Page 58 of Beasts of Shadows #1

“You want to make it up to me? Tell me exactly how I can kill a god ? How am I supposed to kill the mother goddess ? Spring isn’t exactly a killer.”

“Did you know spring came first? Freyja was the elder of the twins. That’s why Calea feared her.

Winter can smother spring, sure—but spring always takes the world back.

” Nikolai brushes a fresh bout of flakes from his collar, surveying the environment.

“But you’re nowhere near ready for that.

Probably won’t be able to do anything until the equinox. ”

“She’s coming before that.”

“I figured.” He bounces his fingers against his coat. “There may be something. An object hidden in my castle. I can ask my uncle about it.”

“An object that no one’s tried using before?” I counter, unable to tame my bitterness.

“Only the right person can use it.” Nikolai shrugs. “It was forged for Thantos’ bride, only. Meant to be a wedding gift from my father, actually.”

My brows furrow.

“I thought Thantos never married.”

“No,” Nikolai relents. “He didn’t. But he made a deal with another god, long before Calea put him to sleep. That god promised him a daughter—someone who would one day be bound to Thantos.”

“That can’t be right,” I say. “Both you and Ravi have suggested I’m Thantos’ bride. But my dad is one-hundred percent Josh Gowie.”

Nikolai gives a shrug. “I always assumed it was metaphorical. Shadow Realm texts are... flexible with lineage. ‘Daughter’ could mean descendant. Or even someone spiritually marked, not born of blood. Everyone knows the Wallace Clan rose through a bargain with Thantos. You’re part of them—just not as close to the main line as Cody or Cat. It’s still plausible.”

Still, it feels like something’s missing.

Nikolai pries loose a slate of ice; water fumes up, cold enough to bite bone. The map fragment sits in a glass vial wedged in the mud near the shore—but something else catches my eye farther out.

Half-submerged beneath a frozen sheet of river, maybe fifteen feet away, lies the faintest glint of bone-white. Antler, maybe? Wrapped in something green and rotted. A key?

I squint. “Is that—?”

Nikolai frowns. “I didn’t see that before. Maybe this one is a decoy.”

He shifts, maybe to go in after it, but the water freezes even harder, silvering over the surface in an instant. Blocking us out. Claiming it.

Then the river stills.

Not quiets— still . Like something beneath it just woke up. The current hushes. Wind disappears. Even the trees seem to pause.

She rises slowly, hair billowing behind her like seaweed caught in tide.

Scales shimmer across her collarbones and temple, and her eyes—pale green, almost luminescent—pin me in place like a pinned butterfly. She’s beautiful the way storms are beautiful. Dangerous. Unnatural. Familiar.

The mermaid from the Mary Celeste .

She doesn’t speak. Just glides through the frozen shallows, the ice opening for her like it recognizes her weight. She swims directly to the key.

Without breaking eye contact, she curls her fingers around it and lifts it from the mud.

When she reaches the bank, she rises to stand—impossibly balanced atop the icy ledge—and crosses to me without hesitation.

And bows .

Not in submission. Not like a servant. Like an emissary. A sentinel. Like someone paying respect to a future she doesn’t pretend to understand, only recognize.

“I…” I don’t know what I’m trying to say.

She presses the key into my hand.

It’s slick. Cold. The antler is ridged, carved with glyphs I don’t recognize. The ribbon is seaweed, still damp. My fingers close around it instinctively.

She holds my gaze a moment longer.

Then steps back—and vanishes into the river as quietly as she came.

Silence stretches.

Nikolai exhales.

“I recognize her now. She answers to Melinoe.”

Reading all Reema’s notebook entries final pays off.

“Hades’ and Persephones’ daughter?”

“That was one of Thantos’ sentries,” he says softly. “The ones that keep his location a secret. There were twelve. Only a handful made it through the last collapse.”

“And she just gave me a key,” I say, still staring at my hand.

“Whatever it opens,” Nikolai murmurs, “was never meant for anyone mortal.”

I tuck the key inside my coat. “Good thing I’m not just mortal anymore.”

When I glance up, he’s closer than he needs to be.

“You were right,” he says.

“About what?”

“I should have told you. Everything.” His eyes hold mine, all the wickedness stripped out, leaving the weight. “It won’t happen again.”

“That’s what happens when the same gods keep hoarding secrets like dragons. Again isn’t an accident—it’s a pattern.”

His lips turns just a little.

“That’s what happens when your best friend is a dragon,” he teases.

Really? He’s going to bring up his friend-with-benefits when he’s trying to apologize?

Sensing my fury, he steps back.

“Let me fix the part that can be fixed.”

“Which is?”

He nods toward the dark line of trees. “Making sure Calea doesn’t take you before you’re ready to kill her.”

I turn and notice for the first time that Cat and Kilronan are gone. Shifting this way and that, my search for Cat’s familiar petite frame and Kilronan’s towering build turns up nothing.