Page 65 of The Shrouded Queen
A woman with nearly translucent skin, veins creating a purple labyrinth of lines, showing clear through her flesh. Ethereal blue eyes beamed out of sunken sockets, and black hair fell in thick, matted cords around her face. The creature was hunched over, her joints so badly twisted that she was incapable of standing upright.
She looked right at me and grinned.
Rade whispered, “Don’t move.”
My muscles locked up, rendering me motionless whether I liked it or not.
The creature walked right up to the Seven and tilted her head at Keir curiously. In the shadows of the Shroud, her companions snickered, the sound like rodents scurrying.
And then the creature steppedthroughKeir. As if he weren’t there at all. Even he couldn’t hold back a shudder.
The ghostly figure stopped in front of me next, blue eyes so bright they were nearly blinding.
The Seven didn’t turn to watch the creature, didn’t attack, but their muscles were tight, prepared to spring into action at any moment.
I clamped my lips shut against my frightened whimper as the creature stepped close enough for me to feel the intense cold leaking off her. Colder than anything I’d ever felt before. It wasn’t a physical cold. It was a cold that had seeped into this creature’s very being. Leeched her of her soul. It was the cold of absence.
She leaned forward and sniffed me.
I struggled not to tremble.
“I was wondering when we’d meet you.” Her voice was like nails scraping against ice. Sharp, grating. It made my insides quake.
Then, faster than my mortal eyes could catch, Keir launched his blade into the Shroud. It glittered briefly as it spun away before disappearing into the dark. An animal’s cry bleated through the silence. He’d hit something.
The creature’s head snapped away from me. She let out a sharp keen, blasting my eardrums, the sound was picked up by the rest of her pack. Then she bolted into the dark.
“Run,” Keir instructed.
Rade grabbed my arm and yanked me into a sprint.
The sound of the creatures’ keens followed us for what seemed like miles. A horribly sad, devastated sound that rattled my bones while also breaking my heart. I couldn’t help but wonder if one of those sad cries belonged to Milena’s grandfather. I shuddered that I had thought about staying here for even a second.
The screams ended with a last strangled shriek, the sound reverberating in the darkness and my eardrums. I finally drew to a panting halt and turned to Rade. “What were they?”
“Ghuls,” Rade answered, his breathing only slightly quicker from our mad run through the darkness. “Human souls trapped between our realm and Shaya’s.”
A shudder went down my spine.
“Come on,” said Rade. We kept moving.
“What did she mean when she said she’d been wondering when they’d meet me?” I asked.
“The creatures are mad,” Keir responded from behind me. “She probably wasn’t even seeing you. Her words were nonsense.”
Rade looked at him over his shoulder, a wealth of meaning illuminated by the glowing paint on his face. A look only they could decipher. But Rade faced forward just as a small hut materialized out of the darkness, and my concerns instantly shifted from the ghuls to the Seer.
Golden light shone in the windows. Someone was home.
Rade paused by the rotted wooden steps leading up to a door with chipping green paint. “You have to go in alone.”
“What?” My eyes darted to the house fearfully.
“Getting your runes—and the fortune they come with—is a very personal matter. The Seven have been instructed not to listen, but we will remain right here.” He took my hand and squeezed. “You will be all right.”
They’d all gotten runes. They’d all been to see the Seer, I told myself. All of them. And they were all standing here, completely fine. I would be, too.
Until I came out with black runes.
