Crown of Moonlight (Court of Midnight and Deception #2) - K.M. Shea Page 0,31

to go buy the dog biscuits, and maybe another pumpkin donut,” I said. “Is there anything you wanted—a dagger, perhaps?”

Whiskers got intrigued with something on the opposite side of the parking lot and meandered past me, twining his leash around my legs. I spun in a circle to free myself, then glanced at Rigel when he didn’t respond. “Rigel?”

Rigel wordlessly slid his hidden daggers out of his bracers. He whispered a word under his breath, and both of the daggers pulsed with magic.

Oh boy.

I swung around, and got to see the terrifying sight of ten creatures detaching from the shadows of the building and stalking toward us.

Chapter Eight

Leila

Like the one I’d fought during the race, they were vaguely humanoid in shape, except their shoulders were broader and their hands were clawed. Their feet ended in dragon-like paws, and their heads were about half the size they should have been. Shadows writhed where their faces should have been. The only visible features were three pairs of narrowed red eyes, and a wide mouth of gleaming white teeth that split their heads.

I dug my prism out of my pocket with one hand and got it activated as I unbuckled Kevin’s collar, and then Whiskers’. “Chase!”

The werewolf was all over it. “We need back up—in the parking lot between the police station and post office. Ten shadow monsters!” Chase barked into his earpiece as he ran down one of the monsters. He unsheathed a saber and stabbed it into the creature’s gut, then ripped it upwards, eviscerating the monster.

Black spilled from the wound. The creature howled as it folded in on itself and dissolved. I could feel the magic that made up the creature—it was slick and oily, and while it held the feel of fae magic—whisper soft and a little sticky like a spider web—it had something else to it. Something fully encased by the fae magic, hiding it so I didn’t get more than a faint impression or two that there was something different to it.

Kevin jumped the nearest one, grabbing it by the throat and ripping. The monster fell as if it no longer had bones to support it, then it disappeared like shadows blasted by light.

Whiskers pounced, clearing the long distance and jumping so high he attacked from above, digging his claws into a monster’s face.

Rigel moved like a shadow himself, appearing everywhere seemingly at once.

He stabbed one creature in the back, instantly killing it. It dissolved like the others as he stepped back into the shadows. He reappeared in front of one that was making a beeline for Chase’s unprotected back.

My stomach shivered in my gut as I created a barrier around myself. A monster jumped me, but the barrier held, and it bounced off, hitting the ground with a splat.

Thinking back on the monster I’d defeated in the middle of the Magiford Midsummer Derby, I spun magic into a ward—which glowed purple around the fallen monster’s feet. When I finished the spell and tied it off, the ward bloomed into a barrier that vertically cut through the monster.

It gurgled, then dissolved.

I made myself turn in a tight circle, confirming that the monsters were sticking to the parking lot. “They’re after us—it doesn’t look like they’re going to go after the public.”

“Of course they’re after us,” Chase growled, his voice rough as his gold eyes gleamed in the dim light. “They waited until you were around fewer people to attack you!” He stabbed a shadow monster, and behind him Kevin bit into the leg of another—holding it even as it dug its claws into his back.

“Kevin!” I shouted.

Whiskers launched himself at the monster’s back and bit its neck.

The creature collapsed and folded over.

That should have been the eighth out of ten monsters. But why are there still ten of them?

My stomach still rattled around in my guts as I narrowed my eyes and forced myself to stop moving and watch.

Rigel stabbed two creatures at once, digging his twin daggers into their guts.

The monsters fell, dissolved, and then two more detached from the shadows of the building.

“They’re multiplying!” I yelled. “They keep coming out of the shadows.”

“Should we move to a sunny area?” Chase asked.

I shook my head as I tried thinking of all the magic I knew. “We can’t risk hurting everyone at the market.”

My prism hummed in my clammy palms as I held it out in front of me, channeling magic through it into something useable. “I’ll try to blast the place with light, but it’s going