The needle pierced my elbow, and agony shot through me. I jerked, but her grip held firm. She pushed the point in, and heat exploded through my arm, racing to my spine and outward.
As she chanted, the trees tilted. The shadows under the willow rose like ink, coiling around my throat and tightening until breath and sound vanished.
The world dropped, and the ground slammed up to meet me. Sulfur coated my tongue, tangled with the sweetnessof rotting fruit. My feet sank into cold, wet earth. It clung to my boots and pulled me down. Glimpses of shadow-like, inhuman beings shifted in the darkness.
This had to be Terrigana’s underworld, one of the six hells. There was no other explanation.
A pit carved into the bowels of the earth, choked with mud, roots, and creatures that writhed through decay. Muddy walls surrounded me, slick and impossible to climb. Souls clung to them anyway, scraping at dirt that crumbled under their touch. They fell back into the pit without a sound.
The same shadow shapes moved among them. Elongated fingers coiled around ankles and throats, dragging the desperate back into the depths where many-legged beasts waited.
A figure formed in the gray haze: Ilyana Krudelbach. Not the cold, calculating vampiress I had staked, but something hollowed out. Her shape flickered like a candle in a gale, translucent and jagged.
“You,” she hissed.
My voice stuck in my throat, and my body refused to move.
“You took everything from me.” Her eyes were dark pits filled with accusation.
“I never expected to see you again.” The statement slipped out before I could stop it.
She clenched her fists. “Every time Adelaide renewed the disguise, she fed on what remained of my soul to power the magic. She carved away the last pieces of me.”
My throat tightened. “I didn’t know.” But in a way, I had. I was the one who’d bargained her soul away. I was the reason she was here and would be here…forever.
“You didn’t want to know.” Her laugh rattled like bonesin a jar. “You let her tear me apart so you could wear my face a little longer.”
Silver light spilling through widening gaps further fractured Ilyana’s essence. Bright threads escaped these gaps and coiled around my wrist before vanishing into the bracelet.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling it was wholly inadequate amongst the shadows of the damned.
“Sorry?” she shrieked. “You stole my image, and you are sorry? My face. My sister. My name. You walk through my life while I rot here.”
Guilt crashed through me.
Behind her, the shadows paused. They turned toward her.
“You are a monster.” Her translucent hand closed around my throat. The touch burned like frostbite. “A demon wearing stolen skin. What did I do to deserve damnation for your revenge?”
“I never imaginedthiswould be your fate.”And I hadn’t cared.I let her hold my neck, allowing her to hurt me. I deserved to feel at least a fraction of her pain.
“When you die, you’ll come here with me. Soon enough, you’ll learn what it feels like to rot from the inside.” A shadow creature rose behind her, its body rippling like tar. It hooked its fingers into her ribs and dragged her off of me, deeper into the pit.
The mud surged, thick and freezing. Hands of wet silt clawed up from the muck and locked around my ankles. Breaking free, I sprang and grabbed Ilyana’s translucent shoulders. Cold knifed up my palms, and her form flickered in and out of shape. I yanked her loose, tearing her from the creature’s grip as her outline shuddered under the strain. Her wide eyes met mine, begging me not to let go.
The muck swallowed her lower half, pulling her down inch by inch. No matter how hard I hauled, I couldn’t slow her descent. The creature lunged again as another rose beside it, reaching for me. Its hand clamped around my wrist, cold enough to numb the bone.
I ripped my arm free and kicked against the sucking earth. The creature’s reach skimmed my heel as I tore myself upward. Ilyana remained trapped, the pit dragging her back into the dark while I fought my way out.
More hands rose from the muck and caught her. They wrapped around her waist and arms. She did not resist. She let them pull her into the mud, into the mass of writhing shapes. Her eyes never left mine.
The darkness split apart, and the world snapped back into light. I jerked back into my body, still standing in the same spot, and dragged in a breath that scraped my throat. The air tasted like flowers instead of rot, too sweet after what I’d just left behind.
My palms throbbed as if I had been holding something far too cold for too long, the ache settling deep into the bones. Still, the pain was muted, wrapped in a strange haze.
“There now. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Adelaide smiled as she spoke. Her tone hadn’t changed, but I swore she was mocking me. She had to be mocking me, knowing I’d gotten a glimpse of Terrigana’s hell.
I wanted to scream at her, wanted to curse her, but my throat closed around the words, refusing to release them.
