Page 19 of Shadow Kissed

I jump in fright and turn in a circle, seeking the owner of the sinister voice. My eyes widen when I see a crowd of mutts gathering in front of me. They don’t attack. They simply stand there silently, as if they’re waiting for me.

“Come to me,” I whisper to them. The mutt at the head of the pack lifts his head and howls into the night and a flurry of responding howls echo through the darkness. The alpha mutt lowers its head towards me before turning back towards its pack and with a grunt, leads the others back into the dense forest.

“Wake Up!” The voice shouts in my ear, frightening the life out of me.

I sit bolt upright in bed. My eyes wide and alert. Did someone scream? Have I just experienced a nightmare? That’s impossible, nightmares no longer exist. A high-pitched, terrifying scream rips through the silence of the night and Iknow that I haven’t imagined it. I jump out of bed and run to the window. I cover my mouth to hold back the scream that rises when I see what’s outside. Black four-legged creatures roam through the town, their purple eyes glowing in the light of the moon. I curse out loud when the Gatehouse bell rings. Mutts have breached the walls.

How is this possible?

I scramble for my clothes, shouting across the landing to my brothers to wake up. I throw on my leather trousers, shirt, and tunic then reach for my dagger.

“Mother!” I yell just as she comes out onto the landing, clutching a shawl around her shoulders. “Mutts. They’ve breached the walls.”

My mother staggers back, placing her hand over her heart. “I’ve failed you. This is all my fault.”

“Elian, Corym, get dressed quickly!” I yell, ignoring my mothers’ strange comments and shaking my brothers awake. “Get dressed. It’s all going to be okay.”

Elian shakes in fear when he hears a scream from outside. “Are we going to die?”

I grab him by the shoulders and look him firmly in the eyes. “No, we’re not going to die. But I need you to remain calm and do exactly as I tell you, okay?”

He nods his head, his big beautiful blue eyes filled with fear. “Come on both of you get dressed, quickly and quietly.” They silently pull on their clothes. I leave them briefly to place the bolt on the window shutters in my room and then I do the same in theirs. We all congregate on the landing as the screaming and mayhem outside intensifies. We silently head to the one room in the house that has no windows and gather there, huddled in a circle. I rush to the fireplace and grab the metal poker and fork, offering them to my brothers.

Corym looks down at the poker in his hands and back up at me in bewilderment. “What good is this? It won’t kill them.”

“No, it won’t,” I agree. “But it may injure one long enough for you to escape.”

“Reya, I’m scared,” Elian confesses, holding the iron fork in his hand and visibly shaking. Elian is a lover not a fighter. He is the one who always brings injured animals’ home to nurse them back to health. Corym is the braver of the two. He fears nothing—he’s always out climbing trees and getting up to mischief. I cup Elian’s face in my hands and smile at him reassuringly.

“We’re going to be okay. The shadow army are here, remember? If anyone can stop them, they can.”

They both nod. Corym pushes his shoulders back and holds the iron poker out in front of him. “I’ll protect my brother.” My heart breaks in that moment, seeing my little brother wielding a weapon and ready to defend his family.

A loud thud at our front door makes us all jump with fright. I press my finger to my lips and urge my brothers to be still and quiet. We all fix our eyes on the door. Something scratches at the wood, and a deep growl reverberates across the silent space. I hold my dagger out in front of me, stepping in front of my brothers and my mother and wait. The creature scratches at the door again and then it whimpers and falls silent. I let out a breath of relief that it’s moved on just as the door splinters open and two snarling, hungry mutts appear in the open space.

“Gods!” I curse, wielding my dagger in front of me with one hand as I urge my family back towards the hearth with my other. This is bad. Really bad.

One of the creatures scans the room, sniffing the air. Its eyes take in my family, but they pause on me and the mutt makes a strange almost purring sound and retreats from the house. It nudges the other away and they take off into the night.

“It’s not safe here,” I say turning to my mother. “You should head to the mines. The abundance of crystals up there should mask our scent and throw them off,” I suggest.

“Reya!” I hear Arkynn’s voice pierce through the sounds of the screaming and the town bells.

“Reya, don’t you dare step foot outside this house!” Mother says, ushering my brothers towards the stairs. She pauses when she sees I’m not following, and she looks at me and shakes her head. “No. Leave it to the shadow men and our watch men, Reya. You don’t need to do this.”

I offer her a sad smile. “I can fight, Mother. You know I’ve been training with Arkynn and his father since before I could even write. I can help.”

She knows she can’t change my mind. I’m stubborn like that. She reaches for me and pulls me into a warm hug. “They won’t hurt you, Reya. The creatures. Trust me on this. Nor will they enter this house. We’re safe here.”

“I need to go,” I tell her, quickly dropping kisses on my brothers’ heads. “I’ll come for you when it’s safe.”

I watch my family climb the stairs and breathe a sigh of relief when I hear the bolt locking them securely in my mother’s bedroom. I need to try and get to the armoury and find myself something more substantial than this dagger. As beautiful as it is, it’s not going to offer me much protection tonight. I step outside of the house and into the street, taking in a sharp breath when I see the street littered with bodies. Lifeless and still, their eyes still open wide showing the fear they felt when they took their last breath. Frightened to death. That’s how the mutts kill their prey. They feed on your fears and literally scare you to death. I shake my head and pull my eyes away from the body of a neighbour. I stay close to the shadows of the houses and quietly make my way through town. I reach the armoury and say a silent prayer to Mother Crystal when I find there are still weaponshere. I grab myself a shield and one of the lighter swords then head back outside. When I reach the square, it’s carnage. Bodies litter the ground and the Shadow Borne fight with their shadows to keep the mutts from attacking anymore Asen’s.

“Reya!”

My eyes snap in the direction of his voice. Arkynn is across the square fighting off two vicious looking mutts. One charges him and he manages to catch it on its side with his sword. I whimper as pain rushes through me, then I fall to the floor.

“Reya!” Arkynn shouts when he sees me fall. He brandishes his swords keeping the other creature back as the injured one limps away, dripping thick purple blood on to the cobblestones. The injured mutt looks across the square at me and whimpers. ‘Go’ I say to it from in my mind and the creature disappears towards the gates, heading for the sanctuary of the forest.