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A boom sounded outside the castle. Then there was a splitting sound that felt like the air was being torn in two.

“They broke through the ward,” Jessamine said. “We need to leave. Now .”

Even with Hadeon cutting down ogres before and repairing the ward, it hadn’t been enough. It had barely bought them a few minutes. There were more monsters to replace the ones they’d killed. Just how many creatures did Magnus have in his army?

Jessamine was right. They couldn’t rely on this fae prince to stick around if shit got tough.

Not to mention, Arabella had no idea how far his power went and when it would be depleted.

All magic wielders grew fatigued the more magic they used.

Certainly, Hadeon was powerful, but she doubted he was strong enough to hold an army at bay—even if he was willing.

“No,” Hadeon said, his voice sharp. “Not before we get the map.”

Arabella opened her eyes, allowing them to settle on the fae prince. His gaze was filled with fiery determination.

“If you ever want to see your mother again, it will be with this map,” he said as another boom filled the air.

A second tear in the ward.

Ogres would be pouring in.

“My… mother?” Her brows drew together.

She knew she should feel something at those words. All her life, she’d been an orphaned child without any knowledge of her parentage or where she’d come from. But all she could feel at that moment was the quickening of her heartbeat.

“We have to go,” Jessamine said, her fingers tightening around Arabella’s arm. “There isn’t time.”

“Only the shadow fae can help you control your magic. If you still want to save Elias, that is,” Hadeon said, knowing that he’d sealed their fates with those words.

Knowing she’d stop at nothing to rescue her mate.

Her features settled into one of perfect calm as resolution settled in her chest. “Keep up.”

Then she was running through the castle, moving down corridors as she felt the pounding footsteps of ogres outside the castle. She thought she heard the flapping of great wings.

She raced down hall after hall until she reached Elias’ bedroom door with the enchantresses, Hadeon, and Breckett at her heels.

Below, there was a thumping on the main castle doors. Thank fuck that Brynne had enough forethought to bolt them shut before they went to the library.

As Arabella approached Elias’ bedroom door, she reached for the shadows beneath her.

They formed into long, thorned vines around her arms that didn’t pierce her skin this time.

Instead, they stretched out, extending past her outreached hand, and lashed at the door.

In an instant, they sliced through the wards Elias had put in place.

The magic fell at once, and they all strode through.

There was a four-poster bed with curtains as black as Elias’ eyes when he hadn’t fed, which she carefully avoided looking at. She didn’t dare to allow herself to think of what they had shared here—or how he’d admitted his feelings for her—moments before she’d betrayed him.

The hearth was dark and cold, and the late autumn chill hung in the air.

There was a sound of wood splintering several floors below as she cast her consciousness out into the room.

Sparks of magic filled her mind, flickering into existence like stars in the night sky.

One after another lit before her mind’s eye—so many that it made her mind spin.

There had to be dozens of magical objects here.

This was something she’d never been able to do before as an enchantress. Was sensing magical objects a gift of fae?

She longed to learn just what treasures Elias had here and what might be useful against Magnus. But there simply wasn’t time. Not as the sound of pounding continued several floors below them.

She sought out the presence she’d sensed before. Immediately, she felt a caress against her mind.

“It’s under the floor,” she said, opening her eyes. “At the base of the bed.”

Brynne ripped a floorboard free. A moment later, she pressed a rolled parchment into Arabella’s palm. The presence Arabella had felt grew stronger, almost purring, as it nuzzled against her consciousness.

Releasing the map, Brynne turned toward Hadeon. Jessamine and Cora did likewise, their hands on the hilts of swords.

Their stances said one thing.

They didn’t trust Hadeon enough to give him the map. They also didn’t trust him to not try to take it from them.

“I’ve fulfilled my part,” Arabella said. “How are we getting out of here?—”

Suddenly, the window shutters were thrown wide and glass splintered around them as two massive shapes crashed into the room.

Instinctively, she staggered backward, throwing a hand up to shield her eyes. Shadows billowed out without her willing it, sending a gust of wind toward the oncomers. For a moment, darkness filled the room, and all she could hear was the crunching of glass beneath heavy feet.

A moment later, the shadows cleared, and she looked up.

