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An unnatural sort of silence descends upon Somnia. The back of my neck pricks.

… He … Is … Here …

I turn around, my shadows billowing out of me as I head back inside.

Who?

… … …

I stride into the bedroom, and that’s when I see it.

A shadow looms over Callie, one dark arm reaching out to pet her hair.

Kill.The thought is instinctual.

My darkness unleashes itself. It sweeps across the room, wrapping around the shadow. I expect my magic to devour the creature, as it does all magical things, but it won’t.

It …can’t.

The thing cackles once, a wispy, hollow sound that seems to come from somewhere else, and then it’s gone.

I only get moments to make sense of what I saw. Then the quiet night is quiet no longer.

A thousand screams shatter the silence. They come from deep in the bowels of the castle, the shrieks shaking the earth.

I know what I’m hearing before even the shadows can confirm it.

The sleeping women have awoken.