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There was far too much power for her to pinpoint anything.

Growling in frustration, she paced back and forth at the cave’s entrance.

Unbidden, her mind wandered to her dream of Elias.

He’d been naked and covered in blood, and his features were ragged as though he hadn’t slept in weeks. A knife was plunged into the center of his chest. Immediately, she’d reached for it, desperate to pull it out. But no matter what she did, it remained as though it was embedded in stone.

And when he kissed her…

Damn her if it didn’t feel like he was saying goodbye.

She needed to save him, and now.

Taking a steadying breath, she cast her mind out again. Power assaulted her senses, making her dizzy, but she didn’t stop.

I just need to go down, she thought. If I can locate the tunnels into the deep, perhaps I can find the Everdark.

She let the magic all around wash over her—the hybrid fae-demon children, warriors with magical artifacts, hides of demons that were still infused with dark magic, and magic wielders using spells in their caves.

All the while, the power of the mists swelled in the background, blasting her like a blizzard carried on the northern winds.

She staggered, struggling to remain upright. The power was too much. But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t. Stretching out her senses as far as she could, she eventually felt a single dark heartbeat in the deep.

There you are.

Then she was striding into the dark. She moved down more tunnels than she could count until the air grew thin and her breath plumed in front of her. When she descended into a darkness that even her shadow fae senses couldn’t penetrate, she knew she’d found the Everdark’s stronghold.

She didn’t stop to find a torch. Instead, she pressed ahead, using her hands along the walls to feel her way until, eventually, she rounded a corner.

The impenetrable black receded to the room’s corners, and she realized she’d made it.

She stood in the shadow fae graveyard.

When she spoke, her words echoed like a drum in the deep. “Release my magic.”

The impenetrable darkness in the recesses of the room shifted as though awakening.

Inky black sloughed off crevices in the stone, slipping into other shadows as it moved down the walls and across the floor. Slowly, the black gathered until a dark cloud formed above the stone altar.

Welcome back, granddaughter , the Everdark said into her mind. I knew you’d see the appeal of my offer .

“How is it done?” she demanded. She didn’t care about his games or goals. Not right now. Not when her mate was near to breaking.

So impatient , the greater demon rumbled. How very human of you.

“You saw my mate in the dreamscape, I assume,” she said. Not waiting for a response, she continued, “Then you’ll understand my need for haste. Tell me how it’s done.”

The swirling black that hovered above the altar rippled before she heard the Everdark’s voice once more.

I am the darkness that stalks the night. I am what mortals fear in the recesses of the deep. I am seduction and shadows.

It seemed to pause.

I will coax out your inner shadows with my own. Then you will be able to access your truest power. You will be a child of demons.

Still not understanding, she said, “Tell me what to do.”

The Everdark hovered in the air and seemed to gesture to the altar.

She hesitated, a hand reaching toward a knife sheathed at her side—a weapon that would be utterly useless against this demon. For a moment, she thought about refusing. But as the image of Elias from the dreamscape returned to her mind, she nodded.

Swallowing past the fear that had her heart thundering in her chest, she lay down on the altar. The stone felt like ice through her leathers, and she bit back a shiver that started to work its way up her spine.

Do you submit to me?

The Everdark’s voice was all around her. She felt it in the earth’s shadows and deep within her—as though something inside her responded to his magic.

“How will I feed?” she asked.

There was a rumbling in the shadows, almost like the greater demon laughed.

You will see in time.

That wasn’t an answer. But did she dare to press him? She needed to unlock her magic before Hadeon could find her. There wasn’t time to delay.

“Do what you must to awaken my magic,” she said. “I won’t fight you.”

The swirling black above her shifted until it took on the shape of a man.

It looked similar to the form the Everdark had taken in the dreamscape—a faceless shadow in the vague outline of a human. But then the shadows peeled back and something unearthly stepped forth.

It was utterly naked with skin that was a deep gray like decayed flesh. Sharp nails protruded from its fingers and toes, and on its face were two slits that opened to reveal eyes as dark as pitch. It didn’t have a nose or ears or any other human feature.

Slowly, a maw opened below its eyes, revealing a too-large mouth filled with countless sharp teeth that were narrower than mortal teeth but also far longer. At the center was a long, thin tongue that lashed out like a snake.

Without meaning to, she flinched away, tilting her head away as it flicked its tongue toward her.

This is a manifestation of my magic, the Everdark said, and she thought she sensed his magic in the darkness hovering above the altar. As he spoke, bands of darkness wrapped around her wrists and ankles. It pulled her arms over her head.

Resist, and this will not work, the Everdark continued as she pulled at the bands of shadows holding her down. Even her shadows were being subdued by some inky darkness beyond her sight.

You want to save your mate, do you not?

Gritting her teeth, she swallowed back both fear and pride before saying, “Just do it.”

As the demon lowered itself so it hovered above her body, she didn’t flinch, didn’t dare move as its claw-tipped fingers clicked against the stone as it placed its hands on either side of her head.

Then a piece of the Everdark’s magic moved.

Reaching a hand up, it pressed a single claw to the center of her forehead. Magic speared into her, and a single tear slipped down her cheek as pain sliced into her center.

Elias, she thought. I can do this for Elias.

Tendrils of shadow enveloped her, spreading out until they filled her, until there was only the darkness.

Slowly, she felt herself separate from her body. She watched as the creature knelt above her. Shadows rippled around the stone altar, coming off the demon in waves as it reached a hand up, sinking clawed fingertips into her chest.

She watched as her body convulsed and tendrils of shadow filled her veins, moving out from where the creature’s hand was. The darkness bled up her throat until she felt it caress her mind, her memories.

For a terrifying moment, she was back in the cottage in the woods as the witch entered her mind and tore her memories away. The memory assaulted her senses, and she felt herself tremble above her body, nearly descending back into it.

No, she thought as terror rippled through her senses. I’m not in that cabin. I’m no longer helpless .

But the demon didn’t flip through her memories. Instead, it moved around them to the deepest recesses of her mind, to a corner she hadn’t even known was there. Where there was a single box of shadow that was encased in bands of twining silver.

There, the Everdark purred.

His voice was everywhere and nowhere all at once.

The searching darkness formed a key before her mind’s eye. A single dark key with an onyx stone. In a flash, the key was before the box, entering the lock. With a single click, the box opened.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Both she and the Everdark’s magic waited in silence, eyeing the dark box that had creaked open. Then a shaft of shadow lashed out, and a torrent of magic burst forth like a dark tornado. It lashed onto the Everdark, clasping the shadows and forcing it back, back, back.

Suddenly, she crashed back into her body.

A power unlike any she’d ever known swelled within her. Inky tendrils extended out from that recess of her mind, filling her thoughts, her chest, her entire being until it was all she was.

Then the magic of the Everdark was forced out.

There was a flash of motion, and she blinked, finding herself atop the demon.

The creature lay on its back, the stone altar cracked beneath it.

Her fingers were wrapped around its neck.

And at the tips of her fingers were long, sharp nails the color of night.

There was a strange heat behind her eyes as blackness swallowed them whole.

She felt her canines sharpen and let out a low growl.

Welcome, granddaughter, came the voice of the Everdark. A princess of fae and demons .

As the demon magic swelled inside her alongside the shadow fae power and the earthen magic of the enchantresses, she knew what the Everdark said was true.

Like her mate, she was a demon now, too.

And that demon would be what saved both him and Shadowbank.