Page 20 of To Dwell in Shadows (Shadows of Aurelia #2)

S elene rushed toward the gap in the floor, arms outstretched, even though Cass didn’t return the gesture. Her sister wore a billowy white robe belted with a gold braid, but her expression was hard. Selene squinted, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

“Cass?” Selene called, voice cracking. “Oh my god! What are you doing here?”

Cass’s normally expressive eyes were cold. Empty. “Rescuing you from that hole.”

“Oh, thank you!” The sound of her sister’s voice made tears prick Selene’s eyes. “But how did you get here? Did you fall through a portal too?”

When Cass stayed silent for a moment, Selene’s mind raced with all the things she wanted to tell her. There was so much to explain. But as Cass stared down at her, Selene realized something about her sister was… off.

“I died,” Cass replied. The words were cold. Flat.

Selene froze. It felt as though a sledgehammer had struck her chest. Her gaze traced Cass’s features again. So familiar—and yet, too still. Too pale. And then she saw it.

Cass’s outline shimmered. She was translucent.

“You… what?”

“I died ,” Cass repeated bitterly. “Why else would I be in the Underworld?” A sickly yellow glow throbbed around Cass’s body. It lurched and distorted with each word she spoke.

“No. No, you can’t be serious. When?”

Cass tilted her head. “Right after you abandoned us.”

The words landed like a slap.

“No…” Selene clutched at her chest, the air squeezing out of her lungs like a vise. Her breaths came faster and faster until she began to hyperventilate. “W-what happened?”

“You were supposed to protect us,” Cass cried. “You were supposed to make sure nothing bad ever happened to me!”

“I tried to,” Selene gasped. “But please, Cass, how did you die? Were you sick? Did you have an accident?”

“No. I was so upset that you left, I got into some trouble and… ” Cass closed her eyes for a moment. Her chest rose and fell as though she were taking several deep breaths. Then she raised her chin and said slowly, deliberately, “I was murdered.”

The world tilted and Selene collapsed to her knees. Her hands sank into the dirt as she doubled over, then began to vomit. Again and again until her body was nothing but a trembling shell, her insides raw. Her sobs echoed through the space, thin and broken.

This was it—her worst fear.

And it was all her fault.

Her absence. Her selfish need for escape. Her belief that choosing her own happiness over her family’s would somehow make them stronger, that they’d be forced to grow without her. But it must have had the opposite effect.

And now Cass was dead. Not just dead.

Murdered .

“I’m so sorry,” Selene whispered. She stretched her fingers toward her sister, desperate to make contact with her.

Cass’s eyes glittered with something like triumph. Satisfaction.

“Do you want to know how it happened?—”

Her words were cut short by a vicious, snarling bark sounding from a distance. Cass turned, and in an instant, was tackled by Zetta.

“Zetta, no!” Selene shouted.

Zetta clamped her jaws around Cass’s translucent throat and bit down. Selene watched in horror as Cass screamed, and her face distorted with agony. Then Selene realized it wasn’t agony she was seeing; it was that Cass’s face was morphing into a solid form. And a different person.

Cass’s blonde hair shriveled like a match tossed on a bale of hay.

Her eyes bulged then retreated until they were star-shaped holes sunken within a pasty face.

Her white robe split as six spider-like arms burst from her rib cage.

Her legs lengthened and her body rose until she was seven feet tall, looming over Selene.

The creature that Cass had become smiled down through a mouth of rotted teeth.

Selene whispered, “Who are you?”

“Greetings, mortal. I am called Drath, demon of Fear.” He spoke with a guttural, deliberate cadence that made Selene’s skin crawl.

Zetta growled and tugged on the tattered black robes the demon now wore.

“I was just having a little fun. Eldest daughters radiate with guilt and obligation so sweetly.”

Selene opened her mouth to say something, then just stood there, utterly speechless.

