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As if in response, the shadows begin to whisper.

I glance down at Callie and the group of sleeping soldiers that encircle her. Her wings are out and her skin glows. My beautiful, lethal siren. One of soldiers steps towards her, a sick look in his eye.

Callie …

Dread pools in my belly, the likes of which I haveneverfelt.

“What could you possibly offer that creature?” I ask Galleghar, still staring at the showdown between my mate and the monster Galleghar unleashed on this world. That ancient evil is nearly unmatched in power.

“Oh, quite a bit, my ill-conceived son,” my father replies. “Freedom from his eternal bonds, power, life as we know it … and a kingdom.”

A kingdom of spirits and rotted flesh. The Land of Death and Deep Earth.

“How could you promise him something like that?” A kingdom to conquer. That would be like me offering another the Kingdom of Fauna.

The Thief of Souls was never Death’s rightful heir.

“Surely you know this land sits right on Death’s doorway,” Galleghar says. “I marched my forces in, took the palace by force, and let him do the rest.”

Even here, in the Otherworld, the laws of life and death are fairly rigid. To take the living into the land of the dead, thendefeatthe dead …

And now the Thief of Souls was a king. Not just a puppeteer filling the body of a dead or dying ruler, but one in his own right.

“You gave him freedom and a kingdom and some of your power, and then you let him put you to sleep, hoping he would wake you up.”

“He did wake me up.”

That might be the most surprising piece of this whole thing—that the Thief actually followed through on his end of the deal. The Thief of Souls needs Galleghar no more than I do.

I nearly laugh. “Youactuallytrust him,” I say, amazed.

My father was always a doomed man. No one can have that sort of ego without consequences.

I shake my head. “Surely you know you cannot control something like that,” I say. Something that was older than us, stronger and more malicious than us.

Callie will have to face that creature.

The dread thickens.

“I don’t need to,” Galleghar replies haughtily. “I just need to co-exist with him.”

Now I do let out a cruel laugh. “You think he’ll just let you be? You think he owes youanyloyalty?”

“I freed him from his eternal bonds.”

Itisa staggering feat. Other kings wouldn’t have dared. But it means nothing to a being like the Thief.

“He’ll keep you around so long as you please him.”

And the Thief’s pleasure is a fleeting thing.

Galleghar’s face twists. His age-old ego, borne from centuries of pitiless ruling, now shows itself. He believes too much in his own self-importance to see the truth clearly.

My father gives no warning. His form flickers, one moment several feet from me, the next at my back.

I sense rather than see his sword arching towards me. In an instant I’m gone, and then we’re back to trading blows. For several minutes, he and I are all that exists.

He and I and Callie—always Callie. I can’tnotnotice her every movement. Her power sings to me even now, that siren in her calling to me, always beckoning me back to her side. It’s only time and practice that keep me focused on the battle at hand.