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Chapter Twenty-Four

ARABELLA

“ D emon isn’t a terrible look on you.”

From the playful tone in Jessamine’s voice, Arabella knew her friend was trying to cheer her up, but her mood was as dark as the skies of the Abyss.

Arabella shifted her pack over her shoulder as they ran through the desert. Her eyes strayed to where Hadeon flew half a mile ahead of them to scout out the land in case any demons were nearby.

“Do you think there’s any way to let the shadow fae through?” Arabella asked, careful to keep her voice low.

Jessamine shook her head, not sounding winded at all. “Not this time. But… we could come back to the Abyss if we can find the entrance again. Then we can lead them out.”

Damn it, they didn’t have time to make the journey again.

When Arabella spoke, her words were barely more than a whisper. “Elias won’t make it that long.”

Suddenly, Hadeon turned from the skies and landed beside them.

Jessamine offered him a glare and nothing more.

None of them stopped as Hadeon ran beside them.

“Do you feel guilty for not trying to rescue Prince Arden sooner?” Arabella dared, her voice sharp. “Oh wait, you don’t feel guilt. Do you? Or else, you wouldn’t be leaving them to this fate a second time.”

He sighed heavily. “I thought Arden was dead until the moment I met you.”

“What?”

“Before my mother’s ball, I’d thought the shadow fae were dead.

I’d forgotten of Arden’s map and talks of the Abyss.

There had been so much going on during the fae wars with most of the courts preparing for war that it wasn’t at the top of my mind.

” Pausing, he eyed her with that strange, knowing look of his.

“Then I laid eyes on you. And you looked just like her. ”

“My mother,” she said, bitterness evident in her tone.

“It was you who made me recall my discussions with Arden,” he said. “I wondered where the map might be. Because if Arden had it, surely, he would have returned by now.”

Understanding clicked inside her, bringing with it a tide of fury.

“You made a bargain with me, knowing I was a shadow fae.”

“Suspecting,” he corrected. “But yes.”

“Are you trying to give us more reasons to hate you?” Jessamine spat.

“Myla was kinder to me than my own mother,” Hadeon said, surprising Arabella as true sorrow filled his voice. “I didn’t help her escape, but I wish I had.”

“If you had, the Everdark wouldn’t have killed her and my father,” Arabella said.

His brows rose. “I’d always wondered what happened to them. One day, they just… disappeared. My father never explained what happened to her. I had assumed she’d died on one of his missions.”

Something in her chest twisted, and it was all she could do not to lash out with her magic.

While she knew she should press Hadeon for answers, she was too fucking tired.

Everything she’d learned from the Everdark and about the shadow fae had been…

a lot. And she now had to figure out just what ramifications her new demon magic would have—and how she’d need to feed.

She couldn’t raise a hand against Hadeon while her bargain hadn’t been fulfilled.

That meant, if she became hungry , she might be tempted to feed on Jessamine.

And she refused to let that happen.

She turned her focus back to the sands and moving one foot in front of another.

Unlike their previous trek, they didn’t encounter a demon in their days of travel—or at least what they estimated was the passing of days. They were also able to journey farther without the need to seek out an oasis since Hadeon had packed extra supplies.

As they journeyed, she wondered if the demons didn’t approach them because her demon magic had been unleashed. Maybe they wouldn’t encroach on the territory of another demon.

A foolish part of her hoped they’d come under attack if only to slow them down. It would give Arden and the warriors more time to catch up with them.

But they didn’t encounter any opposition.

Far too soon, a deeper darkness materialized on the horizon.

As they neared it, she realized it was a leafless forest. Hundreds of trees of varying heights clustered together in the sand.

Some were taller than the Quarter in Shadowbank and others were twice the height of a man.

The largest trees’ trunks had deep grooves as though a great beast had clawed them.

But they weren’t dead. Instead, the trees appeared as though they’d just shaken the leaves loose in preparation for winter—that life would return in a few short months.

Frowning, she studied the line where the desert met the trees.

Unlike before, she didn’t need the Everdark’s magic to make the map work, which was fortunate for Hadeon since the greater demon had been scarce since awakening her magic. She wondered if it had done something to the Everdark—perhaps temporarily weakened him.

