Page 73 of After Darkness Falls

Her eyes flew open. Someone was here. Again, surprise gave way to relief.

Levi.

"Oh my god, Levi. I don't know what's going on. Mikar…he told me to come here and then left. What's happening?"

Levi made no reply.

Something was wrong. He looked wrong.

No smirk, no smile. His eyes were hollow, void of emotion.

"Levi?"

Finally, he spoke.

"I didn't want it to be this way. Believe me."

What was he…

He advanced at the speed of light, making it clear that until now, he had truly slowed himself down so she could see him, relax around him.

Don't trust any of your friends.

They weren't friends. Not truly. And Mikar wouldn't have warned her againstLevi, his own master.

Chloe took one step back.

Too late. His hand was around her neck, keeping her in place. She didn't need to remember his lesson to know that she was screwed.

Yet she struggled, trying to break free. Of course she did; the dumbest animal would have done the same in her shoes. Levi's grasp tightened.

"Listen to me, Chloe. You're going to need this." He held up a chain with a strange metal pendant hanging from it, a dark stone at its center.

No, not a stone. A tiny flask filled with liquid.

Blood. It looked strange—wrong—but she knew, she just knew it was blood. Its faint scent. Coppery, heady.

"Do you understand me, Chloe?"

She shook her head as much as she could manage with his iron fist keeping her in place. She didn't understand a thing.

From the beginning, every single one of her instincts had been confused around him. Run away, run into his arms. Kiss him, plunge a knife into his chest. He'd infuriated her just by existing.

Still, her brain couldn't process everything. He was hurting her, and talking about a damn necklace.

There was a noise to her left. He let her turn her head.

She froze.

London had been nothing—nothing—compared to this.

She saw them running up the hill toward them. Hundreds of ferals, darkening the woods with their shadows.

But their greatest strength is that they travel in packs. If you see one, there'll likely be a hundred on its heels.

The next instant, the earth, sky, and wind were engulfing her. She felt sick to her stomach and taken by a tornado. Then the motion stopped as fast as it had started, and she found herself on solid ground.

Chloe blinked. They'd moved so very fast. They were hundreds of feet up, still on Coscnoc.

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