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But what if the Shadow Killer had come back for Mikaela?
I had just decided to go back into the infirmary when the screams began.
They weren’t behind us.
We followed the screaming and the sounds of chaos through the halls to the main foyer.
Some students were shouting and panicking, while others, along with the professors, were casting spells, etching runes and flinging magic at streams of darkness that snaked through the foyer and up the staircase to higher levels, snatching students and professors and tossing them without fanfare into the shadows.
One student was grabbed from what looked like the third floor and was dropped, screaming.
I cringed in anticipation of the sound of her body breaking against the floor, but it didn’t happen.
She fell into a shadow halfway down and was gone.
Professor Pulmeyer was using mirrors to dart in and around the shadow-tentacles, casting spells, trying to contain them, but she either didn’t see one or miscalculated and was suddenly snatched up and flung into a shadow.
Seeing my professor launched so casually into the shadow realm somehow broke the paralysis that had kept me frozen, staring in shock at the chaos, and my shadow-beast lunged to the surface, roaring in rage.
For a split second, it was as if I was both human and shadows at the same time, then the human inside me just let everything go.
The fear that I was a monster destined to kill millions like the one whose actions had condemned my kind.
The iron control I kept on my shadows at all times, to never reveal my monster to my classmates.
My dread of them discovering what I was and condemning me for it.
I let it all go and everything that boiled inside me—the loneliness of being the last of my kind, the heartbreak at having my fated mate reject me and the rage at the execution order that had resulted in the genocide of all shadow-beasts everywhere—exploded free.
I became nothing but shadows and those shadows were one with the shadow realm.
I could somehow sense where my classmates and professors were—the Shadow Killer had claimed more than the ones I’d seen and he’d scattered them far and wide, yet I knew exactly where they were and sent my shadows chasing after them.
Then, it was as if my entire being was split in two as part of me raced through the shadow realm while the other part remained in the castle, monitoring the battle against the Shadow Killer.
I was peripherally aware of Headmistress Blackthorn and another group of professors arriving in a rush, magic exploding everywhere as they battled the Shadow Killer.
I also sensed the nurse and her assistants arriving and moving victims away from the foyer where the battle was taking place.
Most of my awareness, though, was split between the massive job of tracking the lost ones and monitoring Jahrdran as he hunted the Shadow Killer through the lower floors of the castle, undoubtedly hoping to stop the killer before he claimed more victims.
Meanwhile, my shadows went everywhere, thin ribbons of darkness and power snaking through the shadow realm, hunting the ones he’d already claimed, until finally, they found the ones they sought.
My shadows wrapped around my classmates and professors andyankedthem all back at once, straight into the castle where they belonged.
The minute my shadows set them down, they all collapsed onto the floor, where they simply sat and watched as I pulled my shadows back in, then launched them out again.
The Shadow Killer was high above us now, at the very top of the castle, seeking more victims, though most had fled into their rooms.
Jahrdran was racing up the stairs, leaping from shadow to shadow, closing in on the fifth floor.
I saw the moment the Shadow Killer realized he was being hunted.
His shadows rolled down the staircase, heading directly for my mate.
Fury blazed inside as I wrapped my shadows around me, then launched us upward together.
The Shadow Killer must have sensed me coming, for his shadows dove off the stairs and barreled toward me.
