“You have to let him go,” I call out in a rasp. Before my courage disappears in a puff of smoke I barrel on. “He was only protecting me. He shouldn’t be punished.
“Who is this?” the milky-eyed woman asks.
Another woman takes a step down as if to get a better look at me. Her paper-white face has that slight sparkling sheen to it as her black eyes narrow in focus on me. She’s stunningly beautiful in a way edged with terror.
I open my mouth to say something.
“The Nexus,” the Guard interrupts.
“No,” Shadow growls in protest, but they continue.
“She—”
“is the Nexus.”
“The Key.”
The courtyard goes deathly silent and still. I’m suddenly too afraid to even breathe, afraid it will sound like a tornado of wind in the vacuum-like atmosphere.
What the fuck am I doing here?
Panic sizzles and burns like ice in my veins. I'm completely out of my element and I thought this would be better than the devils I know on earth—if this isn't Earth anymore, which I suspect it isn't—but it's not. Uncertainty clouds me while the tang of fear coats my tongue.
The way everyone regards me makes one thing abundantly clear.
They don’t want me here.
“Evie, no.” Shadow’s words come defeated and filled with so much fear.
The white woman with black eyes jerks her head toward the Guard. In a moment, they converge on me, grabbing me, pullingme off the ground. I cry out and struggle against their grip. The world narrows to the dark sinew of the Guard’s muscle and body.
“Stop, put me down.”
They don’t listen this time, hurrying me up the stairs as their manes flutter in that weightless way, the smell of brimstone heavy around me.
“Shadow," I cry out.
“Evie,” he calls back in anguish, but he’s still trapped. He can’t help me. Tears sting my eyes as my muscles clench and flex under the unyielding grip of the Guard. I attempt to kick and thrash, but their grip is like iron shackles.
Just as abruptly as I was whisked away, I’m set back down. The massive beasts clear away and I find myself standing at the top of the staircase. The Guard slink back down to the base of the staircase as everyone turns to me.
There is only deathly stillness. I’m falling into the void of sound and movement. Even Shadow has ceased fighting his confines.
“Nexus,” the black-eyed woman mutters.
The word strikes the air like a bell tolling across the courtyard.
It ripples outward—past the stairs, past the Guard, past every waiting creature.
“Nexus,” another voice whispers. Then another. And another.
The word becomes a chant, low and dark and inevitable.
A single figure drops to one knee.
Then another.
And another.
