My brows lifted. “What about it?”
He nodded at the window. “Look for yourself.”
Frowning, I turned and saw that Kieran had picked up on Delano’s emotions. He sent me a look as I crossed the chamber. I shrugged. Opening the window shutters wide, I rested my hands on the windowsill. This side of Wayfair had a pretty decent view of the city to our east and the Elysium Peaks and the Stroud Sea to our west.
Faint golden light crept over the city as I gazed above the homes…
I leaned out farther. Soft hues of rose, lavender, and pale gold painted the sky—the empty sky.
Which made no sense. It was dawn. I turned to the west as Kieran joined me at the window.
My lips parted in disbelief.
“I don’t see anything,” Kieran said.
Delano came closer. “Yeah, there is definitely something.”
“No, there’s—”
Reaching over, I stopped Kieran mid-sentence and turned his head in the other direction. His shock hit me like a bucket of cold water.
“Tell me,” Kieran demanded, pushing away from the window and then snapping back. He gripped the windowsill. “Tell me you’re not seeing what I’m seeing.”
I blinked just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. “Well…”
“There’s no way, Cas,” he said, his voice turning sharp and strained. “None. That, right there.” He jabbed a finger in the direction we stared. “Is impossible.”
It should be.
But it wasn’t. Because we were both looking west, watching the sun rise above the Stroud Sea, where it should have been setting by day’s end—not rising now.
“What the fuck?” Kieran whispered.
“Yeah,” Delano replied.
The three of us fell silent, and the final verse of that damn prophecy came to mind.
Beware, for the end will come from the west to destroy the east and lay waste to all which lies between.
THE PRIMAL
I was so cold.
I was…
What was I?
I wasn’t sure.
I couldn’t think.
A thick fog clouded my mind, leaving room for only the pain—the sharp, stabbing agony invading every limb. The thumping in my temples and behind my eyes. The dryness in my throat. The gnawing hunger in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t figure out what had happened to me or where I was.
Or…whoI was.
But I knewwhatI was.
The Primal.
