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The Evergloom breathes.

It presses against my skin, slow and heavy, like it’s trying to seep through my pores and settle in my bones. Not air. Not mist. Something older. Something watching.

I grit my teeth and shove the feeling down. The last thing I need is to start unraveling five minutes into this nightmare.

Rad doesn’t flinch as something snarls in the distance. He slaps a hand against my back—not playful, not friendly. Just sharp enough to jolt.

“Move faster, human.”

His voice is low, tight. Controlled—but not calm. Like he’s holding something back and barely keeping the leash on.

I barely hear him over the pounding in my chest. My blood’s still guiding us, but it’s thinner now. Flickering. Like the tether’s dimming. Like Parker’s slipping further away.

That seems really fucking bad.

I swallow hard, fighting to keep my voice steady. “You wanna tell me what the fuck that noise is?”

Rad’s fangs flash in the sick glow bleeding through the trees. Not in amusement. In warning.

“They’re ringing the dinner bell.”

The shadows stretch beneath the twisted trees. Their limbs don’t sway— they reach. The ground beneath my boots pulses like it’s alive, like it’s breathing, like it’s hungry.

Every instinct in my body screams at me to run. I know that’s exactly what they want.

All predators want to chase.

Something shifts behind me. I whip around—nothing.

But now the clicking isn’t coming from one direction anymore.

It’s everywhere.

Above. Below. Inside my own fucking head.

It scrapes through the air in jagged bursts—sharp, irregular, wrong. Like a hundred tiny bones snapping. Like a skeleton rattling its teeth.

My skin crawls. I clench my fists, trying to suppress the urge to break into a sprint. “Nope. Fuck this. We need to move faster.”

Rad doesn’t answer immediately. His gaze stays locked on the darkness ahead, his posture stiff. But I see it—the subtle flex of his claws, the tight clench of his jaw. He’s itching to tear something apart.

“You think I don’t want to move faster? You think I don’t want to be ripping through this entire realm right now trying to find her?” His voice is rough, strained, like he’s holding himself back. Like it’s taking everything in him not to break into a sprint through the trees.

“But I’m not the one with the tether to Steorfan. And you can only bleed so fucking fast before you die like the fragile little human you are, Hobson.”

I can’t stop the growl from escaping. “I resent that. And the name’s Hudson.”

Rad’s hands curl into fists, claws biting deep into his own skin. “Yeah, well, she’s not just waiting, Hudson ,” he snaps. “She’s hurting . I know it. I know what that shadowy fucker does with his prey.”

That hits like a punch to the ribs. I glance down at the thin thread of blood glowing faintly at our feet, flickering, dimming. Shit. That’s not good. That can’t be good, right?

Rad’s eyes darken as he follows my gaze, and the air around us seems to thicken with the tension simmering between us. “Right now? You’re my best shot at finding Parker quickly. But you’re not exactly built for speed. So, unless you’re planning to bleed more efficiently—” He leans in, his voice lowering with a predatory edge. “I need you to keep that blood trail going. Or I’ll lose her. And if I lose her?—”

I feel the weight of his gaze on me, his hunger pulling at my gut like a vise.

“I’ll lose everything . And if that happens... nothing survives me.”

I swallow hard as I feel him drawing my emotions in like a fucking vampire. The tension, the anxiety, the panic of being too slow—he’s savoring it, letting it strengthen him.

“Now move,” he demands. “We’ve got a hunt to finish and a Beholden to save.”

Damn right. We’re going to tear this realm apart piece by piece to find her. No matter how long it takes and how many dangers we need to face to get to her.

Suddenly, a branch cracks. Something breaks the treeline. I barely see it before a blur of limbs and jagged, too-wide teeth lunges for me. Instinct takes over and I dive sideways, barely hitting the ground before claws carve through the space where my chest just was. That was too close.

The thing skids to a stop, twisting to face me.

It’s fast. Too fast.

My breath shudders as I push myself up.

I catch too many eyes—milky, lidless, gleaming like oil—and too many teeth, jagged and crammed into a jaw that splits wider than it should. The body is worse… hunched and gaunt, all jutting bones and slick, blackened skin that stretches too tight over a skeletal frame.

And the clicking isn’t coming from its mouth.

It’s coming from its bones.

Each sharp, spasming twitch sends another stuttering crack through the air, as if the thing is breaking itself just to move.

A cold shiver crawls up my spine, like the thing is already under my skin.

And Rad?

Rad is grinning, his eyes gleaming in the dim light like a wolf that just found a wounded rabbit. The shift in his demeanor is enough to make me pause—whiplash-inducing, crazy fucking demon.

I scramble back, trying to get some distance. “This isn’t funny,” I pant, my heart pounding.

Rad rolls his shoulders with casual grace, a look of pure amusement spreading across his face. “It’s a little funny.”

The creature snaps its jaws, lunging again?—

But Rad moves first, faster than I can blink. In an instant, he’s on it. One clawed hand wraps around its throat, effortlessly stopping its advance. The thing writhes, snapping, clawing, but Rad doesn’t flinch. He barely seems to notice the struggle.

His claws sink into its flesh, and black ichor pours between his fingers like oil.

He tilts his head, examining the creature. “Haven’t seen one of you in a while.”

The creature hisses, limbs thrashing, its too-many eyes narrowing as it lets out a series of guttural, slithering sounds.

Not a scream, I realize.

A language.

Rad responds, voice low and guttural, something inhuman that makes my spine stiffen.

“What the fuck—are you talking to it?” I ask, bewildered.

Rad barely glances at me. “It’s saying it wants to eat you.”

The thing hisses louder.

Rad’s grin widens, his teeth flashing as he leans in closer. “I told it you taste like stale bread, but it doesn’t believe me.”

“You what?”

Before I can even process what’s happening, Rad snaps its neck like it’s nothing. The creature goes limp, its body hitting the ground with a sickening thud—a lifeless heap of bone and sinew.

The second its body hits the dirt, the clicking sound intensifies, turning deafening, like a thousand insects buzzing all at once.

“ Fuck ,” I whisper, barely able to breathe.

Rad doesn’t say a word. He wipes the ichor from his claws with mechanical precision, eyes locked on the darkness ahead.

Then, suddenly, his head snaps in a different direction, the glow in his eyes sharpening to a dangerous gleam. Something just shifted. Something bigger .

I feel it a second later—a low, deep vibration ripples through the ground, like a heartbeat in the dirt. A pulse. It’s massive. Unstoppable.

Rad growls under his breath. “We need to move.”

No hesitation. No debate. Just those few words, a fury laced command.

And then—he bolts.

Shit.

I don’t wait to ask questions. I run, adrenaline kicking in as the trees shift, branches stretching like they’ve got a mind of their own, like they’re trying to box us in. The ground rumbles beneath my feet, something beneath it moving. The clicking turns into a roar but I don’t look back.

“Try to keep up, human,” Rad calls, already several strides ahead of me.

“If I die,” I grit out, leaping over a twisted root that wasn’t there a second ago, “I’m fucking haunting you.”

Rad laughs without slowing. “Wouldn’t be the first.”