After five hundred years of torment, Erebus wasfree.
It was night, as it always was, but stars dappled the sky, illuminating the surrounding forest with its iridescent leaves and a courtyard filled with sculptures, sapphire vases, and stone fountains with star-flecked water. His domain had been restored.
He fell to his knees.
I rushed forward, holding him close. He held my waist tightly, pressing his face into my stomach as a heavy breath rushed out of him. A surge of overwhelming emotion filled my chest, almost too much to bear. I needed him to be safe. I needed him to be happy. And then, in a flash of clarity that nearly buckled me, I realized—Iknew—I needed him as my friend, my partner, mylover. I needed him now as I’d need him always. Wind ruffled his hair, meandering through what remained of a few shadows atop his shoulders.
A sharpcrackfrom somewhere in the trees snapped us to attention.
What had been silent and motionless a breath before was now pure chaos; demons swarmed at us from beneath the trees, screeching and howling in a desperate, hideous plea. Some ran, some crawled, some limped, but they all moved as quickly as their distorted limbs allowed. Erebus and I brandished our swords at the same time, and shadows rushed from the sky, the ground, and the castle itself to form a protective surge around us.
We didn’t have time to do anything—breathe, think, move.
So we held our ground.
Surprisingly, the demons stopped just before the lowest stair, leaving Erebus and me towering over even the tallest of the horde. Eyes burned from within skulls, and teeth gnashed from bleeding lips as they beheld us, making way for two familiar figures: the tall, gray-faced demon with the mottled cape and the coal-eyed demon with the sharp tongue and judgmental stare. The two demons who had kept me company—if that was what it could be called—when I was alone in the castle.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they each gave a quick bow.
“These two seem familiar,” Erebus said quietly, laying a protective hand against my back.
“The gray-faced one led me to your castle; I wouldn’t have found you without its guidance.” I tightened my grip on my sword. The coppery tang of old blood, hot breath, and unwashed fur was close to making me gag. “And they both found me when I was alone. They spoke to me from the woods whenever I was on your balcony.”
“What do you want from us?” Erebus asked, eyes sharp and assessing. The demons stilled, listening. “You’re all free now. Unless you’re back to demand your end—in which case, Esmer and I can gladly oblige.”
A chill swept down my spine, brutal and sharp. Erebus and me against hundreds of demons was foolish—an impossibility. But therewas no other way out. The sword in my hands seemed to sense my desperation; it hummed, faintly warming my grip.
The gray-faced demon’s lips twisted into a deformed smile. “We aren’t free yet. But soon we will be.”
The coal-eyed demon nodded, expression solemn. “Free us. Cleanse us. Only you know how.”
The demons rose at the same time, a fiery, demanding hunger burning in their eyes.
And then they charged.
Erebus roared, bringing the surge of shadows down like a scythe. The force slammed the first wave of demons into the stairs with a brutalcrackthat sent stones flying and hurled dozens more back into the woods. In the middle of the chaos—among bleeding mouths, snarling teeth, and desperate lunges for our feet—Erebus threw us backward into a doorway-sized shadow.
It felt like slipping into a cold, icy pit. As though ice were sliding through my veins and a wind were pouring through the inner workings of my heart and plucking out anything dark or broken. It felt painful, briefly—but then it became a deep, comforting relief. Something that held on to my soul and poured water through its cracks, setting it free.
We stumbled from the doorway of shadow, now on the other side of the castle’s sprawling courtyard.
“Whatwasthat?” I quickly asked. The demons hadn’t noticed us, but it would only be a matter of seconds before they did. “It felt like my entire being was being cleansed. Or judged.”
Erebus’s jaw tensed. “I could feel the shadows working to pull something out of you. To examine—as you said—your very being. Your soul, perhaps. I’ve never felt anything like it before. Something is different, Esmer.” He looked at me briefly, eyes flashing in concern. “Did it hurt you?”
“No,” I said, giving a firm shake of my head. “The opposite, really. Like a cold bath after a long journey in the sun.”
Some of his concern ebbed, but not all. “Good.”
A realization dawned over me at his admission.Something is different, he’d said. But what? If we worked together, could we purify the demons in the courtyard as we purified the woman at Evernight? Perhaps something had changed in us now that we were back in the present and no longer divided.
“Would you be able to create something like that again? A gate big enough that all the demons could fit?” The demons noticed us; they roared in frustration, hurling themselves from the stairs and the trees. “If the shadows can quell or purify the demons, that might be our only chance at stopping them.”
Erebus’s mouth tightened. “Yes. But while I’m doing that, I’ll need your help containing them. A wall”—the demons were nearly upon us, crashing through the central fountain—“or a tunnel. Now—hurry.”
I shoved my fear aside and focused on the shadows; if I couldn’t manipulate them, we’d be lost. They felt like a web around me, a web with strings I could pull and shape. I mentally pulled one, two—that’s not enough—then grasped for fistfuls and armfuls, forcing them into a tunnel that the demons began to surge through.
Not enough.
