Page 37 of The Night Prince 6

Declan didn’t know.

Alexia and Tyler had started to hint to him that last summer about his heritage. Trying to find the words to explain who and what he was. As far as they understood it. And, he imagined, they feared telling him would either bring Vulre back or cause Declan to go after him. Either way, the terror of loss sealed their lips until it was too late.

So Alexia had faced the Leviathan not with shock, but with the thought that this was destiny. Fate. Finally, a monster–whether Vulre or Leviathan–had come to take her son away from her. And so she did the only thing she could.

She fought.

She knew he would be coming home in mere moments. And he would walk into the house and maybe directly into this thing made of shadow. He would not have a weapon on him. But she did.

Blindly, she reached behind her for Krith. Her fingers brushed the hilt of the kitchen knife, spinning it, causing it to rattle against the countertop. The Leviathan saw what she was up to and gave a rattling, hissing laugh. Her hand clamped around the knife’s hilt. Her knuckles went white as she swung the weapon around to the front of her. Closed her other hand around it, too.

“Get out!” she growled. “Get out!”

More rattling and shushing of coils as the Leviathan regarded its puny prey. If she wanted to fight, it would “fight” her. It would make her suffer.

“You’re not going to touch my son!” she cried. And then, almost to herself, whispered, “I love you, Declan.”

And she rushed towards darkness.

The scene shifted.

To another woman who was defending her son against another Leviathan.

“Rahven, get behind me!” Ashryn barked, even as she used one of her hands to physically push him there.

But he would not go. He stepped in front of her, which had a cry of fear leave her lips.

“It’s so… so… big,” he whispered.

This Leviathan stretched out from the nearest wall where the wards were anchored to such a far distance that Declan could not see the end of it. The Leviathan billowed upwards from floor to far ceiling. Its smoky coils flaring to life with red light.

So big.

Massive.

As large as the entire cavern.

It was like nothing he had ever seen. Not before that moment. Not during the war. This being was… monstrous.

“Rahven, please,” Ashryn begged, “I need you to run.”

Never had he heard Ashyrn afraid before. Not even when she’d found him and Vulre at each other’s throats. Not even when she’d told him that the dread Night King himself was after them.

“I won’t leave you,” he told her, his eyes fixed on the wall of coils.

“You won’t be. I’ll be right behind you,” she whispered fiercely. “We need to get back to the city. It won’t… won’t follow us there.”

He chanced looking over at her face. He needed to see her eyes. He was certain he would recognize if she was lying to him. She’d done it often enough that he could recognize it now. But her expression was taut with terror. Her red eyes flickered along the unending length of the Leviathan. Was it one creature or many? One. One. ONE. It had snuck up on them. How? Where had it been hiding? But there it was. Huge and unyielding and… and…

“Are you telling me the truth?” he asked.

Her lips parted and her eyes darted to him. Pain lanced through her expression. He’d hurt her. Not intentionally. But because she realized that he had a reason to doubt her. She’d lied to him all his life until recently.

“Yes,” she insisted. “But I need to buy us time to get away. And I want you to get a head start. My legs are longer. I’m faster. I need you to keep up.”

If Vulre had said this, he would have taken it as a challenge. But his mother was merely telling him facts. He was shorter than her. She was faster. So it made sense.

“But what will stop it–”