Blood War (Book 1, the Halfblood Chronicles)

32.1 | Shadows of the Moon

In her heart, Nika knew it. She knew that Miles was gone, that the corpse rising from his grave was not the boy she'd known for years, the one who'd claimed to love her. But something in the way he extended his hand, in the way he smiled was so heartbreakingly familiar, that she stepped forward and reached out.

Neekah

She shuddered at that voice, ancient and cold as a winter-choked mountain, knowing that dangerous things lay ahead. But Miles's eyes, red and glowing, beckoned her.

Come, Nika. Take my hand.

And so she moved closer, reaching farther.

"Nika, don't!" someone screamed from far away.

Listen to me, said Miles. Join me.

She was a few steps away from him when the world spun out of control. The sky exploded with thunder. Scarlet light rained from the heavens. Wolves howled and gunshots blasted.

And then—a pair of eyes, deep and dark as the space between the stars. "Nika! Snap out of it!" said a low, rough voice. "Put up your mental shield."

She blinked, and Ren's face came into focus. As he sighed in relief, Nika slammed a wall of diamond around her mind and assessed her surroundings. Lu stood nearby with a keeper, sending Nika a look of desperation, while Misha and Emil fought Miles, or the thing that had stolen his skin.

Nika gaped at him. He was wearing a suit trimmed perfectly to his lean physique, and if his rotten, flaking skin hadn't been a hideous shade of gray, if maggots hadn't been wriggling on his shoulders and falling out of his hair, she might have thought he looked handsome. Both infectious and adorable in a way that only Miles knew how to engineer.

She noted the slash marks on his face and neck, peeking above his white collar. Death wounds, she realized. Her eyes fell lower—to Asteroth hanging around his neck. It was no longer glowing, as if the swirling, red energy of the pendant had been transferred to Miles's eyes.

Not Miles. It was Asteroth.

Ren had explained it as they'd sprinted away from the clearing and into the cemetery. Elliot had figured out from Konstantin's journal that the demon could be released into a Daemonstri's dead body. And the most recent Daemonstri burial in this area had been Miles's.

Had this been the alpha's plan all along, to kill Miles and let Tatiana resurrect him as Asteroth? Had that been the price for her help with breaking the curse?

Nika's stomach lurched at the idea. He'd been a child, and now, the demon-witch had made him a monster.

As if in confirmation of her thoughts, Asteroth threw Misha down, earning the crack of bone and a scream of agony. Then he opened his mouth and screeched a devil's howl, a sound not of this world. Nika's hands flew to her ears as that high-pitched, scraping noise erupted into the storming sky.

The demon possessing Miles tilted his head back and let that monster-song ring on and on. Lightning sputtered and slammed into the earth behind him. The clouds overhead thickened and swirled, and from the crimson light that seemed to absorb everything it touched, creatures began to form. Monsters of shadow and malice, vile shapes with razor teeth and talons. They moved like mist, chasing after the Volkari that ran for their lives on all-fours.

One of the shadow-monsters took form overhead and dropped down beside Nika. She realized her machete was missing and could only block her face as it lunged.

Ren shot at it, but it dissolved around the bullet and materialized fifteen feet away, hissing viciously.

"Run!" Ren screamed.