stupid hallways are too small,” he groused.

I grunted in agreement. “Princess straight ahead.”

We took off after our mate.

55

GWYNEIRA

Iraced through the corridor, monsters on my trail. I’d lost them briefly when I slipped into one of the servants’ access halls, but the reprieve hadn’t lasted long. Their running footsteps shook the ground. Their growls spurred me onward. All around, branches reached from the walls like skeletal hands. Rotting leaves fell in my wake, the growths upon them sending plumes of black spores into the air when they hit the ground.

And then more vines would begin up the walls.

Gods, if I survived, thisabsolutelywould haunt my nightmares.

New growls came from up ahead. Three green-skinned monsters charged around the corner, cutting off my escape path. I skidded to a stop and tried to retreat, but there was nowhere to go.

Panic gripped me. I could shift, but if these possessed creatures touched me, would it have the same effect as the Voidborn?

I couldn’t lose my humanityhere.

The monsters stalked closer, grinning. I backed away, my mind racing. I couldn’t?—

The wall at my side rippled like water. Where a moment before there’d been nothing but stone and tree branches, suddenly a door appeared.

What the…

Shoving aside my shock, I took the opening. The monsters roared as I yanked the door aside and then slammed it at my back.

The surface rippled again. Now only unbroken stone remained.

My heart pounding, I stared at the blank wall of stone. There were no branches. No rot. Everything was so dark only my vampire night vision stood a chance of piercing the gloom. But as I turned around, slowly scanning the corridor in which I found myself, I couldn’t recognize where I was at all.

To say nothing of the fact a magical door had led to this place.

Warily, I started forward. If this was a trick of my stepmother’s, it seemed a strange one. She wouldn’t save me from the Voidborn.

So who did?

Cautiously, I stretched my hand out, letting my fingertips trail along the wall. Beneath my touch, the stones warmed, a faint thrum carrying through them.

I stopped. I… I remembered this. I thought it’d only been a dream. When I lay unconscious on the edge of a cliff outside the Jeweled Coven’s sanctuary in the mountains, I’d dreamt of walking the halls of my castle. Of the stones vibrating ever-so-slightly beneath my fingertips.

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