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Jessamine straightened. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound friendly.”

Arabella staggered to the tree beside Jessamine, pressing a hand to the rough bark to steady herself.

“Are you well, Enchantress?” Hadeon asked from where he stood, his wings tucked tightly to his sides.

“I’m fine.”

For several moments, the trees were utterly still, the silence like a physical weight.

The shadows stirred beneath her feet as though sensing the oncoming conflict.

While her shadows had changed since her memories had returned, they were even more different in this place. They weren’t simply a part of the world—dark extensions of anything blocking the light. Her shadowswerethe world.

There was no day but endless night. Without a natural predator, the shadows hovered over the world as though preparing to engulf it.

Darkness reigned supreme.

Whatever creature stalked the shadows was a part of the deep black as well. The darkness around her swirled, and her heart hammered against her ribs. While facing death down wasn’t new, this time, she felt very exposed. It was as thoughsomething was lurking just out of sight, and no matter where she looked, something always pricked at the back of her neck.

Her arms started to tremble, and it wasn’t entirely due to fatigue.

“It’s feeding on our fear,” she realized.

Veins bulged in Breckett’s jaw. “How do you know?”

“Breckett,” Jessamine hissed. “Quit pissing your pants. If I can’t protect you, I promise I’ll kill you beforeitdoes.”

“I’ve walked this world longer than you’ve been alive—” Breckett began but stopped short.

A sound like the fracturing of the earth’s core ripped through the oasis followed by a sudden gust of wind. Shadows roared as the trees shook as though in the middle of a hurricane.

Jessamine’s back was pressed against the tree. The rise and fall of her breathing never changed, even as another bellow sounded in the space between the trees.

Arabella allowed Jessamine’s steadiness to give her strength, willing her limbs to stillness.

Slowly, she reached for the shadows.

As she summoned them, they were… sticky. Strands of darkness wove up her arms, but most of them hovered above the ground, plopping back down as she tried to will it into submission. She wasn’t the only one commanding them, she realized.

The shadows were uncertain who to follow.

Then darkness shook as though stirred in a sudden wind before retreating into the trees.

Slowly, Arabella leaned toward the edge of the tree, glancing around it.

A body peeled from the shadows between the trees. The creature was as tall as the surrounding trees with limbs that were the length of a house. Its thin body was made of a dark sinew that was both flesh and shadow. Long, thin legs stretchedupward to a torso that was unnaturally small and formless. But rather than a head atop shoulders, tendrils of shadow extended into the air dozens of feet above where its neck should be, arcing and hissing. At the end of its unnaturally long arms were four clawed fingertips.

“Oh fuck,” Jessamine muttered, her body shifting—flinching away.

Arabella’s stomach plummeted into her boots.

Months ago, she’d battled a horde of the soulless, creatures of bones and hunger. Those demons roamed the lands, consuming any living creature unfortunate enough to stumble into their path. All to try to reclaim a soul they’d never again find.

The first soulless had once been a human whose soul had been taken by one of the zaol.

A greater demon.

Greater demons were the first generation spawned from the darkness. They’dmadethe lesser demons who threatened the very existence of Shadowbank.