Page 96 of Enticing Monsters

Please be okay, V. Please.

I half expect something to attack us on the way to the portal, but nothing does. The three of us step through holding hands and end up spit out in the lavish hotel that serves as fae headquarters.

Fortunately, Tristan and Cadmus are already gone.

But unfortunately, we’re not alone.

A figure steps out of the shadows, tall and willowy, her perfect face set into a severe frown.

How is this possible? The last thing I heard, she’d been attacked with all of the other council members, trapped in a never-ending nightmare.

“Charise?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

XANDER

The shadows warn me that V doesn’t have much time left.

They whisper to me, their eerie, sibilant voices blending together, and I’m helpless to stop listening.

“Not much time…”

“Dying…”

“No cure…”

“Dying…”

“Dying…”

“Dying…”

Avril sits beside her brother’s bed, her face puffy and eyes red-rimmed. Tears cascade down her cheeks as she wipes at V’s face with a cold washcloth.

It’s strange to see someone other than Serafina being so…gentle with the psychotic prince. I didn’t know anyone else was capable of loving him.

The shadows continue to whisper at me, incessant and angry, and I subtly try to cover my ears with my hands.

It doesn’t work.

“He has to be okay,” Avril whispers in a broken voice. “He has to be.”

I want to say something reassuring to the younger girl, but I’ve never been good at providing comfort, especially when anything reassuring I say to her will only be a lie. So instead of answering, I just grab my wineglass off my coffee table and take a long swig. The fruity liquid burns my throat going down.

“Someone’s here…”

“Someone new…”

“With the wolf…”

The wolf?

Tristan?

I jump to my feet just as Tristan barrels into my apartment, his brown hair damp with sweat and his face red from exertion.

“We came as fast as we could,” he tells me, panting.

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