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While the other man obeyed, Adric used his quartz to heal the slashes on his arm. After they’d scabbed over, he dropped the leather cord over his head and took the clothes from Luc.

They were a little big, but they’d do. He tucked the sheathed dagger beneath the T-shirt and laced on the lug-sole boots.

If a fada came across their tracks, they’d see Luc’s prints, not his.

Lastly, he put on the black hoodie, pulling up the hood to hide his distinctive hair.

The leather jacket he returned to the crook of the oak.

It would only be in the way if he had to shift—or fight.

Weak as he was, Luc took a long time to shift. Too long.

Adric stood helplessly by as his old friend wavered between man and wolf, sparkles flickering anemically over his skin. If Luc couldn’t complete the shift, he’d die, his body a grotesque mass of incompatible organs.

He growled. “Focus, damn you. You can do this.”

A weak glimmer of orange, and at last Luc’s huge brown wolf appeared. He was too thin in this form as well, his fur dull, patchy. At this rate, he’d never survive his decade with Blaer.

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” He touched Luc’s head. “When this is over, I promise I’ll do what I can. There’s got to be a way to break the damn geas .”

The wolf’s breath sighed out. Then he gave Adric’s hand a firm nip. The message was clear: Stay out of this.

Adric scowled down at him. “I’m the alpha, remember?”

Luc growled lowly.

It was Adric’s turn to sigh. “At least let me give you a shot of healing energy.”

At Luc’s nod of assent, he ran his quartz over the wolf’s body. He was still thin—there wasn’t much Adric could do about that, but his fur grew shinier, the patches closing over until he had a thick coat again.

Luc nuzzled his chest in gratitude.

Adric grimaced. “Don’t thank me yet.”

He lifted his quartz, dangling it in front of the wolf’s face.

He paused, sorting his thoughts. He had to get the command just right. Once they were inside, and especially if Blaer caught sight of them, he had to make sure the compulsion to obey him, Adric, was stronger than the power her geas exerted on Luc.

When he was ready, he infused his voice with dominance. “Take me to Rosana do Rio. Now . No detours, except whatever’s necessary to keep the night fae from detecting me. Understood?”

The wolf whined…and then turned and trotted out of the trees. Adric dropped his quartz back over his head, tucking it into the T-shirt along with the dagger, and strode after him.

Luc didn’t take the shimmering fae path, confirming Adric’s suspicion it was booby-trapped, or maybe even an illusion. Instead, he veered right.

They circled the compound, Luc padding stiffly beside him, his will under Adric’s command. Adric swallowed something acrid. He’d promised himself he’d never compel any of his lieutenants or close friends.

The Darktime isn’t over. The prince will destroy your clan from the inside out.

Was this how it started? With Adric himself?

As they passed through two longleaf pines, a small circle shimmered into being, widening into a wolf-sized portal. Luc stepped through it, Adric glued to his side.

His spine tingled. He pulled back his shoulders, his stance tough, as if he were a fada bodyguard. Someone who belonged. Meanwhile, his gaze roamed the compound, his body poised for anything.

A second ticked past, then another and another. From a nearby oak, a raven studied Adric with beady brown eyes. Finally, the portal behind them contracted shut.

He was in.

He blew out a breath, took a cautious step forward. It was darker in here—too dark—the weak sunlight barely penetrating the forest canopy. Something rustled behind him. He spun around, but nothing was there. Then it was in front of him, although he still couldn’t see anything.

Until he realized the shadows themselves had come alive.

They blotted out the sky, slithered over the vine-covered buildings, morphed into nightmarish creatures that grew larger until they loomed over him and Luc before dissolving, only to reappear somewhere else.

The worst were the faces, their eyes wide, their mouths stretched into predatory howls—or worse, smiles.

It was the Darktime amped up ten times over.

Breathe. Stay calm. Think of something good, something that makes you happy. Making love to Rosana, or playing soccer with the cubs.

Then it got worse. Magic shivered over Adric’s skin…black, cold magic.

His nape tightened. Memories pricked his skin like sharp, painful darts.

Luc hadn’t been the only one tortured to feed the night fae’s craving for negative emotions. After he and Marjani had sprung Luc, Leron had finally captured them. They’d been lucky, though. His uncle had only let the beatings and torture go on for a few days, because he still had a use for them.

Marjani, he hadn’t touched at all. No, she’d been chained to the wall, forced to watch as Adric took the beatings for them both.

When he’d deemed them sufficiently broken, he’d had them brought to him. Adric had been told he was leaving the country to fight as a mercenary for the fae, and Marjani had been ordered to whore herself to Jumar.

It was Leron Savonett’s final mistake.

Adric’s knees locked. Caught in the dark memories, he couldn’t make himself continue moving forward.

Beside him, Luc seemed unaffected, probably because unlike Adric, he had permission to be here. He continued forward alone until he realized Adric was no longer following. Turning his head, he yipped a question.

“Right behind you.” Adric steeled himself to walk into the nightmarish shadows. For Rosana, he’d enter Hades itself.

Luc sniffed the air and then aimed for Langdon’s lair.

The shadows sucked at Adric, but the darkness lessened. His whole body slumped in relief.

Time to hide.

Adric removed Luc’s boots and hid them under a bush. Then he touched his quartz, drawing energy from the tiny crystals to cloak himself. But he’d have to be careful—the energy drain was tremendous. He had fifteen minutes, maybe less, before the crystals ran out of power.

Luc swung his head from side to side, nostrils flared, clearly wondering where Adric had gone. Then he must’ve picked up Adric’s scent because he gave a wolfy shrug and turned down a path of smooth white pebbles.

This time, when the darkness sucked at him, Adric twisted his fingers through Luc’s ruff, and as he’d hoped, whatever protected the wolf spread to him as well. Together, they followed the path through the trees and around the still black pond.

The entrance to Langdon’s lair was down a short flight of granite steps. Ivy spilled down either side of the tall door, a dark, polished wood with a triple moon carved into the top.

He stilled, inhaled. Lady Blaer had come this way.

And even though he couldn’t scent Rosana, she was also nearby. He knew it with the same certainty that he knew the location of each of his clan members at any given moment.

“You go first,” he told Luc in an undertone. “Distract the prince so I can get Rosana out. And Luc? If someone asks, you’ll say you never saw me. That’s an order.”

The wolf’s head swung up and down.

Adric tried the door handle. He wasn’t surprised when it moved—Langdon had little to fear in his own compound. But as the door swung open on silent hinges, uneasiness crept up his spine.

This had been too damn easy.

Rosana’s warning played in his head. Was he walking into a trap?

He can’t see you. He doesn’t know you’re here.

The foyer stretched two stories up, and was completely empty except for an extravagant arrangement of white flowers in a large black bowl.

He hesitated, his uneasiness increasing, as Luc stepped across the threshold.

Then he scented Rosana. Faint but distinctive, and with an underlying tang of fear that made his chest clench.

His lips drew back in a silent snarl.

Thrice-damned, fucking fae.

He followed Luc into the foyer. Behind him, the wood door thudded shut.