Page 34 of Ravenous Prophecy
And I could feel Williams’s men turn on each other, screaming in a horrible, wrenching way as they became pure instinct, desperate in a fight for dominance as they fell on each other, weapons and hands and mouths tearing into flesh.
I felt bile rise up my throat. What had I done?
But then there was something else with me.
Good. Yes. More.
I turned, although my eyes were unseeing, although all I could do was feel the presence.
More. More. Yes. Moremoremoremoremoreyesmoremoreyes.
And I was seeing something new, a billion small lights, all mine for the taking. I could turn them, turn them to me, I could consume them. I could—I could?—
Someone pulled the helmet off my head. Griffin knelt infront of me, his face bruised, his hands bloody, and he said, “That’s enough, Bradley. We’re safe.”
The men were still pounding into each other, their bodies continuing the fight, their faces warping as though their human skeletons were shifting and becoming something else. Something terrible. Their red eyes didn’t even blink, a million small lenses seeing everything.
I could see it. They were becoming the Hive.
“I can’t stop them,” I said helplessly. Elaine screamed, using her magic to shove the men apart, their arms still grabbing for each other, even as they were tearing apart dead flesh, tearing skin from hollow bones.
Julian threw himself in front of Elaine, using his blade to keep the men coming toward her at bay. She grunted, blood dripping from her nose as she reached for more magic, more binding.
“You have to stop them!” Griffin was right in front of me, his hands framing my face. “You can do this.”
“I can’t,” I whispered. I hadn’t done it in the first place.
Liar. You know who you are.
I reached up to slap my hands over my ears, but Griffin was already there, his hands tight, grounding me here. Even without the helmet, I could feel the buzz of it, the way they shivered in the back of my head.
Their voices had been extinguished, not by death but by the overwhelming voice that still spoke in the back of my own head, still promised something I couldn’t name but wanted so badly it nearly tore me apart.
Moremoremoremore.
“Enough,” I whispered.
Griffin frowned at me, his face worried, and he said, “Sweetheart, I don’t think you understand.”
I shook my head, and when he started to loosen his grip, I raised my hands and pressed them harder against my own face. Closing my eyes, I dug into that voice, the relentless hunger.
“Enough. You have enough. You cannot have more. You are full, you are sated. You haveenough.”
I didn’t open my eyes, the buzzing so intense I could feel it throughout my body. I tightened my grip on Griffin’s hands, and he met me, pressing his forehead against mine. One by one, I felt the men in the room drop, going slack in Elaine’s restraints.
As they did, the voice in my head got louder, now a shout so intense I could see colors behind my eyes, see the brilliant red of… something else.
“You did it,” Griffin said, his voice wondering. “You stopped them.”
Footsteps approached, and Elaine asked, “What happened? What was that?”
“My babies!” Kane wailed.
My eyes snapped open, and I shouted, just a moment too late, “No!”
Kane put one of the discarded helmets on his head. His whole body shook, his hand trembling when he reached out, grabbing at thin air. Brigette appeared in his grasp, struggling to breathe, squirming as he lifted her off the floor.
“What did you find, little thief?” His voice was distorted, the helmet echoing it. Strange mandibles formed around his mouth, click-clacking out of a gap between thehelmet and his chin as he warbled. “Shall I take it from your mind?”
