Demon? Or something else.
Selena shifted beside me, trying to step around me. I blocked her with my arm. “Selena, you should wait?—”
“Don’t even think about it.” Her eyes flashed, her jaw set in that stubborn line I was beginning to realize meant I’d already lost the argument. “I didn’t fly across an ocean to stand in the hallway, Rocco. We’re in this together.”
I winced. Together. Because of me. Because I’d stolen a shard, bitten her without her consent, and dragged her halfway across the world into a blood-soaked castle that reeked of dark magic and death. She was here because of my choices—every single one of them—and now she was standing in the crosshairs of enemies who didn’t believe in mercy.
Angelo didn’t always kill his victims outright. Sometimes he made them disappear—quietly, completely, as if they’d never existed at all. Costin was worse in his own way, clinical and patient, the kind of predator who’d let you think you’d escape before pulling the net tight.
But Vex could take it to a level neither of them would dream of.
Possession.
I glanced over my shoulder and tilted my head toward the stairs. The others nodded, their faces grim. Lucien and Darius had their swords drawn. Alice had her bow and arrow ready.
We climbed.
Each step groaned beneath my weight, the wood soft and rotting in places, threatening to give way. And with each step, the nightmare clawed its way back. The walls pressed in closer—or maybe that was just my mind, pulling me back to the possession. The beating. The terror of being trapped inside my own body while something monstrous used my hands to hurt the person I loved most.
I gripped the banister. Breathed. Selena’s hand found the small of my back—a quiet pressure that said I’m here without breaking the silence. I kept moving.
The staircase wound upward along the interior wall, and the castle revealed itself in pieces. A chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling above us—massive, iron, dripping with cobwebs so thick they looked like funeral shrouds. Whatever candles had once burned in it were long gone, reduced to nubs of yellowed wax clinging to the frame like old bones.
Dim light shone through a rose-shaped stained glass window on the landing above. The colored glass threw a blood-red bloom across the opposite wall—beautiful and grotesque at the same time, like finding a flower growing in a grave. But even as I watched, the light was fading, the rose dimming as the sun sank lower behind the mountains. In a few minutes, it would be gone entirely, and this place would belong to the dark.
Then a sound stopped me dead.
Every hair on my body stood up. My hand shot out, pressing Selena flat against the wall behind me. The group froze.
A baby’s cry.
Thin. Weak. Echoing down from somewhere above us, bouncing off the stone walls until it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. It rose and fell in hitching, desperate wails—the sound of something small and helpless and terrified.
The sound hit me like a fist to the sternum. Every protective instinct I had fired at once—not just for Selena, but for whatever was making that sound. Something small. Something helpless. The same way she must have sounded when I?—
I shut the thought down hard. I grabbed Selena’s hand and took the stairs two at a time.
Fuck. Vex.
The bastard must have kidnapped a baby—his specialty. Innocence ripped from its mother’s arms and brought to this godforsaken place for one purpose.
A blood sacrifice.
The staircase ended at a landing. A long corridor stretched out before us, lined with heavy wooden doors, all closed. But the crying wasn't coming from here. It was coming from above—another flight of stairs at the far end of the corridor, spiraling upward into darkness.
Every muscle in my body screamed to sprint toward the sound. I forced myself to slow down—racing blind into a demon’s lair was how people died. Beside me, Selena’s breath had gone shallow, her eyes wide and glistening. She’d heard it too. That desperate, helpless wailing that burrowed under your skin and wouldn’t let go.
“Come on.” I tilted my head. “Stay close.”
Selena's hand found my arm, her nails digging in. “We have to move. Now.”
The crying grew louder, more desperate, each wail scraping against my skull like a blade. Somewhere above us, a childwas alone in the dark with the most sadistic demon I'd ever encountered, and the Solstice was tonight.
We were running out of time.
I bolted up the stairs, the baby's terrified cries pulling me upward like a rope tied around my chest. Selena was right behind me, her breath fast and sharp against my back.
The stairs ended at another landing that opened into a narrow hallway. Stone walls, low ceiling, the air thick with dust and that ancient blood scent that wouldn't let go. Heavy wooden doors lined both sides, their iron handles blackened with age.
