Chills rolled down my spine. Vex hadn’t just moved into this castle. He’d infected it. Evil spreading outward like rot, killing everything it touched—even nature.
I glanced at my watch. Less than one hour. We'd been searching for over two hours and had nothing to show for it but empty rooms and Vex's laughter. Raven was running out of time. We all were. “We have to find Raven.”
A cloud slid away from the moon and silver light poured into the courtyard like water filling a bowl. Something caught my eye.
“Rocco, wait.” I pulled him back to the railing. “Down there. Look.”
Below us, in the far corner of the courtyard, the moonlight revealed what the darkness had hidden. A door—half-buried in ivy, set into the base of the Keep’s outer wall. And the weeds and vines around it had been trampled flat. Recently.
Someone had gone through that door. And they hadn’t bothered to cover their tracks. Or maybe they knew it wouldn’t matter — that by the time we found it, it would be too late.
“Lucien.” Rocco’s voice cut through the dark. “We found something.”
“What?” Lucien’s voice came from down the hall. I watched him fight his way toward us—each step a battle against theKeep’s invisible resistance, his face twisted with effort. By the time he reached the balcony, precious seconds had bled away.
I pointed toward the chapel, my hand trembling. Lucien didn't hesitate. He spread his golden wings wide and launched himself off the balcony toward the courtyard below.
For a split second, I wanted to follow—to throw myself over the railing after him. But Rocco's arm locked around my waist, holding me back. We didn't have wings. The courtyard was three stories down, and the Keep's magic was already dragging at us, weakening us with every passing minute. A fall from this height could shatter bones that might not heal fast enough.
We'd have to find another way down.
A bitter wind slammed into him mid-flight—unnatural, vicious, shoving him sideways like a hand swatting a bird from the sky. Cruel laughter echoed from the walls. From the wind itself.
"No!" The word ripped from my throat. Lucien tumbled through the air, barely catching himself before he hit the ground. Vex was picking us off, one by one, turning the Keep itself into a weapon.
But the wind had hit Lucien—a powerful Golden Demon with a massive wingspan. Bats were smaller. Faster. Harder to hit. It was a gamble, but every second we spent finding stairs was a second Raven didn't have.
I looked at Rocco. He was already thinking the same thing.
We shifted into bats and followed, but it was like flying into a hurricane. The air fought us with every wingbeat, the courtyard spinning below us, the ground refusing to get closer.
I flapped harder and harder, determined to get to the door, but it was futile.
Lucien hurled himself against the chapel's barrier again and again — fists, shoulders, his whole body slamming into the invisible wall with a force that sent shockwaves rippling through the courtyard. Then he screamed. Not rage — anguish. Raw and guttural, ripped from somewhere deep inside him. The sound tore through the Keep, through the stone walls, through the barrier itself.
But then eerily, nothing.
Then a flash of golden wings outside the barrier — Darius, launching himself upward, slamming against the invisible wall. The barrier rippled where he hit it but held.
Seconds later, the wind died.
Not gradually — all at once, like someone had flipped a switch. The crushing resistance that had been dragging at us since we’d entered the Keep just stopped. The air went still. The laughter cut off mid-echo.
Three seconds. Maybe four.
We dove for the courtyard door.
I didn’t see what happened outside. But I felt it — a shudder through the barrier, a flicker in the air, and then the resistance slammed back into place twice as hard as before.
It had to be Rose and Alice. They were the only ones with any chance of weakening the barrier from the outside. But whatever they’d attempted, it hadn’t been enough.
Lucien, Rocco, and I dove toward the courtyard door. A gust of wind caught me mid-flight and hurled me sideways. I crashed into the stone wall beside the door, the impact jarring through my bones. I shifted back into human form and staggered, my shoulder screaming where it had taken the hit.
Rocco was beside me instantly, his hand clasping my arm. “Are you okay?”
I wasn’t. My shoulder throbbed and my vision blurred at the edges. But the last thing I wanted was for Rocco to lose his mind over me when Vex might be behind this door. His magic was suffocating. If Rocco charged in reckless, trying to protect me instead of thinking straight, Vex would destroy him.
So I lied. “Yes.”
