Page 97 of The Monsters We Are

Cain stopped near the door to their chamber and briefly touched the wall . . . as if pressing a button or something. Seth began tapping one foot like crazy, repeatedly throwing looks over his shoulder. Why was the dude even here?

He’d better not be hoping for a threesome.The thought made her snicker.

Her surroundings briefly wavered, like the flicker of a faulty bulb, and she saw a flash of an elevator door. The image was there and gonelightningfast.

Wynter closed her eyes and pressed down on her eyelids. “Why are we waiting outside the chamber?” No one answered. Her monster kept on pitching a fit, and the otherworldly breeze again whipped at her face.Ow. “I thought I was going to bed.”

“You are,” said Cain. “See?”

She opened her eyes and watched the door to the chamber split into two and then each half slid to the side. Split. Into. Two. What the—

A blaring sound made her jump and hunch up her shoulders. An alarm was going off. And it wasloud. Mega loud.

“Fuck,” muttered Seth. “Let’s go.”

Cain roughly ushered her into their chamber. “Move.”

“Don’t be snippy with me,” she snarked, frowning when he turned and started jabbing his thumb hard on the wall. “You’re beingso weirdright now.”

Everyone was being weird. Everythingwas weird. Including her.

She still felt giddy. But it was false. Like the emotion had been planted there. Beneath it, she was confused, uneasy, and frustrated.

The two halves of the door began to meet—again moving sideways—and Cain’s shoulders lowered in what appeared to be relief. He looked at her, his eyes dispassionate.

Dispassionate?

She tensed. Not even in the very beginning had he looked at her that way. He looked at most people that way, sure, but not her.

Something was so very wrong here.

His form shimmered. Flashed into something else for the merest moment. Intosomeoneelse. But then he was normal again. Only not. Because that detached look was still there.

Her uneasiness built, overriding the giddiness.Not Cain.No way.

Her surroundings flickered. Furnishings and walls shrank to nothing, revealing—

And then they were back.

She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. No, this wasn’t real. It wasn’t. But when she opened her eyes, nothing had changed.

Her monster shoved her hard, and a breeze swirled urgently around her. Her vision swam again, becoming a swirl of colors . . . and they reformed into a whole other scene. The chamber walls were gone. The Ancients were gone. She was inside the city elevator, and two male fey were staring down at her.

Her surroundings tried changing again. She gritted her teeth as she mentallyclungto the reality in front of her. Because itwasreality. And as that belief firmly cemented in her brain, her uneasiness faded under the weight of a rapidly growing ice-cold rage.

Black ribbons glided over her eyeballs, obscuring her vision.

Both males stiffened.

She punched the emergency button, bringing the elevator to a sharp halt, and felt a cruel smile curve her mouth. “Boys, this wassucha bad idea.”

Her monster took over.

*

Azazel was on his feet as soon as he heard the alarm. Abandoning the mage who’d come to apply for residency, he stalked out of one of the manor’s many parlors. This particular distress signal didn’t warn of an upcoming invasion. It signaled a local emergency. And Azazel would bet it meant that Wynter was once again missing.

Fuck, Cain was going to lose his mind.

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