That waswaytoo easy. “How do I know you evenhavethe money? I’m assuming you weren’t justpoofed here with millions of dollars of American currency.”
Across the room, Radven let out a wicked chuckle. “Our enemies were kind enough to banish quite a few of our belongings along with us, including the significant amount of gold coin we’d been amassing. We’ve also sold a number of the possessions that were sent with us—you’d be surprised what people in this world will pay for ‘rare and unusual’ artifacts. Turns out the black market here isn’t so very different from the one back home.”
That wasn’t as reassuring as I assumed he meant it to be. “Still, shouldn’t we have a contract or something?”
“If you wish,” Octavian replied before either of his brothers could speak. He seemed closer than he’d been a moment ago, but he still wasn’t touching me. “But we have no reason to cheat you. Once we return to our homeland, we’ll have no use for the money we leave behind here.”
“You’ll also have no incentive to pay me,” I pointed out.
Octavian nodded. “Very well. We’ll draw up a contract at the house. I can even show you how to access our bank accounts. Take whatever you want.” He paused, then added, “I’d offer you the house as well, but it may return with us.”
“What do you mean, thehousemight return?”
That hollowness returned to his eyes. This close, I could almost feel the echo of that bleakness in my own soul.
“As Radven mentioned,” he said, “the curse that sent us to this place didn’t just affect the three of us. It caught the surrounding area as well, including the castle where we’d temporarily taken residence and everything inside.”
“Wait—so your entirehouseis from this other world?”
“Originally, yes. But we had it remodeled so it would be less…conspicuous. The sale of the original materials contributed greatly to our accounts, and the men we hired to do the work were paid handsomely for their discretion. Most of the current house was crafted from materials of this world, which is why I don’t know if it will return with us when the curse is broken.”
“You said the curse affected everything inside, too.”
He nodded gravely. “All of the furniture, all of the food—even an entire cellar full of Nectar. And three servants, who remain in our employ.”
Well, that explained why I’d reacted so badly to running into a tray full of Nectar.
“There’s one thing I still don’t understand,” I said. “Why me? Yeah, sure, I can sense all theessenceand whatnot, but whyme? How did you even find me?”
Octavian nodded again, as if he’d been expecting that question. He was close enough that I could feel the heat of his body. “Actually, it was—”
“Tendrils!” Radven leaped forward, his hidden knife already in his hand. “Grab her!”
Before I could even register what was happening, he’d sprung across the room, knife swishing through the air, and I fell to the side as he jumped on the cushion between Octavian and me.
It was only then that I noticed the fingers of shadow slithering out of the wall behind the couch. The lights flickered as I stumbled to my feet, my eyes locked on those dark, ephemeral shapes.
Tendrilswas an accurate name for them. They slithered out of the wall like ghostly octopus legs, whipping violently at the air where I’d been sitting only moments before.
Radven’s arm arced through the air, and his blade slashed through one of the flailing tentacles, severing it. The shadowy Tendril dissolved into the air, and the room was filled with an earsplitting shriek like metal grating against metal, or like sharpened bone being dragged across a chalkboard. My skull rattled, and I clapped my hands over my ears.
The other Tendrils kept coming, lashing this way and that, and Radven dodged and slashed. His blade found a second one, shearing the end clean off, and another unearthly scream joined the first.
The lights flickered again, then went out.
“Grab her!” Octavian’s deep voice roared through the bloodcurdling shrieks. “Get her out of here!” In the early morning light seeping in through the window, I saw that he’d somehow produced a blade of his own and had joined Radven, swinging it at the slithering shadows.
One of the Tendrils whipped around, the tip catching Octavian across the muscle of his upper arm. He cursed as his sleeve split open with ahsssssssand a red lesion appeared on his skin.
I didn’t get to see what happened next, because at that moment an arm locked around my waist and I was twisted around and thrown unceremoniously over Alastor’s shoulder.
“What are you doing?” I demanded. “Put me down or—”
“I’m saving you,” he growled back, his grip tightening against my squirms. He was already running toward the door, with me bouncing like an idiot across his shoulder, my hair falling out of its messy bun and completely obscuring my vision as he carried me out of the apartment.
He hurried down the staircase, me grunting with every step as his shoulder dug into my stomach. I didn’t try to break free again. As humiliating as it was to be carried around like a sack of flour, I was frankly more than a little terrified by whatever had just burst out of my wall.
“What were those things?” I asked through my curtain of hair.
