“Stop!”
Frustrated shrieks escape from behind their armored masks, and I know I can’t outlast all of them. My fingers grip the wet blades of grass as I stare into the chasm-like eyes of my attackers.
I’m unable to move as one sword crests above me. But the expected pain never comes.
As if held back by invisible strings, the Dullahan freezes in place. I blink as the other two Dullahan sheathe their weapons. Have they been ordered to stop? I glance at the castle as they reach for me, their grip strong enough to make me wince, but Idon’t cry for mercy. I am dragged toward the exit they used to come out here, where an open door beckons me into the dark abyss with open arms.
I smile.
I poundon the bedroom door. I’m trapped inside the castle in a random room on one of the lower floors. One Dullahan discarded me here, nowhere near its master.
Fifteen minutes have gone by. And I’ve spent every one of them thinking about Jax and the others lying unmoving on the muddy beach. Did they catch all the daemons, or did some slip past? I shove back those thoughts to focus on Leigh.
They are both somewhere in this castle, possibly hurt, certainly afraid. They could be together and in a room like this one.
Either way—no matter what—I’m not leaving without them.
“Let me out!” I rattle the door on its ancient hinges. I’m seconds away from turning it into splinters. “You can’t just keep me in here.”
The brass doorknob turns. The mechanism clicks, and I prepare to bolt, but a large creature blocks my exit. It drifts closer, forcing me deeper into the bedroom. Its hood nearly grazes the ceiling. The air curdles around the tall figure. What the hell is it?
“I see you’ve come to wage war against me and my castle,” the creature says in a voice that reminds me of mourning bells, of grave dirt falling on coffin lids.
The hair on my arms stands at attention. “Who the hell are you?”
The long dark robes conceal the creature’s face and body. Though it talks like a man, it isn’t human. It isn’t a witch, vampire, or werewolf. It is something else. Something otherworldly.
There’s something wrong with it, as if he’s encased in shadow, his body entirely comprised of sorrow. My eyes prick with tears I can’t explain, a burden of grief pressing against my chest that isn’t mine.
“You already know me, seeing as you stumbled into my lands, attempted to break into my house by picking a fight with my rangers, who would have had no qualms about killing you if I hadn’t intervened.”
I narrow my eyes. “You’re Kosac.”
The name springs to the forefront of my mind, and everything Leigh said about the creature back at Traum Castle follows. I should have guessed she had something to do with the rift right then. She failed to mention that this reaper-like creature was over eight feet tall. Its robes are blacker than an abyss, which is saying something, because everything else in this realm is a lifeless gray.
“You need to leave,” Kosac says. “Only the dead are welcome here.”
I refuse to move. “I want to see Leigh. And the boy, Fynn—light hair, blue eyes—disappeared last night. One of your rangers took him. I’ll leave when I get them both back.”
Kosac drifts closer. The adrenaline pumping through my veins tells me to run, but I stay still. The only thing in this room I could put between us is a bed and an old trunk. There’s no use trying to hide.
“Leigh is attending a party I am hosting. You, however, are not invited.”
Kosac has a plan. I don’t know him well enough to guess what it is, but I suspect it’s dangerous and involves my fiancée and a little boy who is somehow linked to all of this.
“What fucking party?” We have our own party to attend back home. One we’ve been excited about for years.
“It doesn’t matter. You do not have an invitation, and last I checked, Leigh told you to leave.”
“How do you know that?” I ask. Did Leigh tell him?
“I have direct access to all the ghosts here. Selene’s mind is mine to rifle through at any time I want. And you two had quite the conversation down by the water.”
I suppress the chill skittering across my skin. He had been listening to my conversation with Selene. He might have been talking to her the entire time.
“Leigh is coming with me. So is Fynn.”
“No.”
