Page 56 of Lethal Souls

Followed by another.

That noise is why I woke up.

I climb out of bed just as my door bursts open. Killian appears, his eyes wide beneath the flickering candlelight.

“Something’s happening.” His voice is a rumble. “We need to find a way out of here.”

Someone belts out a bloodcurdling scream from a distance.

I gasp. “Who was that?”

“Dunno.” Killian flings his hand, demanding that I hurry. I rush his way, and we walk a fast pace through the corridor. There’s a door at the end, but the guards aren’t there. Not only that, but the door is halfway open.

On the other side, there’s a pulsing orange light, and it’s growing brighter the closer we get. When we near the door, someone else screams at the top of their lungs.

Killian shoves the door open, and I start to follow him until he raises an arm and my chest slams right into it.

“Stop,” he murmurs.

“Why? What’s—” My sentence falls short. There’s no need for Killian to explain because the reason is right in front of me.

Spread through the second wing are bodies, at least a dozen of them. There are a mixture of servants and guards…and there is only one thing they all have in common: they’re dead.

Killian steps over one of the guards before squatting to study him. His neck is bent at an odd angle, and his skin is sunken and gray, like he’s been drained of life.

“Who would do this?” I whisper.

“Not The Council. They may be selfish, but they’d never kill their servants unless there was a betrayal. I doubt this many people have betrayed them.” Killian leans down some more, and that’s when I notice the glowing orange veins in the guard’s neck. “Definitely not The Council.” He turns his head left and rises slowly. The pulsing orange light is coming from another wing. “How are we going to get out of here?” Killian mumbles.

A clatter in the distance makes me jump, and Killian tenses. “You should return to the room. Let me see what’s going on first. I don’t want you trapped in any shit.”

“No, Killian. I’m not letting you go alone. It’s my fault you’re even in this situation.”

“Willow, no. Caz would kill me if he knew I was letting you walk into what could be a fucking death trap.”

“I don’t care. I’ll tell him you were left with no choice.” I walk past him and step over the bodies.

“Willow! Wait,” Killian hisses.

I rush down the next carpeted wing, growing closer to the light. Then I hear voices murmuring. Someone’s around. I’m almost near the room they’re in but before I can make it, I spot a body hanging over the iron railing.

Their build is familiar, and my heart pounds harder as I move closer to them. When I peek over the railing and find their face, I see that it’s Sylvie, only her skin is no longer a rich brown and her hair has turned gray. Just like the guard, she has glowing orange veins pulsing through her skin.

“Sylvie?” I whisper. My eyes burn as I stare at her lifeless body.

“Willow,” Killian calls. “Leave it. There’s nothing we can do.”

“Who would do this? I—I don’t understand. Is this because she helped me?”

Killian shakes his head. “Whatever’s going on around here has nothing to do with you.” He turns away to get to one of the dead guards. With a soft grunt, he snatches the sword out of his hand, and the blade gleams beneath the quivering candle lights.

The murmurs are louder now. Killian holds up a finger, insisting that I stay put. He steps closer to the door and peeks through the gap.

My breathing comes to a halt. I’m too afraid to exhale, too afraid to move. What they’ve done to Sylvie will probably happen to us next.

My stomach coils into knots, and I swear I’m going to throw up again seeing all these dead bodies.

But all my worries transform to fear when the murmuring stops, a shadow appears in the light, and Killian is snatched into the room.