Two figures blocked out the sun from the windows behind them.

Wings made of stone, flesh, and sinew stretched out from the creatures’ backs, filling up the entire back wall.

They were twice the size of a human male and had bat-like wings and clawed hands and feet.

Standing on hind legs, these creatures had pointed ears that vaguely resembled two curved horns.

But unlike the ogres, there was intelligence in their red eyes.

Gargoyles .

Realization dawned.

When she’d lowered the shields to Elias’ room for them to get in, she’d also made it possible for gargoyles and other creatures to enter—from outside of the castle.

Without thinking, she reached for her shadows.

After years of training with her earthen magic, she should have been weaving the golden magic together and unleashing bolts at the gargoyles. But the shadows called to her, singing in her veins.

The gargoyles prowled forward on hind legs.

As she unleashed a torrent of shadows, the other enchantresses loosed golden weaves, sharp as crossbow bolts. To her horror, the earthen magic did nothing. It was like they had tossed sticks at a hailstorm.

One gargoyle snarled, raising the corner of its lips to reveal razor-sharp teeth. Lashing out, her shadows embedded in its gut, sinking through flesh and stone. Red-black blood oozed onto the floor, pouring to the ground as the shadows pulled free, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.

For a moment, it was all she could do to stare at the gargoyle as it crashed to its knees.

Her shadows had done that willingly. Eagerly .

They fed off the anger surging in her veins, seeming to gain strength and speed.

But as she reached for the shadows again, she felt that strange presence tickle the edges of her senses once more—the same one from her dream.

It wasn’t her bond with Elias, and it was unlike the hum of magical objects.

Instead, it was like a heaviness lurked in the air and draped over her shoulders.

The second creature lashed out at her as she was distracted. Before she could react, there was a flash of movement, and something was before her.

No, not something. Someone.

The fae prince had freed his blade and sliced the gargoyle’s head clean off its shoulders. It thumped to the ground, rolling toward the dark hearth. Then it erupted into a cloud of ash.

“The roof,” Hadeon said. “Our way out is on the roof.”

Footsteps sounded outside of the bedroom.

“Two hallways down,” Breckett said. “There’s a staircase that leads to the nearest turret.”

Nodding, Hadeon moved toward the door and cut down the first ogre that appeared. It wasn’t as tall as the ogres they’d faced outside, but it had to hunch over to fit in the hallway.

The creature fell backward, dissolving into a plume of dust.

What is that fucking sword?

She’d never heard of a weapon that could turn anything it touched to dust. Was it the blade itself that held this power, or was it something Hadeon’s magic granted to the blade?

Breckett moved to the front of the group.

Wordlessly, Arabella and the enchantresses followed Breckett and Hadeon, racing down the hallways to the sound of drumming footsteps and splintering windows. As they rounded the corner of the second hallway, more gargoyles crashed through nearby windows. Glass sprayed in every direction.

Spinning, Arabella lashed out with her shadows.

The semi-translucent vines sunk into one of the eyes of the nearest gargoyle, which slumped onto the floor, dead instantly.

But even as she moved, another gargoyle struck out.

It was so fast, there was no time for her to react.

Its taloned hand wrapped around her arm, wrenching her forward.

Its hand felt both cold and warm, like the melding of the earth’s beating core and stones after a rainfall.

Gargoyles were a type of demon, spawned either by design or chance, that had their own will—and their own need for flesh. So far as she knew, gargoyles needed to eat the flesh of mortals to sustain their life, or risk turning fully into stone.

Stony wings stretched out as the creature prepared to take flight—and take Arabella with it. But then Jessamine was there, moving an instant before the creature did. As though she knew what it was going to do.

Jessamine wrapped her blade in golden weaves and swung. With both the power of her magic-imbued weapon and the weaves, she sliced the creature’s hand off at the wrist.

The gargoyle roared, and Arabella and Jessamine rolled backward in tandem, out of the reach of its other outstretched arm as it clawed for them.

“Give in, little humans,” it hissed through a mouth of pointed teeth, sounding like crackling in the canyons of the deep. Blood and some strange dust seeped from its severed wrist. “There’s no point in fighting our master. Not with what he plans to do next.”