I lie back on top of the roof and watch the stars. It’s a clear night with a chill in the air. Robin lies next to me.
“You okay?” he asks.
“I guess so. I was thinking about the other night with the Crawlers.”
“You got the medicine to Kate. You’re a hero,” he says.
“It’s not that. It’s the way the Crawlers behaved, ambushing us like that. It’s something a human would do.”
Robin sighs heavily. “Don’t think about it. Save it for another day.”
“We’re going to have to face them soon,” I reply. “Something is stirring… beginning—”
“C’mon, Marian, don’t be a doom-monger. Let’s enjoy tonight, the stars, the fact that Kate is getting better, the fact that we all made it back from the castle without getting bit. I still don’t know how you got out. Whatever happens tomorrow is another story, okay? And whatever does happen, I know you’ll deal with it.”
“How do you know that?” I ask.
He sits up and takes hold of my hand. A pleasant tingling sensation works its way up my arm. “I know that because you are the Maid.”
About Sarah Dalton
Sarah grew up in the middle of nowhere in the countryside of Derbyshire and as a result has an over-active imagination. She has been an avid reader for most of her life, taking inspiration from the stories she read as a child, and the novels she devoured as an adult.
Sarah mainly writes speculative fiction for a young adult audience, and has had pieces of short fiction published in the Medulla Literary Review, Apex Magazine, PANK magazine and the British Fantasy Society publication Dark Horizons. Her short story ‘Vampires Wear Chanel’ is featured in the Wyvern Publication Fangtales available now.
The Blemished series is Sarah’s first full-length work of fiction. In a Fractured Britain, Mina Hart has to fight against the Genetic Enhancement Ministry to win back her rights.