I couldn't breathe. Everything around me was happening in slow motion—Regina pinned against a tree with a specter's shadowy claws around her throat, her eyes bulging, gasping for air that wouldn't come. Ronan, bloodied and desperate, fighting three specters at once, unable to reach his sister.
We were going to die here.
My heart hammered against my chest. The specters had surrounded us so quickly, their shadows moving like liquid darkness, impossible to fight. Ronan's claws passed through them uselessly, while they seemed able to tear into flesh with horrifying ease.
"Regina!" he shouted, his voice raw with panic as he saw his sister being slowly choked to death. Blood streamed from a gash across his forehead, partially blinding him.
I stood frozen, watching this nightmare unfold. What could I do? I had no weapons, no training, nothing but the strange power inside me that I barely understood and couldn't control.
