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Fuck. Fuck.Fuck.

I gripped the creature's head and sliced it off with one motion.

I stepped over both bodies and kept moving forward. If the vampyre had gotten that far, there was no use in trying to save the victim. Death had already taken hold.

I turned into the main hallway, where the front doors of the castle had been pushed open, only to find ten more creatures funneling indoors.

This wasn’t happening. Thiscould not behappening.

Vampyres had made their way into the castle.

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

“Wake up!” I yelled, my voice echoing through the castle. “Grab your weapons! Vampyres are attacking!”

I didn’t look to see if anyone else had jumped into action before catapulting myself forward to stab another vampyre in the chest.

What the fuck was going on? There weren’t systems in place for this? Sirens? Warnings of any kind?

How could they possibly have gotten this far into Moira?

“Huntyr!” Voiler’s voice rang through the castle. “On your right!”

I spun just in time to see another decaying corpse’s jaws coming straight toward me.

I raised Venom, but Voiler was already there, leaping onto the creature’s back and twisting its head from its body.

Hells.

“Thank you,” I breathed.

She nodded. “You take the left side. I’ve got your back.”

Ashlani cried out in horror and disgust behind us, clearly not used to seeing these morbid creatures.

“No,” I argued. “I can fend them off. Go find the others. We need to secure the entire castle. There could be hundreds more waiting for us outside.”

She hesitated at first; I could tell she wasn’t comfortable leaving me alone.

“Go!” I urged.

But she clenched her jaw and ran back down the hallway leading to the bedrooms, where the others would get ready to fight.

I just had to hold the vampyres off long enough for the others to get here.

Wolf. Where was Wolf? Where was Headmistress? Where wasanyone?

I crept forward until the hallway split in two. The right led to the courtyard, to the center of the castle. The left led toward the front gates.

I turned left.

Another scream rang out in the distance, one that made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up.

Fighting these creatures in such a beautiful, protected castle sent an eerie wave of terror down my spine. This was much, much different from fighting these things in Midgrave, in the crumbling town of chaos and poverty.

These half-dead beasts had somehow managed to get into Moira Seminary, which was blessed by the archangels and protected by dozens of powerful, magic-wielding fae.