Drath crossed his six arms. “My companion and I saw you pass by earlier. He felt all that delicious guilt within you, and I felt the fear. A little deception to feed on those emotions proved… mmm, irresistible.”

Selene wiped away the tears still clinging to her lashes. “That was a horrible trick. Why would you do something so cruel to a stranger? ”

The sound of Drath’s chuckle made Selene so angry she was unable to stop herself from blurting out, “Do you even know who I am?”

“Of course. Prince Samael’s mate.” Drath leaned down, making Selene realize his face was painted like a nightmarish clown. He extended a leg toward her. The red outlining his mouth split and flaked as he asked, “Would you like help out of that hole?”

“At what price?”

“No charge.” Drath wound a hairy leg around Selene’s waist and lifted her to stand beside him. “Rest assured, your sister is fine.”

“I don’t see why I should trust your word on that.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Don’t ever do that to me again.”

Drath rubbed two of his arms together. “Ah, but don’t leave yourself so open to manipulation and I won’t.”

Selene wasn’t sure how to respond, so she started walking back toward the tunnel’s exit. Zetta was at her heels.

Drath trailed beside her, prompting her to say, “Just leave me alone, will you?”

“It’s been a decade since I visited your realm. What are your kind most afraid of now?”

“I don’t know. The usual stuff.”

“Like this?” Drath’s body shifted into a giant cobra, startling Selene so much she yelped.

“Yes, that!”

“Or perhaps this?” Drath morphed into a demented-looking dentist wearing a soiled white coat and waving a rusty drill at her.

“Yes. Great trick. You can stop now.”

“But what about this?”

Selene’s steps abruptly halted as her face and back felt as though they were pressed between two slabs of wood.

She tried to turn her head but there was wood on either side as well.

She was overtaken with the sensation that she was locked inside a coffin.

Claustrophobic panic began to rise, even though she knew it wasn’t real.

The moment she opened her mouth to scream, the illusion dissolved.

Drath laughed again in a mocking tone. “Still the same as ever, I see. Though I remember a time when things as natural as thunder and lightning invoked human terror. Those were fruitful times.”

“Can you just let me go in peace?” Selene craned her neck to look ahead but saw no indication that they were almost out of the tunnel. “You got what you wanted. Now just leave me alone.”

“Not when I’m enjoying your company so much.

What about this?” Drath’s body burst into hundreds of bees.

They swarmed at her, and Selene stopped walking and closed her eyes.

She let the bees buzz into her ears, tangle in her hair, and land on her face without reacting.

She refused to give Drath anymore fuel for his mania.

After a moment, the tone of the bees’s buzz changed. When Selene opened her eyes, she saw they had shifted into hornets.

The swarm had doubled and become more aggressive.

They were now trying to crawl into her nose and mouth, goading her until she couldn’t help but react.

They weren’t stinging her, but the feeling of a thousand tiny legs crawling on her and two thousand tiny wings beating against her finally became unbearable.

Primal fear made her break into a run while frantically swatting the hornets away. This only seemed to encourage Drath further. The hornets chased after, energized by her fear. They had grown to the size of hummingbirds and were attacking Zetta as well, who howled and trembled.

He’s going to continue until there’s nothing left of me.

The thought scared her in a different way than all the illusions she had suffered so far. Hunching down, she wrapped her arms around Zetta and clutched the traveler’s stone. Using all the energy she had left, Selene imagined being back inside her chambers. Safe and happy.

Drath seemed to sense she was trying to escape and changed tactics.

Water began to rush around her feet, icy and smelling like sewage.

Then it rose to her hips, her chest, and then her neck, as though the entire tunnel had flooded.

She focused harder on the bedroom, visualizing the stained-glass windows and polished floor, imagining herself tucked safe in Sam’s arms under the soft bedding.

Zetta was squirming in of her grip to escape the water, but Selene held her tight. She heard Drath’s laugh when the water reached her ears, but when it came to engulf her head, they finally transported away.