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Chapter One

ARABELLA

To have found her mate and lost him in the same instant was as unfathomable as time itself.

Arabella stormed out of the library and down the castle halls—shadows in her fists, fury in her heart, and her memories returned to her.

My mate did this for me.

Somehow, Elias had found a way to get her memories back.

The shadows rumbled, stirring and ascending from the deep. They rolled like lapping waves at her feet—appearing as twisting, thorned vines when they emerged far enough to take on a corporeal state. She breathed in, feeling power surge in her veins.

Something in her had awakened. And there was no putting it back to sleep.

She was no longer just an enchantress.

Now, she was something more.

The clicks of several pairs of boots on the stone floor echoed behind her. Waves of power filled the hallway as she strode around a bend and down the stairs toward the main entryway and the castle’s front doors.

Even without looking, she knew who followed her by the feel of their magic.

The three enchantresses had magic as bright and golden as the late summer sunshine, while Breckett bore a darker energy, like a mist along a blackened forest floor far beyond civilization.

Breckett was an erox, a type of demon who looked like men and sustained their immortal life by feeding off the sexual pleasures of mortals. Her mate was such a demon.

Her demon.

Of all the creatures existing in the mortal or fae realms—humans, vampires, shape shifters, witches, sorcerers, enchantresses, the fae courts, and more—somehow, she’d fallen for a demon.

The very being she’d vowed to protect the human race from.

“Wait, Arabella,” a female voice called from behind her. “Where are you going?”

It was Jessamine, one of the most powerful warriors among the enchantresses. But even the sound of worry in her friend’s voice didn’t slow her pace.

Arabella had already packed her bags.

They had been planning to leave Elias’ castle to return to Shadowbank, their home and a remote human village. That was before Arabella had been struck with some strange magic and her memories had returned to her.

In a desperate bargain with the Witch of the Woods, she’d given up her memories in exchange for an amplifier, a rare magical artifact that stored a limited amount of energy within it. That power could amplify a magic wielder’s ability—and do the impossible, such as repair or build a magical ward.

Her bargain with the witch had been to protect Elias’ castle from a sorcerer’s amassing army of erox, ogres, gargoyles, and other dark creatures by strengthening the magical ward around it. But his castle wasn’t the only place with a ward thatdesperately needed to be reinforced—or recreated. Shadowbank was vulnerable to the demon-infested forest just beyond its stone walls and weakening ward.

As Arabella walked through the castle, she wove her hair into her customary long braid and tightened the empty sheaths along her waist and arms.

First, she needed to find her swords, and then she’d find Elias.

He’d only been gone for a day. To return her memories, he’d given himself to that sorcerer, Magnus. But now, he was in danger. She could sense it.

Something tugged at her chest, pulling her toward the dark forest that stretched on for countless miles beyond the castle. It was a sensation unlike anything she’d ever felt—like a chord had wrapped around her heart and was tethered somewhere beyond the horizon. A sharp, fathomless fear echoed down it, snaking up her chest before embedding into her thoughts. There was endless pain, too. It was like a deep chasm had yawned open and threatened to pull her into its depths and engulf her.

Elias needed her.

The forest demon she’d been taught to fear during her upbringing in Shadowbank.

The Devourer.