“I’m sure he would.”
The demon inside the castle—still clawing at the Shadow Bringer’s door—roared, its howl rattling the chamber and echoing out into the night.
“He’s in a mood today, hmm?” the talkative demon from the forest commented, leaning back into its tree. The second demon from the forest, silent and sullen, still hadn’t joined the conversation, clearly preoccupied with its weapon. “Trouble sleeping?”
“Enough with your games,” I seethed. The demons clearly knew more than they were choosing to say, likely withholding information that would enable my escape. “You know that scream wasn’t his.”
“Could have fooled me,” the demon said with a careless shrug, crossing its feet.
“I need to wake up from this dream,” I said tersely. “Tell me how.”
The demon thumbed its gray chin, considering. “Quite a dangerous venture, that.”
“I don’t care what I have to do. I don’t belong here, and I need to go home,” I said.
“You truly wish to wake?”
“Yes,” I answered fiercely.
The long-caped demon’s grin widened even farther. “Then you must first go to sleep.”
The second demon slammed its blade into the grass. “Your attempt at wit is making me lose my own,” it hissed through bared teeth, nearly spitting from the force of its words.
A roar suddenly erupted from inside the castle, along with the shudderingcrackof a door splitting open.
A new demon lurched toward the balcony from inside the Shadow Bringer’s bedchamber, spindly arms trailing like liquid across the stone.Its spine was long and crooked, needled with twigs and fur, and its face—if it could be called a face—was the skull of an elk. I reeled backward as it approached, frozen with terror. My hands were empty, bereft of either steel or shadow, and I could do nothing but watch, horrified, as the demon slunk forward. If I jumped from the edge of the balcony, would I wake in the Tomb of the Devourer? I shook my head.No—my body was physically tied to the Realm. If I died here, I might not come back on the other side.
I might not come back at all.
“Out,” the elk demon rasped as three others joined it from inside. The balcony trembled from the weight of their collective steps, shivering as I did when I looked upon their bodies. Atop each neck sat a skull; there was the elk of the first, a horse on the second, a bull for the third, and something fanged and serrated atop the fourth.
They lifted their skulls toward the midnight sky, raising their faces to meet the wind.
The elk demon growled, towering over the balustrade. “Where is he?” Its voice rumbled and cracked around each syllable, as if it hadn’t spoken a coherent sentence in centuries.
The long-caped demon from the forest stood from its sitting position, stretching its gangly limbs and stifling a yawn. “Whatever do you mean? You should have passed our unruly lord on your way out of his bedroom.”
As an answer, the quartet of demons on the balcony made furious, animalistic noises.
The sullen demon from the forest, previously silent as it sharpened its makeshift blade, pointed its weapon at me. “If he isn’t in there, then askthatone where the Shadow Bringer is.”
The elk demon turned to face me, halting its jagged movements. For a moment, it simply stared, its empty sockets suggesting vision that saw movement and shape beyond the physical. Things deep within the soul. Then it stepped forward again, slowly dragging itself to me. I pressedmyself flat against the balustrade, attempting to still my shuddering limbs.
I had almost succeeded until it bowed low enough to scent the air by my neck.
“Something of his resides within her,” the elk demon growled.
The fanged demon stalked closer to the elk demon, followed by the horse and the bull. It looked ready to jump, its clawed hands gripping at the stone. “She has been here before,” the fanged demon realized. “Perhaps she is his replacement—or perhaps he has abandoned us.”
The horse demon joined in, circling me. “Where is he? Where is the lord who would not release us?”
I held my chin high against the demons’ menacing faces. I had neither steel nor shadow to fight with—only words. “If you so much as touch me, the Shadow Bringer will exact his revenge upon you all.”
“Do not trick us,” bellowed the bull demon. “He cares not for you nor anyone.”
The fanged demon hissed. “Your death would be of little consequence, dreamer.”
Beneath me, the balcony cracked.
