“I’ll text updates,” he says.
After hanging up, I turn to Ravi. “You need to stay and monitor the situation.”
His brown skin pales. “What?”
“My shadow magic will alert me if anything comes through. I will notify you if there’s any danger.” I wobble as I stand. My adrenaline is wearing off. “A few days, tops. Just until I can find something in my father’s journals.”
“I can’t stay here. People will start asking questions if I don’t return to Borealis.”
“I know, I know.” I reach for his hand. “Please, Ravi. I can’t leave this unguarded, but I can’t abandon my grandmother, either. She’s unwell, and I can’t be in two places at once.”
His shoulders slump. “I don’t like this.”
I nod. Neither do I. “If anything—and I meananything—seems off about that portal, you call me immediately. We will notify the Blades if necessary. But that’s a last resort. We need to prevent chaos from erupting.”
“Leigh—”
“A few days,” I repeat firmly. “Then this will all be over.”
I gather my things, guilt gnawing at me. I’m lying to Wilder about why I’m in Glaucus, abandoning a potentially dangerous magical anomaly, and leaving my cousin to guard a portal to the realm of the dead without help.
Everything will be fine, I tell myself.Nothing’s happened yet. Just a few days, and I’ll know if I am overreacting.
Though the shadow magic remains calm, something deep in my chest warns that I’m making a terrible mistake.
Four and Half Months Later
I’m in hell.
I’ve been socializing for hours. Wilder and I were asked to greet groups of guests, dividing and conquering the thousands of people who came to celebrate us and our love. I’ve shaken so many hands that my grip has gone numb. Not to mention, my nose itches from all the perfumes I’ve inhaled. The bright pink of the ballroom where we’re hosting our welcome party is the icing on the cake, and it tests my gag reflex. I hate pink.
Pink flowers. Pink antique couches.Pink ribbons hanging from the overhead chandeliers.
“Don’t you love it?” Gianna asks, her topaz eyes sparkling. As my maid of honor, she’s responsible for this colorful mess, and I regret giving her free rein over this weekend’s color scheme. If I hadn’t been so busy with my grandmother’s post-hospital care and researching how to close the portal, I would have picked a softer palette—something neutral with pops of color, like green to match Wilder’s eyes.
But Gi has transformed this space into a scene straight out of one of her beloved fairy tales, complete with dozens of white rabbits darting between everyone’s feet and hopping all over the chairs the guests have left empty. I feel like I’m trapped in a zoo.
I force myself to smile at her. It’s my own fault for not giving my final input on the planning. Ravi and I have been frantically researching how to close the portal to Mictlan since we opened it nearly five months ago. We kept hitting dead ends until a few weeks ago, when I found—in some of my father’s research—that the spell to close the gateway is in Aradia’s journals, which are locked away here in Traum Castle. Ironically, we are back to where we started.
There was too much going on at home to justify another trip to Glaucus so close to the wedding. The Council and Wilder would have been suspicious; I would have had to admit how reckless I’d been in trying to bring the dead back to life. So instead, I changed our wedding location to Glaucus at the last minute.
I told Wilder that I wasn’t thrilled about the wedding photos we’d get if we stayed at the venue in Borealis. With a mountain backdrop, our wedding photos would be showstoppingly gorgeous, so the ceremony must happen in Glaucus. It’s not a lie—the mountains are picturesque—but being here also allows me to get back to the lake without raising concern.
Over the past few months, a few daemons have slipped through the portal, breaching the shadow boundary I set around the lake. Luckily, they were all lesser daemons, and the Glaucus Blades killed them all before they caused any damage. Since they haven’t been dangerous, I haven’t told anyone where they came from. Still, the threat remains, and it’s growing. If I manage to close the portal tonight, everyone will remain blissfully unaware of the situation. The Blades will submit their reports about strange daemon activity, never realizing their queen caused it all. I need to close the portal before something worse gets through, and I have to do it tonight.
I want tomorrow to be about Wilder and our future together. No distractions. I’ve dreamed of this day since I proposed to himon that rooftop. I want nothing more than to commit to each other in a room full of our family and friends, kiss like no one’s watching, and then walk out of the abbey doors without a care in the world.
I want to be a bride whose biggest worry is whether her dress is wrinkled after the long train journey from the capital, not whether creatures from a death realm might crash the reception.
Tonight feels like I’m racing against time to prevent a disaster of my own making, but tomorrow will be the happiest day of my life.
According to my father’s research, Mictlan’s biggest threat is the Dullahan—armored rangers who serve Kosac, the Death God who rules there. Dullahan haven’t been seen yet, but I feel the risk of the ticking clock. For months, I’ve felt like I’m playing a game of daemon roulette. It ends now.
“Leigh?” Gi prompts.
“It’s so pretty,”I manage through gritted teeth.
Gianna beams, and I exhale. Poor Gi poured her heart into planning this entire weekend. I know she’s determined for this wedding to outshine the two she never had. Gianna has been engaged twice—once to my brother before he passed away, and once to a jerk we went to school with—but she’s never walked down the aisle herself. Her happiness matters more than my initial discomfort.
