I let the door close quietly after they enter. Alik is already walking past the living room and into the adjoining room that’s a smaller living space. He starts climbing up the stairs, Fox behind him, Brynsyn falls into line behind me.
The room leading to the attic is all the way at the end of the hall, so I keep my steps quiet. The glamor may be on the guys but I can still be easily seen and I don’t have time to field questions on why I’m up here.
We step inside the room and Brynsyn closes the door behind us. Like last time, there’s a bunch of boxes and books strewn everywhere.
No Neryssa.
Apprehension moves through me as I look at the stairs that lead to the attic. The abaron flying at me moves through my head, the power that had exploded from Neryssa, blinding pain surging into my body.
Brynsyn moves past Alik, heading up the stairs without any hesitance, just like last time.
Alik stops at the first step, turning his head to look at me. I can feel Fox’s stare boring into the back of my neck.
“You know you don’t have to come up,” Alik says and that usual commanding asshole act drops as he looks over at me. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this side of him. After I’d lost my powers, he’d been the first to try to comfort me, and when schools starts every year and I’m thrown back to that time, he’s there to hold me, his soft whispers telling me that everything will be okay, that my powers will come back eventually.
And the look on his face now is telling me that if I need to stay behind, he’ll stay with me.
I swallow, pinching my fingers together.
I don’t want to go up.
But I also want to know why Neryssa hasn’t returned.
“I’m okay,” I say, hesitantly moving toward him.
He watches me for a second longer before nodding and heading up the stairs.
A swear leaves his lips before he’s even on the final step. He rushes forward, disappearing out of sight and I follow behind him, Fox on my heels.
I stop dead in my tracks, blinking at the scene before me.
Brynsyn is frozen in place and I don’t mean it figuratively. He’s suspended in the air, his arms stretched out behind him. His face is twisted as if in place, but it's locked in that way, not changing. Even his chest isn’t moving.
A creature stands in front of him, sharp teeth exposed, long black claws reaching out as they wrap around Brynsyn’s neck. Onyx eyes focus in on its target, its cheekbones pulled back tightly creating a deep hollow beneath its eyes. Purple hair flies as its head turns and its gaze locks on me.
I can’t move as fear races over me, not even as the monster that I know is Neryssa lets out a loud roar and charges at me.
To be continued in “Of Fae & Spite”