Page 36 of Twisted Souls (Twisted Souls #1)

Zara

I had just gotten out of the bath and had been putting on a change of clothes when an awareness rippled through me. It felt familiar, but I couldn’t place how. I quickly finished changing and peered out of my room into the hallway. No one was there, and the eerily lit halls made my skin pebble.

The memory of me standing in a camp, walking toward a large tent, flashed through my mind, and I realized it was that same sensation. I hadn’t been able to place it then either, but it seemed to call to me like a siren, pulling me closer.

I turned a corner, my fingers brushing the cool, damp stone, and the intensity grew. The compulsion to keep moving forward surged through me, and I quickened my pace as I rounded another corner. The castle's towering arches and intricately carved doorways blurred around me as I slipped through them.

My heart pounded in my chest, not from fear but from an anticipation I couldn’t understand.

I reached the base of a staircase and began to ascend without a second thought. The higher I climbed, the more intense the pull became—like a buzzing energy that coursed through my veins. The air grew colder, and rain seeped through the narrow windows that dotted the stairwell. Thunder crashed, and lightning lit up the stairway as I walked.

I paused before a heavy wooden door at the top, my hand trembling as I lifted it toward the door. I pushed it open a fraction, the creak of the hinges hidden by the pounding of rain, and peered out through the crack.

The open air greeted me with a gust of wind that sent my hair flying. A swirling mass of shadows seemed to thrash in a large circle in the middle of the tower. Gunnar stood near the door, his back to me and his hand outstretched toward the swirling mass. The air seemed too thin, and the swirling shadows exploded outward in a sudden blast, making me cover my face in alarm.

Nothing seemed to happen, and I lowered my arms, peeking back through the crack.

Jaxon lay on the ground clutching his chest, and he seemed to be breathing heavily as he sat up off the ground. Gunnar ran to his side, helping him to his feet, pulling him away from a now smaller shadowy mass next to him. It floated to the ground, and the shadows seemed too thin, revealing Xavier, who now stood silhouetted against the stormy sky.

Xavier turned slowly, his golden-flecked emerald eyes snapping to mine in the crack of the door. I gasped, but he was gone.