Page 120 of Court of Secrets and Flames

Overhead, windows and doors fling open with snaps and cracks, spilling more light onto the impromptu mass grave.

Above the slaughter, nobles and commoners alike unfurl wings of sapphire and emerald on their balconies before ascending into the safety of the sky in an exodus reminiscent of the dragons’ flight.

What started with the dragons now plagues all of Tirene. If the dragons hadn’t fled, would this have happened to them? Is this what happened to the juvenile?

I tighten my grip on my sword.Focus. Stay vigilant. Stay alive.

The very air reeks of malice. Whatever hunts us, it is here. Now. A threat unlike any we’ve known before.

Nyc, goddess of night and darkness, come to our aid.

“By the gods.” The soldier beside me points at a maid’s body.

It’s sliding out of the palace on its own.

Her arms and legs trail behind her, bumping over the cobblestones. The corpse only stops its trek once it hits the shadowed grass.

My skin prickles with an unnatural chill. I whirl around, searching, every sense insisting that death waits there, but I find only empty air.

One of Sterling’s soldiers lunges, sword swinging through a shadow that oozes along the ground like spilled ink.

The soldier’s futile strike meets nothing but dirt. In a whiplike motion, a shadow snaps up and devours the front of his throat without letting go. As it retreats back into the ground, it drags the body along too.

Face first, the soldier lands in the grass, blood pouring from his neck.

He’s dead.

Horror takes root in my chest as the shadow slips along the ground, encircling the deceased soldier. As fast as it began flowing, the crimson river stops. The blood is just…not there.

Gone.

Bile rises in my throat as realization dawns. The blood hasn’t stopped flowing. It’s disappearing into the…darkness.

I turn to the maid. No pools of blood surround her body, but streaks of scarlet mar the pathway pavers.

Air freezes in my lungs.

“The drachen are drinking their blood.” I tighten my grip around my sword’s hilt, willing my heartbeat to steady.Breathe in. Breathe out.“Show yourself.”

A gust of abnormal wind answers, chilling my bones. Raw power surges through the air, and a thousand tiny hairs rise on the back of my neck. Sword high, I spin to face the unseen force.

The shadow bulges outward with an overwhelming strength that rips my sword from my grasp. I stumble backward onto thehard cobblestones. The soldiers around me step forward, ready to confront the enemy.

But the dark is empty once more.

“Lark!” Boots pound the ground, and I spin around as Sterling and his remaining three men rush toward me.

As he pulls me upright, our gazes lock, his brown eyes reflecting the raging horror surrounding us. Instinctively, I search for my dropped sword.

Another scream rings out, and this time, I’m certain I recognize the voice. “Leesa!”

Whipping back around, I see her, not twenty paces away. Her familiar face has gone rigid with fear, her once-sparkling eyes glassy. She steps out of the doorway, her shadow stretching away from her as she passes the sconce.

Except…no. It’s not her shadow. It’s one of the shadow creatures.

A drachen.

A line from the book materializes in my head.

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