Chapter Eight
Vhaena
IN AN INSTANT
The rest of the evening went just like any other night, with the exception of Vosten waiting for me when I was done working—just like Daemon had assured me.
We walked back to our parents’ house together for our nightly dinner with Ma.
The streets were eerily quiet; almost everyone was already in their homes for the night, knowing demons would be taking to the streets soon.
Everyone knew they collected the voted woman…
But Vosten and I never wanted to treat the night any differently.
We still had our late-night dinners together after I was finished with work.
Vosten and I just usually stayed past the demon hour.
Tomorrow would begin the two-day gathering where we would get all the supplies needed to last us for the week of the Hunt.
As usual, Vosten and I would stay with our mother, and hole up in our childhood home.
We did it mainly so we could help Ma, but we also just enjoyed sticking together while the entire town was shut down.
Once we got there, I cooked—chicken breast and gizzards tonight—and we sat at the table together well after we had eaten, roaring with laughter.
“And then he ran out of the bathroom, bare-assed, with his pants around his ankles, thinking the whole house was on fire!” Ma slapped her left hand on the table, unable to control her laughter along with the rest of us.
“Well, yeah! The house was filled with smoke. I thought Vhaena was trying to burn it down!” Vosten added, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes.
“I was not trying to burn the house down, I was trying to fry fish. I was eleven for hells-sake,” I defended with a chuckle, cheeks red with embarrassment.
“Either way, it was—”
Ma was interrupted by a pounding on the door, and we all fell silent, freezing in place.
It was nearly midnight. Despite this being when we regularly ate, it was only due to everyone waiting for me to finish my shift.
No one should be here at this hour. My heart thumped in my chest as we all waited for another loud knock.
Instead of a knock, we heard a commotion outside mixed with the sounds of Neo’s squawks and croaks.
Vosten rose from his seat at the table, lifting the hammer from his work belt and going to the door. With a bruising grip around the handle, he opened the door.
My eyes went wide, taking in the two looming figures standing on our porch. They were both cloaked, their faces masked.
Demons.
“Good ev—”
Vosten slammed the door shut, whipping his head toward me. Dread swirled in his eyes, whispering what he couldn’t voice—words too broken for me to understand. Even without seeing his eyes, I felt the terror from him.
Suddenly, the door burst open, one of them barging into the house. He lunged for Vosten. Behind them was the second demon, fighting off Neo, who had his talon in one of the demon’s eyes, and was viciously pecking at the other.
For a split second, everything stilled, and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what was happening, or why these demons were here, but I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing as Vosten fought the demon off.
They thrashed and tumbled into the walls and furniture.
Fists and weapons, grunts and shouts, filled the small space.
Blood spattered from Vosten’s mouth as the demon’s fist connected with it, knocking him over.
I jumped up, grabbing the nearest item I could use to attack him—which just happened to be a heavy wooden spoon.
Fuck, really?! It’ll have to do.
“Vhaena, don’t!” Ma shouted as she reached for me, but I couldn’t just let the demon beat my twin.
I bounded across the knocked-over chair with the spoon raised, ready to pummel the shit out of that asshole when I heard an ear-piercing screech from the porch. My eyes shot up to the doorway just before I saw Neo’s neck being snapped.
“No!” I screamed.
Faster than I could comprehend, the second demon was on me, tackling me to the ground and knocking the wind out of me.
“Stay down if you know what’s good for you. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
My mouth gaped as I gasped for air. I couldn’t respond. But then I realized why they were here—who they were here for.
They had come for me.
No. This isn’t happening. This has to be a nightmare.
I kicked and thrashed, hitting the demon above me with the spoon.
He tried to take it from me, but I held on tight. He stopped, grappling for it and started shielding his face from a new attacker.
Ma was balancing on one leg and hitting him with her cane. It gave me the chance to try to wiggle out from underneath him.
He caught the cane on the next swing and ripped it from her grasp, causing her to stumble, but she kept her balance. That was, until he swung it at her only working leg, knocking it from underneath her and causing her to fall to the floor with a loud thud.
“Leave her alone!” I was able to get one of my legs free, and I slammed my knee into his groin as hard as I could before leaping to my feet.
He hunched over from the impact, and then I struck him across the face with the spoon. Blood instantly gushed from his nose down onto me, before I shoved him off and left him curled into himself on his side.
A sickening crack drew my attention toward Vosten, and my heart stopped. The demon had wrenched the hammer out of Vosten’s hand, and I watched as he buried it in his head.
No. No. NO!
Everything slowed. One moment he was warm, breathing, alive. The next, he was falling.
My brother. My twin. My guardian. My best friend.
His body tumbled to the floor with a sound I would never forget. A finality that would haunt me forever. His hammer was embedded in his skull, a twisted monument to his work.
My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even blink. The world shifted, darkening into an unrecognizable existence I couldn’t make sense of.
He was the strong one, the constant, the one who kept me standing. And now, I stood over his lifeless body. When he took his last breath, it stole all the air from my world, leaving me with nothing. Leaving me…
“Vos! My baby!” Ma shrieked, but I could barely hear her over the roaring in my head.
The next moment, someone grabbed me from behind and shoved a bag over my head. I reacted, throwing my weight backward and kicking into the air to escape their clutches.
“Vhaena! Vhaena! No! Please, there must be some mistake!”
“Ma—”
Something struck my head, then everything went black.