Page 3 of Claimed By Night

“Something is following me in the woods!” I scream up at him. “Please!”

“You got currency?” the other one chimes in.

“What?” I ask, shaking my head.

“Coins. Somethin’ to make it worth our while?”

I thrust my hands into my pockets and come up with nothing. Not even a stray piece of lint. I look back up at them and shake my head.

“We can’t help you,” the first soldier finishes and starts to turn his back on me.

Take off your hat and show them your hair,the voice instructs me.

With no alternatives, I follow the directive and reach up, only just now realizing I’m wearing a hat. I pull it off and a mess of matted white hair, complete with leaves, seeds and other forest debris, falls down around my shoulders.

“It’s an angel,” I hear the original guard yell to the other one.

Just then, the sound of metal against metal screeches through the air, and my attention is drawn forward as the gates begin to open.

***

SILVANUS

I watch the female disappear behind the man-made gates of the precinct and curse my bad luck. I am too late.

I do not know how it is possible that she moved as quickly as she did, owing to the foreign intoxicant that bubbles within her veins and causes her confusion. It should have been easier to overtake her.

Morrigan must have emblazoned her with enough power to outrun me,I think.Never mind, the female will be in my custody soon enough. I will see to it. And when she is, I will make up for lost time.

When I hear myself snort, I realize I am still assuming the shape of the boar. Shaking off the creature’s likeness, I return to myself.

It will be more difficult to reach her now that she is within the precinct, but I will not give up.

She can only hide for so long.

***

EILISH

“Get Anona,” the first guard says to the other one, who obediently takes off. I turn around to make sure whatever was following me isn’t still there. But, no, the gates are nearly closed, operated by two guards on either side of them. As I watch them slam shut, the gates suddenly seem farther away than they were, like I’m looking at them through a thick glass lens.

I shake the visual away and face forward. Once I realize I’m safe, my knees give out and I collapse to the ground. Inhaling deeply, I spread my fingers in the wet dirt and feel like kissing it.

I’m panting. My heart’s racing and I feel lightheaded and… strange. My eyes are still blurry and it feels like the rain is coming down harder, which makes them even blurrier.

Someone grips me by the upper arm and hoists me to my feet. I look up to see the first guard from the platform. His face is still covered by his helmet, a broad iron covering that only reveals his black eyes. I look at his hand where it’s wrapped around my arm, still trying to decipher his nationality, but his leather gloves hide his skin.

“Where… am I?” I ask, but the words barely make it off my lips. They feel heavy and thick in my mouth. I try to make my feet work, but my legs feel like jelly. The guard has to drag me up the dirt path that leads into a town… of sorts.

“You’re in Precinct Five,” he answers, his voice deep and throaty.

Precinct Five means nothing to me.

“What you doin’ out there by yourself?” he asks as he continues to pull me along the dirt road. On either side of us arebuildings—some as high as three stories. A few are still intact, but the others bear the signature of the bombs that went off a decade or so earlier. Even so, the insides appear tidy enough—all evidence of theSingularityhas been removed. Now, the remains of the buildings just look like empty caskets.

The Singularity…

The word repeats in my mind and I suddenly don’t know what it means or how it got into my head. I’m not even sure how I know what theSingularityis, but the information sits in my brain all the same.

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