Primal: Like a Mermaid (The North Shore Fae Book 4) by A.S. Green

Author:A.S. Green [Green, A.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Collinwood Publishing, LLC
Published: 2022-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

14

AOIFE

There was a second of stunned silence. Then somebody screamed. That broke the dam, and the gymnasium flooded in the panicked sounds of students shouting, some of them crying. Their voices were followed by the thunderous roar of feet running for the doors.

“Come on,” Raine said, grabbing Aoife’s hand and dragging her toward the exit, running ahead of the torrent of students. Aoife felt at least a hundred other bodies on her heels, racing behind her, and all of them moving so fast that her weakened legs faltered trying to stay ahead of the pack.

Her knee gave way. She was going down! She’d be trampled to death! But Raine was quick to steady her and keep her moving. Teachers were shouting. Children were crying.

Raine suddenly stopped, pulled open a door. Aoife glanced behind her to see the staff steering panicked students toward that door and, she saw now, the steps leading down into the basement. Staff and older students picked up the youngest fae and carried them downstairs.

“I thought you said the sluagh couldn’t get inside,” Aoife said.

“It can’t, but we don’t want the children to see it, or to get too curious.”

As the last of them disappeared out of view, Raine said, “You, too. Go with them.”

“No,” she said. “I’m staying by you.”

His lips pressed together in a thin line as he considered her words. Then he took her hand and led her to the back of the school and into the greenhouse. The room was thick with potted plants, bags of potting soil, coiled hoses and boxes of trowels. It smelled of sun-warmed fertilizer.

The sky was dark, but the moon was full and bright. The glass walls and ceiling provided the best unobstructed view of the grounds, and it took no effort at all to detect the swirling and spinning forms in the sky. Then, from somewhere outside, there came the sound of pounding…as if something was trying to break down a wall.

“It is trying to get in!” Aoife cried, clinging to Raine’s arm.

“Not in,” Raine said. “Out. It’s the animals. They’re trying to break out of their stalls.”

Aoife could see the outline of a barn through the darkness, and she could hear the desperate bleats and whinnies—so shrill and panicked that the sound escaped the barn, crossed the yard, and carried through the glass walls of the greenhouse.

“We need to do something!” she cried. “They’ll hurt themselves trying to get free.”

A growl filled the air, and Aoife tilted her head back to look up at the sky. The swarm had formed itself into a triangular pattern, now pointed toward the ground. The growl, however, was not coming from the air. It was coming from the ground outside the barn, and it was growing louder.

“Fi,” Raine whispered. “Sweet Danu, no,”

Fi? He didn’t mean… He did. Fiona was out there guarding her animals. Raine ran from the greenhouse and down the corridor, this time not taking Aoife’s hand. Aoife stood there for a second—not knowing what to do—before deciding she didn’t want to be alone.

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