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Bramble Cabin, in all its gloomy, isolated, horror-movie glory, sat nestled in a copse of gnarled trees, their branches twisted like skeletal fingers against the sky. Behind it, the dark lake glimmered, eerily silent.

I inhaled deeply, steadying myself before letting my eyes drift back to my home for the next couple of weeks. Oddly enough, on second look, it didn’t seem quite as menacing. The silvery moonlight softened its edges, clinging to the wooden beams, bouncing off the windowpanes in quick, flashing bursts. The scent of woodsmoke wrapped around me, curling in the crisp night air.

Wait...

... Woodsmoke?

I narrowed my eyes at the thin tendrils of smoke billowing out of the chimney. I hadn’t even set foot inside yet, so who had gotten a head start on making the place cozy?

Right... Nameless entity. Tortured soul.

Yippee.

And then, as if on cue, a flash of something moved from the upstairs window.

Cool it, Devlin. It was probably just the reflection of a bird in the sky, I told myself.Except it’s nighttime, and there were no birds...

Narrowing my eyes, I let my gaze slide from window to window, scanning for another glimpse of movement.

Nothing.

All was silent in the little haunted cabin.

I exhaled, shaking off the tension.It’s just a house, Devlin. A little spooky, but still just a house.

I took a step forward, and that was when I saw it—a haunting figure, glaring out at me from one of the downstairs windows.

My skin prickled, shadows beginning to pool at the tips of my fingers, when I realized it wasliterallya bedsheet ghost peering out at me with its hollow, cutout eyes. Relief flooded me. It was a prank. I bet I’d get there to find the owner had hired some clown to creep around the place. It wasn’t even a decent costume. How the fuck this place was marketed as “The World’s Most Haunted House” was beyond me. If I’d paid for the vacation myself, I’d be asking for my money back.

The creep in the sheet raised his arm toward the windowpane, slow and deliberate. I snorted a laugh at how pathetic the attempt to scare me was.

But the hand didn’t stop.

And in the blink of an eye, the sheet-ghost was no longer in the house. It had materialized onto the porch, floating eerily, and without some bozo’s feet poking out from under it. It raisedits little arms, and it would have looked cartoon-like if all the shutters and doors hadn’t started rattling violently.

Yeah...Fuck this.I’d rather be miserable back in the Shadow Realm than miserableandscared in a haunted house.

The shadows pooled around me, wrapping me in their familiar inky embrace. A heartbeat later, I felt them release me, the comforting weight peeling away as I re-entered reality. I opened my eyes and felt a cold, sinking confusion crash over me.

I was still at the fucking haunted house.

Still facing the same creepy, sheet-clad ghost, which now tilted its hollow-eyed head in curiosity.

I swallowed hard, shoving the unease down. I tried again, summoning the shadows, willing them to swallow me whole and take me back to the Shadow Realm where I belonged. Darkness curled around me. But when I opened my eyes again, I was exactly where I’d started.

Panic pricked in the tips of my fingers.

I had traveled between realms my entire life, slipping in and out of the Shadow Realm as effortlessly as breathing.

So why the hell couldn’t I leave?

I reached out with my senses, testing the air around me. Peony-scented magic lingered on the cabin, clinging to the ghost like a memory. The air around me was heady with the scent of crushed leaves, layered with something richer, deeper—a desperate ache for someone lost and never coming back. Twined through it was something fainter, laced through the air itself—peppery confusion, raw and unsettled.

I exhaled slowly. At least my ability to sense emotions and desires was still intact.

Good. That meant my incubus magic was working.

So, I summoned the darkness once more, reaching for the tether that would pull me back to the realm where I belonged. I felt the shadows pulse and shift...