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“Vorkle!” she shouted, calling for the goblin who’d helped her get the amplifier from the Witch of the Woods. The stone walls somehow both absorbed the sound and had her shout reverberating. “Vorkle! We need to talk.” But even as the echoes of her words fell to silence, the goblin didn’t appear.

She cursed before turning back to the others and saying, “Time to come up with a plan.”

“The five of us can’t face down Magnus and his army single-handed,” Jessamine said.

“Yes,” Arabella interrupted. “Got that.”

She didn’t dare ask the other enchantresses at Shadowbank for help—not when everyone was needed to protect the village if demons broke through the ward. Losing even one enchantress was a heavy toll on their defenses. It was bad enough that Jessamine, Cora, and Brynne were here with her.

She turned to Breckett, nodding to a knife sheathed at Breckett’s side. “How many syphens does Magnus have?”

Syphens were magical blades created by the now-extinct shadow fae. New erox could be created—and controlled—through the power of these blades. Erox could also be killed with this blade by one swipe to the heart.

“Once, he had two syphens. Elias stole the first when he escaped. I have the second,” Breckett said, his hand resting protectively on the blade at his hip.

Breckett had stolen one of the syphens that Magnus used to create many of the erox in his army. Before setting his sights on Elias, the sorcerer had been hunting down Breckett to get the blade back.

“He shouldn’t have any,” Breckett said, his tone wary. “Unless he found the one you dropped in the forest.”

Arabella bit the inside of her cheek.

When she’d been desperate to protect Shadowbank, she’d stabbed Elias with his own syphen, stolen the amplifier, and fled the castle.

She’d intended to give the amplifier to the enchantresses in Shadowbank so they could fix the failing ward before she’d return to the castle to fulfill her time as Elias’ offering.

Instead, she’d been captured by Magnus’ ogres and lost the syphen in the woods during the fight.

Fear filled her at the idea that Magnus might have the syphen that created Elias and could force him to do anything with it.

She had to focus on the present—on what she could do.

“So, you’re telling me that Magnus can’t control his erox,” Arabella said.

If the sorcerer didn’t have either of the syphens, he couldn’t make them do anything.

Breckett laughed humorlessly. “There are ways he can control erox without a syphen.”

She tilted her head to the side, weighing his words. “Are there any erox who’d stand with us?”

Breckett shook his head. “None that would dare stand up to Magnus.”

And face his wrath, he didn’t need to add.

“Not without… encouragement,” she said, her eyes snapping down to the syphen at Breckett’s hip.

“No,” Breckett said, his body angling away from her.

It was clear in the way he stood, body lowering into a defensive stance, that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get away from her even with his invisibility. While he was more powerful than the average magic wielder, she wasn’t just any enchantress. Now, she was also a shadow whisperer.

One who’d caused stones to crumble with a mere thought.

Just what was she capable of?

“No one should have their free will taken from them,” he said.

She took a step forward. “Magnus has my mate. I intend to take him back, and I will use any weapon at my disposal.”

Somehow, she’d found her mate in this life. And she wasn’t about to lose him. She didn’t care if she had to single-handedly face down a sorcerer and his army.

There was nothing she wouldn’t do for Elias.

She would burn down the world and cast it into shadow to get him back.

“Elias taught me that some demons can be good,” she said, taking another step toward Breckett. “That demons aren’t all enemies to mankind. But the way I see it…” She let her voice trail off, let Breckett see the severity in her gaze. “Anyone who stands between my mate and I is the enemy.”

Breckett’s eyes narrowed. “That makes you no better than Magnus.”

“I’m nothing like him,” she said. “I’ll wield the syphen long enough to get Elias back. After that, they’re free to go. I don’t intend to demand eternal servitude—like Magnus.”

While she didn’t like the idea of taking anyone’s free will from them, she would protect those she loved at all costs.

If growing up in a village at the edge of civilization had taught her anything, it’s that this world was a violent one.

To survive meant to fight for every breath.

And there was no protecting everyone. If she had to choose who to keep safe, she would always choose her family and Elias.

Which meant that Breckett and the other erox were a barrier in her way that needed to be removed.

Jessamine glanced between them. Then she angled toward the erox, hand on the hilt of her sword.

No matter what was happening, she would have Arabella’s back.

Brynne and Cora did likewise, turning toward Breckett in a single motion.

Breckett glanced between the enchantresses before taking a step backward. “I won’t let you have it.”

Arabella raised a brow. “Are you telling me you’d rather protect the other erox than your friend? Some of those erox are murderers and rapists. You should know—you helped Elias rescue me from them.”

For the first time, uncertainty filled Breckett’s gaze, and he shook his head.

Shadows traveled up her legs, her sides, before trailing in circles in the palm of her hands. “I’ll return the syphen once Elias is safe. You have my word.”

Breckett’s eyes flickered between hers and the hissing shadows in her palm. “Magnus will rue the thing he awakened in you.”

She smiled. “I’m relying upon it.”

Breckett winked out of existence.

For a moment, she considered what to do. But then she realized she didn’t need to see him—not when his body’s shadow remained when he’d become invisible. Bands of black wrapped around the blade and tore it free of its sheath. In an instant, the blade snapped through the air and landed in her hand.

Her home and her people would forever be her priority.

But now, so was Elias.

She would stop at nothing to protect him and get him back.

Breckett dropped his invisibility cloak. His eyes narrowed as he stood with tensed muscles, ready to move. Likewise, Jessamine, Cora, and Brynne all lowered their stances, prepared to attack at her word.

Four magic wielders, all poised to strike.

The erox was outmatched, and he knew it.

With a flick of her fingers, she sheathed the syphen at her side before turning from him. Her shadows moved around her shoulders as she strode toward the castle’s front doors, flanked by the three enchantresses.

“It won’t be enough,” Breckett called from behind her. “Have you forgotten about the ogres, gargoyles, and other creatures that follow Magnus? What of the erox who were created with Elias’ syphen?”

For a moment, she hesitated, her hand on the door’s cool metal handle.

He was right.

This syphen was a start, but it wasn’t going to be enough.

Something dark moved through her thoughts, sharpening her anger.

It felt like a flower made of blades bloomed in her chest. For a moment, she wondered if this was another effect of her new shadow magic.

It was unlike anything she’d experienced before, but she let it fill her. Let the anger strengthen her.

Throwing the doors wide, she walked out into the cool autumn air.

The castle was nestled deep within a mountainous forest and had a small clearing around it on three sides and a lake on the other.

A translucent gray ward sprouted from the earth and encased them in mist, forming a barrier between the castle and the dark forest beyond it—and the demons that never ceased searching for their next prey.

Without the collar suppressing her magic, she could see the ward clearly. The color was so unlike the purple-blue hue of the ward surrounding Shadowbank. Whoever created this one had not used earth magic.

She made it only a few steps beyond the castle doors before pain sliced through her.

The suddenness of it stole her breath away. It felt like an earthquake had caused a fissure in her very being, fracturing all that she was and engulfing her in agony.

Her vision blurred, and she could no longer see the castle grounds before her or the trees beyond them.

Knees buckling, she collapsed onto the ground, eyelids shuttering.

Before blackness took her, one name lingered in her thoughts.

Elias.

Then she succumbed to the torrent and knew no more.