Read Online The Dark of Twilight (Twilight Shifters Book 1) by Kate Danley - Free Book Online

happened?"
    Princess Gisla shook her head in confusion.  Her eyes moved rapidly as she tried to bring back the memory.  "I was sitting down to the feast and then..."
    "Darkness?" asked Aein.
    Gisla nodded.  "Darkness."
    The beasts did not let them continue their conversation.  Their muzzles and snouts were covered in blood, but still they came.  Aein poked at them as they tried to come through.  She had no more effect than a gnat on the arm of a giant.  She leaned up against the table, letting the combined weight push the door closed again.
    "Why did you force Finn into the room with the monsters?"
    "There is dark magic at work here," said Aein.  "There is something terrible that we cannot fight.  These wolves are not wolves.  They are all the people I tried to save from the wolves last night.  They are all the people who were trapped in the room with me."
    "What?" asked Gisla, unable to comprehend what Aein was trying to tell her.
    "They are werewolves!" shouted Aein, straining to keep the beasts back.
    "These are people?" Gisla asked.  She ran over and grabbed Aein's sword arm.  "My people?"  Gisla stared at the snapping teeth chewing on the doorframe even though Aein kept slamming the door shut.  "Was the wolf who attacked you... the one that I killed... Did Finn...?"
    Aein drew upon the memory of Finn's strength, of the words he had told her when she collapsed earlier.  She had to be strong enough for both Gisla and herself.  "Finn is one of them, princess, but remember they are not people now.  They are bewitched beasts.  They know not what they do and, right now, it is either them or us."
    "There must be a different way."
    "I am more than open to suggestions."
    Gilsa placed her hand against her forehead, reeling from the information.  "Who would do such a terrible thing?"
    "I do not know," said Aein.  "But I have spent a horrible night hiding from these creatures.  And with the dawn, the werewolves we were fighting disappeared and those I thought were safe transformed."
    "You must go to my father," Gisla said, joining Aein to hold the table in place.  "No matter what happens, if I fall, if I cannot make it, you must go to his stronghold and tell him what has happened."
    The table bounced and Aein slammed it back again.  "If we survive, I shall be more than happy to fulfill this command."
    The door opened an inch more.
    It was enough to snap Princess Gisla into action.  She ran to the walls, running over them with her fingers.
    "What are you doing?"
    "There is usually some sort of a door," she explained.  "These walls always have ears.  Always have a way for people to look in and listen.  We must find it."
    Aein continued to hammer at the wolves at the door. 
    "Found it!" shouted Gisla.
    Aein looked over her shoulder to see what Gisla had found.  The princess was crouched inside the wardrobe.  The back opened to reveal a dark passageway.
    The door opened more and one of the wolves was able to get his head and his shoulder in.  Aein tried to slam the door on him.  He gave a whimper, but it did not stop him.
    Without waiting for a second invitation, Aein followed Gisla into the passageway, sliding the hidden door shut just as the wolves broke into the room.

Chapter Ten
    T hey scrambled down the dim hallway.  It was barely wide enough to let them pass.  Several times, Aein and Gisla turned sideways to squeeze through.  There were faint breaks of light through the walls.
    "Where do you think this leads?" asked Aein.
    "I have no idea.  You are the one who lives here," replied Gisla.  "If we can just find one that opens out of doors, we can get to my father's stronghold and he will send help."
    "There is a man in the kitchen—" Aein began, thinking of Cook Bolstad.  She prayed he stayed barricaded in the larder.
    "I am sorry," said Princess Gisla, her voice kind but firm, "but we cannot."
    "What?"
    The princess raised her hand to stop her protest. "We are under attack and everyone, not