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Glancing down, the creeping shadow vines moved around her feet in twisting, agitated motions. They were semi-translucent and had a myriad of thorns. In the midst was a single white rose. The vine extended up to her as though offering her the flower.

She didn’t accept it.

“Is this some sort of an apology?” she dared, feeling a presence shift before her. “I’ll have you know I have a bad habit of holding grudges.”

Glancing up, she spotted a figure darker than the night itself.

It was shaped like a man but didn’t have any discernible features. There was no face, no skin, and no clothes. It was a deep shadow in the vague shape of a person, but the blackness within it swirled like a crackling thunderstorm.

Even without a mouth, she sensed that it smiled. The sensation unnerved her. Gooseflesh rippled along her skin.

“It was important that we speak without interruption,” the Everdark said in that deep, fathomless voice.

It was then she realized that he spoke aloud. His words were no longer in her mind.

Hands curling into fists, she said, “You claim we’re related, but I find that hard to believe. How can a shadow fuck a fae?”

Let alone produce offspring from that coupling.

The Everdark took a step forward and then another. Even though it was several paces away from her, it felt far too close. Everything in her screamed to run, to fight, but she forced herself to remain where she was. She wasn’t about to show fear.

Shadows rippling, the Everdark said, “In the place between realms, anything is possible.”

Her eyes narrowed. “This is a dream.”

“Is it?” the greater demon rumbled, an amusement in his tone. “Have you not seen your mate in this place?”

She hesitated, countless words on the tip of her tongue.

The shadows shifted as though the demon nodded. “Have you noticed when he feeds on you that you wake feeling different? As though an erox had consumed your essence.”

“How did you know that?” she demanded.

Belatedly, she realized that by asking, she’d confirmed his suspicions.

“You haven’t yet learned how to shut me out of your mind,” the Everdark said. “Every time you are in the in-between, I’ve been here with you.”

“You’ve watched us fuck?” she said, crossing her arms as disgust curdled through her. “That’s not grandfatherly behavior.”

The Everdark took another step forward, and the shadow vines at her feet trembled. “I’ve been here your whole life. How do you think you found your way out of the forest all those years ago? Surely, you don’t think a mere child could have survived on their own.”

She opened and closed her mouth.

It was something she’d wondered her whole life.

Where had she come from, and how had the forest demons not devoured her?

She didn’t want to believe she could have some relation to a greater demon. Moreover, just what was a demon offspring capable of? All demons fed on others in some capacity—whether it's a person’s soul, life force, essence, or something else. Would she hurt those she cared about with some demon magic?

This must have been how Elias felt when he’d been turned into an erox.

She considered her next words very carefully.

“You want me to believe that we’re related? Then explain.”

Something sparked in the Everdark’s shadows, as though he knew he had her.

“Prince Arden’s sister, the princess, was held prisoner in the Twilight Court. She was forced to act as the king’s assassin for centuries against her will, forced to serve him as he slaughtered the shadow fae in the fae wars. Her name was Myla,” the Everdark began. “When I came to the fae realm and found her, I offered to help her escape with her human lover, one of the king’s servants he’d stolen from the mortal realm. Myla waspregnant. I could scent the desperation on her. I told her there’d be a cost—that she’d be separated from her child, never able to see you again. She refused at first, but when the king was about to kill her lover, she summoned me. And I answered.”