Page 101 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

Stratton brokeonto the campus grounds, unsure what might await him. His blood was pumping so loudly that for a second, it was all he heard. It took him a moment to calm down enough to realize that nothing was happening on the campus grounds. At least nothing that he could see.

The hair on the back of his neck rose as the feeling that there was unrest among the dead came over him. He knew the campus well, having worked in Grimm Cove for three years. There wasn’t a cemetery close enough to spark the feeling. He shouldn’t be sensing this many dead.

The monsters were close.

His gaze was drawn to one of the many gargoyle statues on the campus grounds. Its head was turned, facing the opposite direction of Stratton. So were the rest of the statues. Each one was looking the same way.

Stratton didn’t need it spelled out for him beyond that. He took off at a full sprint, going toward where they were looking. He was almost to the history building when he heard the first sounds of trouble.

As he rushed around the corner of the building, the scene he’d feared was playing out before him. Monsters were everywhere.

Elis and Austin were fighting with them, but there was no sign of Astria.

Panic welled as he visually scanned the area for her, but continued to find no sign of her.

“Stratton!” yelled a familiar voice.

He looked over to find Marcy there, tucked away against the building with Cadee Bass close to her. Marcy waved madly at him, all smiles, as if she wasn’t smack-dab in the center of a monster attack.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” she shouted over the grunts and growls of the creatures. “Good news! Cadee isn’t dead and nothing ate her brains!”

Cadee’s wide eyes found Stratton. Lifting an arm, she pointed to a cluster of monsters.

Stratton looked to where she was pointing and fought to draw in air as the monsters separated enough to reveal Astria there, in the center. Coming to his senses, he went to run for her, to protect her. Something massive crashed into his back, knocking him to the ground so hard that for a split second, his vision blurred.

At first, he assumed it was a creature on his back. That one of Henry’s monsters had managed to get the jump on him.

Slobber fell onto Stratton’s cheek, only driving home the idea it was a monster on his back. As growling filled his ear, he turned his head some to find himself nose-to-nose with a massive black dog. He was no dog expert, but it looked a hell of a lot like the same dog he’d faced off with eighteen years ago. The one who had belonged to the purple-haired college student.

“Now, Torid, that isn’t very nice!” shouted Marcy.

Torid?

This was Astria’s friend Torid?

The dog leapt off him, but not before farting and huffing loudly. It then jumped at a monster that got past Austin. As the dog’s jowls clamped down on the monster, he shook vigorously, causing the monster’s limbs to come loose and stitches to pop.

Stratton didn’t bother watching beyond that. He sprang to his feet and ran at Astria.

Elis threw a monster and it landed in Stratton’s path.

Stratton pulled upon his power, drawing on the elements, and was just about to send a ball of fire at it when lightning shot forth from above, striking the thing, igniting it as it had the other in the alley.

Stratton merely jumped up and over the burning lump, unconcerned with possibly being struck by lightning. His only worry was Astria.

He was almost to her when two monsters were knocked back and into him. He righted himself, looking up to find Astria there, in the middle of a group of creatures, spinning and striking them with well-placed hits from a fighting staff—that looked a hell of a lot like a broom handle. She moved with the grace of a dancer but with the strength of a warrior.

He stood there, too stunned to move, his brain operating at half-capacity more out of shock than anything else.

Her sweater was gone, leaving her in just a Fleetwood Mac T-shirt. Her arms were exposed now, and on them were tattooed sigils he knew well. Nearly all of them were ones that had been on his Hunter’s Guild ring. She wasn’t a Nightshade Hunter. There was no reason she should have the sigils on her or even know of them.

Yet there they were.

She twisted and rammed the end of the staff through the torso of a monster. She then hoisted the entire thing off the ground and flung it, sending it hurtling into the air where lightning struck it. The thing landed in a burning mass on the ground, but not before knocking another over, burning it up as well.

“When you’re done staring at her, you should probably help!” shouted Marcy, pulling Stratton from his daze.

Stratton went at the monsters swiftly. He snapped one’s neck and then kicked it into the burning body of another. Stratton kept going, kept fighting his way to Astria. When he was almost to her, she spun with the staff in hand and stopped just shy of striking him in the head with it.

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