She gestured with the tilt of her chin. “The gateway is ahead.”

Hadeon motioned for her to walk forward, and she did, eyeing the trees’ twisting branches.

But even as she tried to remain vigilant, she felt her limbs and eyelids grow heavy.

They had traveled for days with little rest. Hadeon had pressed them to keep moving to ensure they stayed ahead of the shadow fae.

As she walked through the trees, she said over her shoulder to Jessamine, “If you feel sick, let me know.”

Jessamine made a sound of assent.

For once, their growing ill at the nearness of a gateway would be helpful to locate it. Since the map only marked an area, there was no way of telling where exactly it would be. But she anticipated both she and Jessamine would grow faint soon.

Frankly, she didn’t want to think about it.

Without the Everdark to assist her through the gateway, she’d likely lose the contents of her stomach very soon.

As they walked through the trees, something tingled at the edge of her senses. It was like a dissonant melody purring just beyond her sight.

“We’re getting close,” she said as she pushed back interlocking branches.

The further she walked into the trees, the less she could see the desert—even though she should have been able to see it between the bare branches. Instead, all she saw was darkness.

“Stay close,” she said. “I have a feeling getting separated in here wouldn’t be ideal.”

A hand was on her shoulder, and she glanced back. Jessamine nodded to her and then glanced back at Hadeon.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I can keep up just fine.”

“It wouldn’t be the greatest inconvenience if you remained trapped here, fae prick,” Jessamine said. “I mean, fae prince .”

His lips twitched, but he didn’t respond.

Arabella turned forward, following the dissonant chorus that slowly increased in volume as she strode across the dark sands.

As she neared where the sound was loudest, she didn’t feel the onslaught against her senses, like the realm was splitting in two.

Pain didn’t split her skull nor did nausea swell in her stomach.

Instead, the hum felt like a rumbling purr, and she strode toward it.

Sadness swelled in her as she wondered just how much of her human self had been lost to her training in shadow fae magic. Perhaps she wouldn’t be sick by the gateways after all. Not if she’d lost what made her human.

Outwardly, she’d changed. Her ears were pointed, just like Hadeon’s, and she noticed that her movements were more… fluid. Graceful like the fae.

Stretching an arm out, she allowed her eyes to flutter shut as a film of black fell over them. On instinct, she leaned into her newest magic, and her shadows sung.

Something hissed in the trees, which rustled as though a wind had just passed through. But all was still .

The night awaits .

Eyes snapping open, she scanned their surroundings to see who—or what—had spoken.

A flash of motion caught her eye, and she glanced down at the wisps of darkness at her feet, which dug into the sands, forming grooves.

Her shadows continued to shift into something more…

corporeal. They’d possessed substance before, but they’d felt like an extension of the dark.

Now, it was some spirit of the deep that seemed to respond to her emotions—and her commands.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Jessamine said behind her before there was a gagging sound.

Hadeon cursed.

Turning, Arabella caught Jessamine as she passed out and heaved her over a shoulder. There was no way she was trusting Hadeon to carry her friend through the gateway. Not that he would have offered to help.

“Hang in there, Jessamine,” Arabella said, uncertain whether her friend could hear her. “We’ll be back home soon.”

“It’s fortunate the gateways no longer affect you,” Hadeon said behind her. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to read the map. Getting home would be much more difficult.”

Your home, she thought.

Unwilling to speak to the fae prince any more than she had to, she kept her gaze ahead as she followed the hissing sound. Without willing it, her shadows pushed through more interlocking branches, creating a path for her.

A weeping willow tree with long draping branches appeared before them. Unlike the trees in the forest, this one bore leaves the color of decayed flesh. A clearing had formed around it as though this tree were a disease that sucked life from the land.

“There,” she said. “That’s the gateway.”

She wondered whether she needed to do something with her magic to open the gateway, or if her mere presence would be enough to allow them passage through.

Suddenly, there was a rustling behind them.

Spinning, she faced the sound, holding Jessamine with one arm and shadows licking up the other. Beside her, Hadeon held his sword before him, his dark power billowing around him.

Did a demon live in this place? Was this tree its nest? Or could it be the zaol again?

Tell me what comes, she commanded to the dark on some new instinct.