“What’s going on?” Piper asked, standing in the door of their room.

  She could see people fighting in the hallway. It was horrible. People were bleeding, punching each other, slamming into the walls.

  “Harper, what’s happening?” she said, wanting to move but not sure what to do.

  Harper came up next to her, looking out into the hallway. Her eyes widened in shock, watching people they knew fight other people they knew.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “But you need to get inside.”

  “Why?” Piper asked, yelping as Harper pushed her inside the room. “Harper? What?”

  “Push something in front of the door,” Harper ordered, stepping into the hallway. “And don’t open that door for anyone but me or dad. Understand?”

  “Harper? What?,” Piper asked, starting to get scared.

  She got even more scared when she saw the look on her sister’s face. Harper had turned to her, worried and scared. It made Piper start to cry.

  “Just do it Pipes,” Harper said, pulling the door closed.

  Piper heard it click, saw the shadow of her sister in the window move away. Immediately she heard the sounds of fighting. Harper was fighting someone. Piper started crying.

  “Piper, you must do what your sister said,” Cerie said.

  She had been sitting on the bed, but now she was hovering near the window, looking out into the yard. Piper ran over, pulling aside the curtain to look out on a scene of horror. People were fighting all over the yard, on the wall, out in the farming fields. They rolled in the snow, using powers and fighting with weapons. Different colors flashed as weapons glowed, ranged Abilities launched across the yard.

  She could see some people laying in the snow, not moving, hoping they were just unconscious. Something tugged at her attention. She could feel something pushing in on her mind, a darkness that wanted to cover her every thought.

  “Piper?” Cerie asked, hovering closer. “Are you alright?”

  “I think so..,” Piper said, shaking her head. “I don’t know.”

  She shifted to look down the road to the west. There was something out there. Some Presence, not quite visible but coming closer. It radiated darkness, evil and hunger. It wanted to dominate. She could feel it worming into her mind, making her angry.

  Piper sat down on her father’s bed near the window, clutching her head.

  “Piper?”

  “Get.. out… of..my…..,” Piper started to growl, her head pounding. “Get out of my head!,” she yelled out, opening her eyes.

  “Cerie, something bad is coming,” she said, tears rolling down her face.

  Something slammed into the door, the shadow of a person banging on the glass.

  “Harper?” Piper asked, knowing it wasn’t her sister.

  “The door Piper,” Cerie yelled.

  Piper looked around the small room looking for anything she could push against the door. There wasn’t anything, absolutely nothing she could use. The door started to open.

  ***

  Harper closed the door on her sister, shifting to stand in the middle of the hallway. She had seen people looking their way and had to protect Piper. Having her barricade herself in the room might not be the best idea, but it was all Harper had. She knew she could just enter the Shadow Realm and escape, get away from the people, but that wouldn’t pull them away from Piper.

  Why were these people doing this, Harper wondered. Another body slammed into the wall, breaking the drywall. She heard bones breaking. But she couldn’t worry about that person as two were coming toward her.

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  Their faces were full of hate, a man and a woman.

  “The Voice,” the woman said.

  “It is here,” the man said.

  “What Voice?” Harper asked.

  First Mike Turner and now all these people. What was happening?

  She didn’t get time to think as the two people lunged at her. Harper leapt up, feet landing on the shoulders of the man, her weight and momentum pushing him down as she used him as a springboard. He hit the ground as she spun in the air, legs slamming against the wall and pushing her off. She wrestled the woman to the ground, landing on her back, kicking out and catching the man in the knee. He fell to the ground, clutching at it.

  Harper didn’t want to hurt the two Clanmembers but there was no way she would let them hurt her, or get to Piper.

  “Stop,” she ordered as the woman under her tried to get up.

  Harper slammed an elbow into the back of the woman’s head, feeling bad about hurting her but not guilty. The woman had started it.

  “What is wrong with all of you?” she yelled down the hallway.

  “Lady Harper,” one of the men, someone that didn’t look out of control said, holding a struggling man in a chokehold. “They just started attacking us. Do you know what is happening?”

  “No. Is it just here?”

  “I think it’s everywhere,” a woman said, stepping out of a room.

  She rubbed at her chin, her eye bruising, her lip cut.

  “I could see fighting through the windows out in the yard,” she said, launching herself into the hallway.

  She grabbed a woman that was punching a man, pulling her back, and slamming her against the wall.

  “Stop it,” she yelled at the woman she was trying to restrain. The other woman kept struggling.

  Harper took a step forward but stopped, feeling something creeping in on her mind.

  “The Voice,” the restrained woman said, her face no longer angry but now smiling, eyes wide and wild. “The Voice is here.”

  “What Voice?” the other woman asked, shaking her head. “What are you talking about? You need to shut up!,” she said, pushing harder against the restrained woman.

  “Calm down,” Harper said, leaning against the wall.

  What was happening? She could feel herself getting angrier. She wanted to shout at all the others, tell them to shut up and go back to their rooms. She wanted to order them. She was the daughter of Lochlan Brady, she was the heir apparent to the Clan. They had to do what she ordered.

  If not, she could make them. She was stronger than everyone in the Clan except her father. And she was only fifteen. Not even sixteen, when she should have gotten a Class. She got one before she was supposed to. She was special.

  “No..,” Harper said.

  She didn’t want to be special. She didn’t want to order anyone around. There was something wrong.

  “What did you say?” one of the women asked, Harper wasn’t sure which it was.

  One had been an aggressor, wild and angry. The other had been calmer, wanting to help and stop the fighting. Looking at the two, it was hard to tell which was which.

  “I said..,” Harper started but stopped, head pounding, making it hard to think.

  She could feel the anger digging deeper into her mind.

  Someone walked past her, heading for the door to her room.

  “Hey,” Harper said, reaching out. “Stop.”

  A hand grabbed her arm, trying to twist her. Harper resisted, pulling and dragging a large man toward her. She punched out, fist catching him in the head. He fell to the ground, Harper turning to see someone, another man, pounding on the door.

  “Stop!,” she yelled. “Get away from her!”