Page 48 of The Erion Triad

“Lucie. You can’t go out there. It’s too dangerous,” Kyel said. Just like Kyel to want to protect her from the world, but this was Lucie and she wasn’t someone to keep anywhere she didn’t want to be.

She spun, the expression on her face desperate. With her skin gleaming with a million tiny lights of the Erion colors, she looked ethereal.

“I have to see it.” She held a fist over her heart. “I feel… I can’t explain… but please. I have to see.”

A deep frown formed on Kyel’s forehead as he strode towards Lucie. Zaen tensed and was about to tell his brother to let Lucie do as she wanted when he said, “We will escort you. Guards, front and back. Let Lucie guide us.”

The Guards stepped into formation in front of and behind his brothers. “Tann, send in guards for the kings and queen and my sister. Keep them safe here.”

“As you wish.” Tann barked into his comm.

“My sons!” Madlyn came over.

Kyel held his mother’s hands. “It will be fine, mother.”

“We will come with you. I will not let my sons fight on their own,” Emex said. The other kings murmured, agreeing.

No, please stay and protect Kira. We’ve met thisthingbefore, but I can’t stop to explain. Remain safe here. Protect our mother and our sister and we will protect our mate and our city,” Kyel said.

“Spoken like a true Warrior Prince,” Nolan said, pride breaking through his concern.

Guards came into the room and secured the perimeter in well-trained formation.

Kira hugged her mates. “Stay safe.”

With a nod, Zaen hurried with his brothers and their mate from the medi-bay, surrounded by the best guards. As soon as he stepped out of the medi-bay, he knew something was wrong.

The overhead light flickered, strobing the corridor into darkness and back to brightness. The air was thick and stale, their footfalls falling with dead clicks in his ears. The guards shared a look, and two withdrew their swords, their bodies tense. That same tension washed through him and he noted his brothers as well.

Juliran’s gaze darted to and from Lucie, and Kyel’s jaw must have been creaking with the way it was locked tight. He held Lucie’s elbow, wanting to make sure she stayed upright. She was pale beneath her new, glittering skin and he had to remember the poor condition she was in before the crystal had put her in a coma.

The lights in the room flickered one last time before going out completely and plunging them into absolute darkness, except for the faint blue glow from the crystal Lucie still held. The glow brightened so much they could see to the end of the corridor.

“It’s as though it knew we needed light,” Juliran said.

“That’s strange. I just wished for more light and then it started to glow brighter,” Lucy said.

“There’s no time to wonder about it. We need to see what’s happening to our city,” Kyel said, striding ahead.

Zaen followed him through the twists and turns of the corridor until they came to a familiar door. Outside of that door was a balcony that would let them see over the whole city. Kyel drew a deep breath and threw the door open to reveal Armageddon.

Lucie gasped, bringing her shaking hand to cover her mouth. Zaen tucked her against his side, fighting with his protective urge to take her back inside and lock her into the deepest room with the thickest walls in the palace. The landscape was unrecognizable.

Black clouds shrouded the sky, blotting out the suns entirely. There was only darkness and shadows as far as he could see. The clouds had descended and slithered along the ground, creating trails of dark mist.

In the gardens below, guards fought the mist, slashing with the swords, but it did nothing but slice through thin air. A terrible, pain-filled scream rent the air that was abruptly cut off. A guard fell to the ground. His sword clattered out of his dead hand, his face contorted in a rictus of agony.

There was another agonized scream, and another, and guards below them fell to the ground dead, one after the other.

The mist covered their bodies, devouring them like acid until it thinned out, leaving no trace of the body. The mist seemed to become fuller, more solid. Stronger.

“It’s eating them to come alive. That’s what it’s doing. It’s eating people so that it can live.” Lucie stammered. Zaen’s thoughts exactly, reinforced through their linked minds.

Lucie tried desperately not to sob, but the small sound cut through his racing heart. The mist crept over trees and shrubs and everything else in its path, covering it all and hiding it away beneath its black, dense depths, leaving nothing but blackened earth and a few stumps after it passed.

The distant clouds began to descend, settling over rooftops. Faraway screams could be heard, echoing their agony over the charred and empty ground.

Above the tallest steeple in the distance, a face twisted from the clouds. Black, pitiless eyes formed within the billowing clouds and opened. A gaping mouth appeared, big and black and hollow, and descended over the city outskirts, bringing with it nothing but death and destruction.

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