Book One – Chapter 10

Midnight needed to turn this hunt around, but amidst the frantic flurry of senses and actions, she struggled to think. She could not outrun the shadebeast forever, nor could she fight him with her claws alone. She could not face him as long as her pathera body left her vulnerable. Running had been her instinctual response, and it still seemed the only viable action. Yet, she knew that she needed to do more, to understand more, but her thoughts were all chaos and confusion. In the heat of the chase, she found herself reacting purely on impulse, her mind fully consumed by the urgency of the moment. Against all that felt natural, she strained to think ahead, to let her body handle the running and sensing, so that her mind could strategise.

Midnight needed to shift — better. It was imperative if she wanted to evade the sprites’ interference. They still swirled around her, manifesting in and out of the walls in an attempt to distract and trip her, ever laughing and shouting misleading directions. Their power over her infuriated her. Before encountering them, every shift into darkness had filled Midnight with exhilaration. Everything had felt exactly right, but they insisted she was wrong. She did not know what that meant. She did not know what they wanted; their many words rushed through her mind with a forcefulness that left her reeling. Midnight’s thoughts became increasingly muddled, drowned in an overwhelming surge of emotions; a flood of rage, a torrent of angst and anger that came not from her body, not from something she sensed, but from her own words.