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I knew that Underhill didn’t want me to go further.

Here it is, I told Sy.

Peachy. She nodded.

The Shrieker screamed giddily, closing in on me. I leapt up to a lower branch of Dar Hedge right before its claws grabbed my ankle and swung up to a higher branch.

The Shrieker dug its claws into the trunk to lift itself. I pulled myself higher and faster and perched on a branch twenty feet from the Shrieker.

Here, Sy would take over. We were vulnerable during transformation, but we had time before the Shrieker reached us.

An icy blue ray flashed; pain rushed through my bones, and my skin stretched. Three blinks, and Sy was there, dominating our form. She inhaled the forest scent deeply, soaking in its wild, dark magic, before flexing her shoulders and training her golden eyes below.

The predators in their dark shapes and different sizes growled, reacting to Sy, welcoming her to their ranks as a monster in her own right. Sy threw her head back, her pointed ears pricking in the dark wind, and howled with bloodlust.

Underhill’s beasts howled with her.

Sy’s skin turned blue, with scales forming on her shoulders, breasts, forearms, and thighs. She was a chameleon with the ability to change her color and physique to blend into the environment.

“Here I come, Houston!” she shouted, borrowing my phrase, and jumped from the branch.

Her fangs elongated, her claws stretched out, and she slashed at the Shrieker.

It was very fast. It gave up on climbing and jumped several feet away from Sy on the forest floor. Two monsters, one ugly and one beautiful, faced each other.

The Shrieker hissed, towering over Sy, its claws rotating like vast hooks. It answered Sy’s challenge, ready to charge toward her.

“Halt!” I commanded through Sy’s mouth. I had a couple of questions before I let her have fun. And I was better at interrogating.

“How did you get in? How did you track me?” I demanded.

The Shrieker grinned grotesquely. This female was more powerful than other Shriekers and thus more ambitious.

“Master upgraded us with your precious blood,” it revealed. “I have your blood in me now, Princess, so we’re related.”

Chills sank into my bones, and repulsion crawled over my skin.

My father had had my blood stored in his vault before I’d fled him.

So, the upgraded Shriekers could breach the Veil into Mist of Cinder. I’d have to find a way to amend it and stop the abominations from getting into the realm.

“How many of you have been upgraded? How many of Ruin’s agents are inside the realm now?”

“A dozen are waiting outside, Princess,” it said. “I’m clever, so I got ahead of them. I want the reward! Master needs you now more than ever, and my brethren need more of your blood to become better and superior. Come with me and you won’t need to suffer, Princess. The others won’t be as gentle as I. Master won’t stop until he has you home. You’re his most precious, the apple of his eye.”

For a second, we froze in fear as the dark memory of my father feeding upon me swirled back. This abomination was right. He and his agents would keep coming now that his agents had caught up with me.

Want me to shut it up? Sy asked.

We can never be caught, I told her.

I won’t leave you with him, ever, Sy said fiercely.

She’d taken most of the blunt hits for me in those terrible years, shoving me into the background and trying to endure the agony alone. But I’d always been there, too, shielding her and taking the inhuman pain into myself so she could survive instead of being broken.

I’d never leave Sy alone with him either.

If worst comes to worst, we’ll find a way to burn ourselves to ashes and erase our souls so he can’t bring us back as his vessel again and again.