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Lord Cofsi timed the warden's rotation precisely enough to reach through the bars of his prison, slamming the warden against the metal as he yanked him toward his chest, hitting his head and falling unconscious. It was almost too easy.

Cofsi squatted and shifted on his feet, leaning enough to snag the keys strapped to the guard’s belt. When he was out of the stronghold, he took in a deep breath. The corpses he once smelt no longer lingered like decay, but something sweet coated the air. Something you only smelt on living beings.

He broke into a run, using his senses to guide him down the pitch-black catacomb halls. The ground slowly turned muddy, his boots soaking in muck. But the mud didn’t smell quite like dirt. It smelt of iron and blood. Cofsi took a deep breath to compose himself. He hoped whatever Acastus had done was still able to be undone.

He reached a room, a small light flickering from a tallow candle. Tables were stretched out like an operating table. Flickering light dusted the room in a haze, every surface filled with vials of bizarre and unknown entities. Blood soaked the wood of every surface and Cofsi grimaced. He had reached the end of the catacombs and yet he found no bodies.

He shook his head. “Shit.”

When he found a wrought iron door in the back, he shoved it open and stomped up the circular steps. He landed in a small room he presumed to be a disguised entrance. Exiting, sunlight seeped in and slowly covered the expanse of his body from the window. He was back in the main section of the castle and he found his way to one of the many expansive studies. A mirror lay cracked on the ground, a woman cowering in fear from the wraith that towered over her. Cofsi reached for her, but before he could get close enough, the wraith attacked, killing her in one blow.

He stumbled back and quickly darted down the halls. The mirror he passed in the council room stunned him. Dark hands clawed out of it, wrapping their wicked fingers around the frame, hauling their body out into the living realm. Cofsi realized that Cas’ army of Sun Warriors were made of abandoned Glass People. Creatures so corrupted by the Veil, there was no way they could be controlled.