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“You made the call,” the man repeats, staring at me with dark eyes. “So, you better be ready to do this, son. Because no one else can. You’re in charge of these people now. So, you see them to safety.”
As I move slowly through the crowd, it parts on either side of me. Pria puts her hand firmly on my shoulder. “Well, well, well,” she says. “Looks like you got what you always wanted, Garratt.”
I swallow forcefully but do not turn to look at her.
“These people trust you. Implicitly. Without you having to do anything to prove yourself. You’re in charge.”
“I have never wanted to be in charge of anything.”
Pria rolls her eyes and scoffs at me. “Nonsense,” she says. “You love controlling people, manipulating people. I’ve seen you playing your games. We all know what you’re like.”
“Games,” I hiss. “Meaningless games. Scamming people to get a little extra money out of them. Twisting people against one another so I can sneak in and take advantage. Not this. Not...”
Shrugging, Pria withdraws her hand. “Well, maybe not. But this is what you’ve ended up with. So, you better pull yourself together.”
I hold my breath in my chest, letting it swell and burn behind my ribs. I don’t know why I’m doing this when everything inside me is telling me to run as fast as I can in the opposite direction.
But, despite my better judgement, I lift the staff high in the air and call, “Follow me. To the library on the shore.”
We walk for hours. When we reach the shore, sunset is upon us and the beach is cast in an eerie almost-darkness. We approach on foot, on the sand, all fifty of us moving as one towards the place we’ll be safe.
But then I feel it.
The darkness in the air.
I stop, and everyone else stops too.
“What is it?” Pria asks, hand going to the dagger on her waist as she peers into the distance.
“Something isn’t right,” I whisper.
I can see the outline of the caves from here. Silhouetted against the velvety night sky, they look completely unassuming.
I am still staring when the ground starts to rumble beneath my feet.
A crack appears on the beach. It stretches from between our crowded-together bodies all the way along the sand towards the cave. Another rumble. And then the beach begins to split open.
The crack becomes wider.
We jump back, scrambling to keep from falling.
It stops, about a foot wide, exposing nothing but inky blackness below the beach.
But the rumbling does not stop. Now, it sounds like feet. Feet and... wings.
“Garratt...” Elodie’s voice cracks as she whispers my name. She grabs my arm and grips so hard I almost release a growl of pain.
I stare in the direction she is staring.
From the cave mouth, a swarm emerges.
A swarm of fae with huge black wings, and red eyes, and black veins on their pale skin. They keep coming and coming, so many of them, screaming into the air and coming and coming until the beach is barely visible anymore.
“Garratt...” Elodie shakes me. “What do we do?”
I look down at her, then I turn to the others, lift the staff high, and yell, “Run! Run now!”
FIFTEEN
