We race for the warehouse, and I try not to think about what will happen if we’re too late. We won’t have the killer at all, just another victim. One I don’t think I can live without.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Anora and the Cercatore

Another scream tears from my throat, and I try to pull away, but the creature has my hands held tight in its own, and it’s pulling me closer. It turns its head upward toward the ceiling in an unnatural way, unhinging its jaw so its mouth opens wide. It no longer resembles my grandpa. It’s a tall creature made of darkness, with long limbs as pointed as its teeth.

Glass breaks somewhere in the distance, and something heavy knocks into me. I hit the ground hard, landing on my back with Natalie over me, hands holding down my arms, her legs clamped tight against mine. I recognize this control. She’s trying to incapacitate me.

“Get off me or I swear—”

“What? You’ll kill me too?”

For a moment, I go completely still and glare at her, then I realize something’s off about her appearance—most notably, the large black wings sprouting from her back. That’s when I lose it.

“Get off of me! Get away from me!” I thrash, trying to loosen her hold. The thread ignites between us, and Natalie springs away. I scramble to my feet and get a good look at her. She’s Natalie all right, but different. She’s leaner, but maybe I never noticed before because she doesn’t wear skin-tight black suits to school. Her hair is slick and straight, falling over her shoulders in a sheet. Then there are the wings—huge sweeping black-metallic things that surround her like a halo.

“Get her out of here!”

I freeze—I’d know that voice anywhere.

Shy.

I twist to find him, but he doesn’t look like the Shy I know—his blond hair is silver and falls to his shoulders, and black wings sprout from his back. He takes my place in front of the thing that looked like my poppa moments earlier, two long blades clasped in his hands.

What is going on?

“Go!” Natalie pushes me forward, and someone grabs my wrist. I try to pull away but recognize the voice.

“It’s me,” Thane says. “Do what they say!”

What the actual hell? Did he just tell me to do what they say? Shouldn’t he be helping me fight them?

Thane drags me toward the door, but the creature of shadow screams, and tentacles explode from it, stretching out and knocking us to the ground. Something flies past me—another one of the bird creatures. I scramble to my feet and find the three poised before the creature, blades exposed in the pale light filtering through the thin windows above.