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They walked in silence for a time while she tried to get the map to work. But as the minutes turned to hours, the parchment remained stubbornly blank.

The sun crept higher in the sky, and Hadeon slowed his steps.

Suddenly, the air shifted, like electricity just struck the ground, and she looked around.

To the naked eye, the land seemed no different.

There were unremarkable rolling grassy hills in every direction with occasional large boulders. The surrounding hills were almost entirely treeless and lacked any kind of shrubbery. In the distance, the mountains loomed.

A soundless scream ripped from the earth. It wasn’t the scream of a mortal. No, this felt as though the earth itself cried out in protest at this fissure that was formed into the very fabric of this world. The sound filled her mind until all she knew was the familiar agony.

We found it.

Whether by making or happenstance, the gateway to the Abyss was before them.

She dropped to a knee, clapping her hands over both ears instinctively. But it did nothing to muffle the sound ricocheting in her mind. Beside her, Jessamine collapsed to her hands and knees before retching.

“I forgot enchantresses don’t do well with gateway travel,” Breckett said somewhere above her. “Elias had to haul Arabella through the gateway last time.”

She managed to look up, noting panic in Hadeon’s eyes. Though it disappeared as quickly as it’d come. So quickly she thought she might have imagined it.

“They can’t walk through?” Hadeon pressed.

Breckett looked at her and Jessamine and then back to Hadeon before shaking his head. “Not without help.”

Beside her, Jessamine had stopped retching only long enough to sway and slump onto the grass, unconscious.

Agony filled Arabella’s mind as the gateway seared her senses.

Sucking in labored breaths, she struggled to remain conscious as her fingers dug into the patchy grass. But she couldn’t tune out the gateway’s shrieks nor the pain coming down the mating bond, which had suddenly become tinged with concern.

Could Elias sense her as well?

Spots formed in her vision, and she started to sway.

This gateway was unlike the one in the forest. It was an illness in this world—a deep wound that bore evil—and it struck something deep in her core. Distantly, she wondered if some evil entity had made a slash between realms, incrementally tainting the land with foreign energy. One that promised desolation.

She noticed then that the gateway bore a darker melody. It was a slow cadence beckoning her forward. The screeching filling her mind was gradually replaced by a trilling sound as alluring as a siren’s song.

Slowly, she raised her head.

The motion had her gut whirling, and she thought she might be sick. But she managed to turn her eyes toward where the gateway materialized in the air.

It wasn’t a rift in the air like the gateway in the forest. No, this was a simple dark mist hovering above the ground, about as tall as a winged fae. The mist was faint enough to be translucent. If she hadn’t been looking directly at it, she might have missed it.

As she studied the gateway, its song increased, and she felt herself standing without her willing it. A presence settled on her shoulders like a cloak of night, and the agony inside herhead suddenly grew distant as the lilting music overtook it. Her thoughts grew fuzzy, and she took one step forward and then another.

“Where are you going?” Breckett demanded, but she paid him no heed. “Arabella! Damn you, what are you doing?”

There was a shuffling sound behind her as she continued toward the gateway. Her feet moved of their own accord. One step and then another. Soon, she was only paces away from the dark mist.

Something in her chest tugged, urging her to stop.

Even as her thoughts grew distant, she knew the thing in her chest anchored her. The person on the other side was entwined with the threads of her destiny. He was important to her, but she couldn’t seem to recall why. But even knowing that, he was too distant, especially as a song crested within her. It laced through her every sense until she was vibrating with it. It beckoned her forward.

And she would follow.

As she neared the gateway, the pale darkness of the once-translucent mist deepened and churned like a storm cloud. As if in response, her shadows blossomed beneath her feet, spreading their inky tendrils forward.