Page 31 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
The candlelight danced as her mother got to her feet, raising her sparkling wine. ‘To my husband. All my love and well wishes for your fiftieth name day. Here’s to the next fifty together.’
Fendran’s eyes shone with unshed tears as he lifted his glass in return.
Drue did the same, toasting her father gladly, and put her drink to her lips —
Darkness exploded.
Glass shattered.
High-pitched screams pierced the air and onyx power ripped through the entire Emmerson clan.
Everything Drue had ever feared came to life before her in wisps of shadow, sucking a terrified shriek from her mouth as her family suddenly lay dying around her.
‘Galina!’ Fendran cried.
‘Ma!’ Leif’s voice broke through the dark.
In the pitch-black, Drue could hear rasping breaths and quiet sobbing, but she couldn’t see, she couldn’t see a thing, couldn’t get to her family fast enough – talons carving through the night and shredding the skin of her calves.
She didn’t remember fighting, but she must have, for her own fingernails were torn and bleeding. On her hands and knees now, she crawled through the shards of glass, towards where she thought her parents and brothers were.
Another wave of dark power swept through the room, sending whatever remained on the table hurtling through the air.
More screams sounded. Drue couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began. She couldn’t tell who they belonged to anymore, only that her family, her loved ones, were suffering.
‘Pa…’ she croaked, ignoring the slice of glass through her skin as she inched across the floor.
Silence fell.
Suddenly, there were no more screams.
No more chaos.
Nearby, someone lit a torch.
A ragged sob escaped Drue.
Her mother was sprawled on the bloody carpet, her torso brutalised, torn to shreds by talons, a cry of horror still frozen on her lips.
Penn lay beside her, holding her hand. Blood leaked from his nose, his eyes glassy.
A few feet away, Leif’s body was sapped of colour, webs of black veins marring his skin. His lifeless gaze stared up at the chandelier, surprised.
Martan was face down, but when Drue turned him over with a trembling hand, she saw his throat had been sliced open with a talon. The carpet beneath her was spongy with his blood.
And then she found Will, whose chest had been torn wide, his heart ripped from his body.
Drue couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t get enough air into her lungs.
Sticky, blood-soaked fingers closed around her arm. ‘They’re gone,’ her father told her, his voice cracking. ‘They’re gone.’
A voice called somewherein the distance. ‘Drue? Drue, are you alright?’
Gentle hands gripped her by the shoulders, warm and solid, free of blood.
Blinking slowly, she came back to herself to find Talemir Starling crouched before her, concerned.
Rage surged at the sight of him, her heart hammering loud in her ears. He wasone of them, kin to those monsters who’d laid ruin to her family, who’d crushed her and her father beyond repair.
