Seraphine’s scream barely left her lips before cold, dead fingers clamped around her throat. Edric—or the thing wearing his body—gurgled a grotesque approximation of a breath, its neck tilting unnaturally to one side. Clouded eyes, sunken and void, bore into her.
Her body locked in terror. The warmth of life drained from her limbs, leaving her frozen as Edric’s broken form lurched closer, pressing its weight against her.
"Beautiful, isn’t it?" Selene Nocturna whispered, her voice dripping with amusement. She watched from the shadows, arms crossed beneath her tattered cloak. Her lips curled into a grin, bloodied and cruel.
Seraphine’s mind screamed at her to run. To fight. But her body refused to obey.
Edric’s grip tightened. His mouth opened in a silent scream, lips peeling back as something black wriggled inside his throat. His body convulsed, veins pulsing with an unnatural force.
Selene stepped forward, her fingers brushing Seraphine’s cheek. Cold. Icy. Rotten.