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If he has Sumner, we are completely fucked.

Desolate landscape surrounds me, with jagged rocks and barren earth stretching out for miles. I make my way down the path, each step seeming harder than the last.

I haven’t been here in years, but I haven’t forgotten my way. This place is a part of me. It’s engraved inside the very marrow of my bones.

Sumner is here, and it’s because of me. When I learned what she was, I should have sent her away, back to her life in the world that wasn’t mine. I wanted to keep her, and now I’ve doomed her.

There is no kindness from the dark king, only unhappy endings. And for a girl like Sumner, a human, he won’t make it quick.

Too soon, I reach the heart of the dying land. A towering doorway of charcoal granite stands before me, intricately carved with the names of all lost to it—to him. I don’t dare read them. I know exactly which names I’ll find.

I stare up at the entrance, wanting so badly to turn and run. But I need to face him. I at least have to try. For her.

“Nephew,” the voice comes from behind me. It forms an instant knot at the center of my gut. “What a pleasant surprise. How long has it been?”

Not long enough.

I turn, seeing his figure emerge out of the dark. His eyes are deep, a piercing silver-gray that seems to glow in the dim light. They are the same as mine. Our one shared feature.

I stand frozen, terrified of the man drawing closer. His hooded cloak billows around him like smoke. The shadows move with him, staying by his side like a pack of loyal followers.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were your father. You look just like him,” he hisses. I bite down on my molars, trying like hell to keep my fangs at bay. This is not a man you want to get on the bad side of. “Tell me, dear boy, what’s inspired you to finally come visit your dear old uncle? It’s still a few months until your reckoning, no?”

A shiver rolls down my spine.

My reckoning. A day I’ve dreaded since before I could even understand what it really meant. A day I still wish wouldn’t come.

That isn’t why I’m here.

I’m about to answer him when a familiar sense overtakes me. Sumner is near. My gaze skims the grounds, searching for her. I breathe in the air, trying to get a hint of her scent, needing it to lead me to her. There is no smell though. No beating of her pulse. Still, I feel her energy, her essence. The ghost of her.

“Out with it,” my uncle—the Reaper—ushers. “It’s time for me to feed my pets.” He runs his long fingers over the back of a shadow, which curves and stretches around him, arching its back like a cat moving into his touch.

“You have something of mine.”

His mouth curves upward, eyes flickering with a strange light. “By all means, come in. Let’s discuss it.” My uncle holds out his arm, motioning for me to follow him through the ascending gateway and into our home…

We step out through the doorway, his cold hand resting over my shoulder. There’s a pit in my chest from our conversation. His words gnaw at the back of my mind, numbing me, because what he’d said, it’s true, and I don’t know how to cope with that.

And now she’s fucking here.

“You know I don’t play favorites,” my uncle tells me. “Her test will be the same as the others. If she can resist the darkness, if she can find the light, I will let her go. For now. Humans are weak though. I don’t expect her to last long in my nightmares.” He looks at the large clock on the wall. The clock made of twisted vines and dried pixie flesh. “It won’t be long now.” His dark eyes shift back to mine. “I suggest you find your pet before the shadows reach her.”

I turn to the black woods, stepping out of his reach. “And Rhenn,” the Reaper calls, “if she somehow does manage to slip away from me, she will be yours to waste. Only a few months to go.” He rotates around, leaving me with a world-shattering grin.

No, I think. Don’t let him get to you. Not now. There’s still time…

The air is thick with ash and decay. My feet lead me forward into the hollow forest. The trees are twisted and gnarled, their branches like bony fingers reaching out to the blood-red sky. I feel the weight of impending loss. It’s heavy, squeezing around the organ in my chest like a vise.

Teeth gritted, I push forward, even though everything inside me knows how this is going to end. Once marked by the King of Shadows, there is only one fate. Death itself couldn’t save you, not until he’s ready to let you go.

My pace is quick, rushing over the lifted roots that snake their way through and around the earth.

The smell of sweet metallic catches in the breeze. I follow it, overwhelming relief washing over me when the steady thump of her heart plays in the back of my ears. The relief staggers when I finally find her, unmoving on the forest floor.

She looks so vulnerable against the brush. A delicate flower battered by my family’s storm.

Falling to her side, I scoop her into my arms, feeling her weight against my chest. I cradle her gently, afraid to move too quickly. She’s so small, so light. Nothing more than a dove in my grip.