Page 110

For once, their growing ill at the nearness of a gateway would be helpful to locate it. Since the map only marked an area, there was no way of telling where exactly it would be. But she anticipated both she and Jessamine would grow faint soon.

Frankly, she didn’t want to think about it.

Without the Everdark to assist her through the gateway, she’d likely lose the contents of her stomach very soon.

As they walked through the trees, something tingled at the edge of her senses. It was like a dissonant melody purring just beyond her sight.

“We’re getting close,” she said as she pushed back interlocking branches.

The further she walked into the trees, the less she could see the desert—even though she should have been able to see it between the bare branches. Instead, all she saw was darkness.

“Stay close,” she said. “I have a feeling getting separated in here wouldn’t be ideal.”

A hand was on her shoulder, and she glanced back. Jessamine nodded to her and then glanced back at Hadeon.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I can keep up just fine.”

“It wouldn’t be the greatest inconvenience if you remained trapped here, fae prick,” Jessamine said. “I mean, faeprince.”

His lips twitched, but he didn’t respond.

Arabella turned forward, following the dissonant chorus that slowly increased in volume as she strode across the dark sands. As she neared where the sound was loudest, she didn’t feel the onslaught against her senses, like the realm was splitting in two. Pain didn’t split her skull nor did nausea swell in her stomach. Instead, the hum felt like a rumbling purr, and she strode toward it.

Sadness swelled in her as she wondered just how much of her human self had been lost to her training in shadow fae magic. Perhaps she wouldn’t be sick by the gateways after all. Not if she’d lost what made her human.

Outwardly, she’d changed. Her ears were pointed, just like Hadeon’s, and she noticed that her movements were more… fluid. Graceful like the fae.

Stretching an arm out, she allowed her eyes to flutter shut as a film of black fell over them. On instinct, she leaned into her newest magic, and her shadows sung.

Something hissed in the trees, which rustled as though a wind had just passed through. But all was still.

The night awaits.

Eyes snapping open, she scanned their surroundings to see who—or what—had spoken. A flash of motion caught her eye, and she glanced down at the wisps of darkness at her feet, which dug into the sands, forming grooves. Her shadows continued to shift into something more… corporeal. They’d possessedsubstance before, but they’d felt like an extension of the dark. Now, it was some spirit of the deep that seemed to respond to her emotions—and her commands.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Jessamine said behind her before there was a gagging sound.

Hadeon cursed.

Turning, Arabella caught Jessamine as she passed out and heaved her over a shoulder. There was no way she was trusting Hadeon to carry her friend through the gateway. Not that he would have offered to help.

“Hang in there, Jessamine,” Arabella said, uncertain whether her friend could hear her. “We’ll be back home soon.”

“It’s fortunate the gateways no longer affect you,” Hadeon said behind her. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to read the map. Getting home would be much more difficult.”

Your home,she thought.

Unwilling to speak to the fae prince any more than she had to, she kept her gaze ahead as she followed the hissing sound. Without willing it, her shadows pushed through more interlocking branches, creating a path for her.

A weeping willow tree with long draping branches appeared before them. Unlike the trees in the forest, this one bore leaves the color of decayed flesh. A clearing had formed around it as though this tree were a disease that sucked life from the land.

“There,” she said. “That’s the gateway.”

She wondered whether she needed to do something with her magic to open the gateway, or if her mere presence would be enough to allow them passage through.

Suddenly, there was a rustling behind them.

Spinning, she faced the sound, holding Jessamine with one arm and shadows licking up the other. Beside her, Hadeon held his sword before him, his dark power billowing around him.