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I couldn’t run. I remained frozen, the waves behind me murmuring, my heartbeat crashing in my ear, the figure in front of me holding out a hand.

“Please come here,” it said.

“Are you—are you the god of this place?” I asked, my voice faint as a breeze. “The lord over the Shadows?”

Its fingers, long and clawed like a Shadow’s, curled into a fist.

“I am their maker,” said the creature. “Their father.”

It was all as Lope had said. The monsters plaguing our world had come from the depths, had poured out of the gardens of Le Château...

This god was responsible for my nightmares, for my pain,for the scars on Mother’s arms, for Lope’s lifetime spent fighting monsters, for the deaths of thousands.

I didn’t dare take a step closer. I wrapped my chilled arms around myself, taking a quick glance up to the heavens—to the place from which I’d fallen. Above me was nothing but a black abyss, peppered by those white and purple crystals.

The cold within me spread up my shoulders and down my spine. I inched back, closer to the black water. “Please send me back to my world,” I whispered. I frantically shook my head, my breaths gathering in my chest like sharp icicles. “I didn’t ask to come here. The king—the king pushed me through a door; I didn’t want—”

“He gave you to me.”

Deep in my memory, I could hear King Léo’s voice echo,King of Shadows... Take my beloved Ofelia to your kingdom.

“I—I am not his to give! I don’t belong to anyone!” Frightened tears dribbled down my cheeks. “Please, I want to go home!”

“Only a mortal who crafts a door between worlds can open it on either side. I am trapped here below as much as you are.” He glided closer—he had no legs. His dark robes melted into the dark earth, like he was part of it—or like the world and this god were one. “The bargain was made. What’s done is done. You belong to me and this world now.”

He reached out to me, his long fingers unfurling. “Ofelia,” he said, his whispering, inhuman voice freezing me in place.“I must touch your hand, only for a moment.”

His long, cold fingers wrapped around my wrist. I stood there numbly.

There was nothing more I could do. No other way I could fight.

My story was finished.

I was bound here forever.

“I’ll not hurt you as your king did,” said the monster. His other hand lightly brushed the skin of my palm.

With him standing so close, I could now see that this creature, this god,didhave a face. It shifted, sometimes with a long nose, sometimes with a small one, sometimes with a jagged line of a mouth, other times with soft lips. But always, his eyes remained glowing white embers.

His forehead bunched. His shoulders rose and fell, and he let out a mournful sigh.

“A pity,” he muttered.

“What?” I asked.

His eyes met with mine. “He did not love you.” He released me and snapped his fingers. I flinched—but nothing happened. And then—movement.

Far behind the king of Shadows, the black beach led up to dark hills, dotted by what looked like stars. And on the tallest of those hills was a long, stone staircase, with someone, a human, quickly descending.

The god caught me staring and glanced at me. “Her nameis Marisol. She was sent here, like yourself.”

Mother.

I gathered up my skirts, covered in mud and sand, and sprinted across the beach, through the dark grass.

“Ofelia!” she cried.

“Mother!”