Page 17 of Forgotten Monsters
“If I still had the horn, and Beth’s soul was at rest, I would give it back.”
I will never forgive Piper for how she treated me, but I really hope we can find another way to cure her disease.For Allie’s sake.
“What happened? Did the Fae take it from you?” she asks.
My gaze flies to the sand. “Cole used it…on me.”
“Onyou?” Her brows pull together. “Is that how you healed?”
“Yes.”
She licks her lips. “He used it on you…to make you immortal?”
I give her a small nod and watch her face for a tell, but she appears to be stunned, not resentful.
“Wow. That’s…he must really love you.”
I grimace at the obvious surprise, but Allie walks away.
I know my sister, and if she’s ready to change the subject, I won’t torture us both further by discussing my unexpected immortality. If the roles were reversed, I’d be jealous as hell.
The stairs Cole and I destroyed that fateful day on the beach when he fled the realm with Brie have been rebuilt with steel railings and freshly-painted wood, so our ascension is quick and painless.
The dining hall’s windows are obscured. A forcefield shimmers behind the building, and I run over to it. The semi-translucent wall emits a powerful energy signature. A tree snuggles up to the forcefield, close enough for me to recognize its blurry form, but everything else beyond it blurs into a white void. I graze the barrier with my fingertips only to be blasted back several feet.
Ow.
Gravel bites into my ass as I rub my head.
Allie clicks her tongue. “Careful.”
I dust off my pants and stand. “Something’s not right. Can you feel it?”
“The vibrations of power? Yep.” She brings a hand to her chest. “It’s like standing in the middle of a rock and roll concert.”
“It’s…wild.”
The unsteady thuds spark off in a series of uneven beats. Energy drums through the land below us, and I walk around the corner of the building to look through the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
Allie catches up to my rear. “Is the force field meant to keep hollows in or out?”
The dining hall’s tables lay on their sides, many of them in shambles. Arrows and swords stick out of the furniture.
“What do you think happened here?” Allie asks.
I boost myself through the broken window and graze the closest blade. “Nothing good. Hollows don’t use swords, right?” The itch at the back of my skull spreads to my spine. We missed more than the summer; we missed a battle of some kind. The weapons are without a doubt Fae-made. Threads of copper and silver adorn the hilts, like the ones the soldiers held at the palace, and my breath stutters. What did Cole do when I didn’t return?
A high, frighteningly familiar hiss curdles my blood.
White smoke whistles out from the debris, only a few paces in front of me.
“Jules, get out!” Allie shouts at my back.
“Fuck.” I spin around and leap through the broken window.
A piece of glass digs deep into my leg, but I pry it off with a wince, not stopping for a second as we run back toward the cliffs. Did Barron know hollows waited for us here? Did he sense them, somehow?
Allie slows down. “They’re not chasing after us. They seem corralled inside the walls.”
