I drew myself up to my full height, looking down upon him as best I could manage given the fact that Liam Colebrook was scarcely more than an inch taller than the incubus. “Death explains himself to no one, hellspawn. I am beyond comprehension, vaster than the sky, older than the sea, more infinite than—”
“Can Death die?” he asked, then grinned. “I’ve always wondered how that would work.”
I released a breath, shrinking beneath his unwavering glare. “One moment I was by her side in the realm. The next, I was hurtling through stardust and galaxies and… In any case, I arrived in the woods through no action of my own.”
“And you don’t know how that happened?”
“I do not.”
Fortunately, Gray’s shield vanished, interrupting what could’ve become quite an ugly conversation.
“Gray!” The incubus dropped to his knees, taking her face between his hands. His eyes were frantic with worry, but they’d returned to their natural color.
“Asher?” She blinked at him, slowly coming back to us. “I was… I ended up in the lake, and I…” Her gaze shifted to me, her brows drawn tight together. “What happened? Where did you go?”
“There’s a lake?” the incubus asked.
“I was… called away,” I said. “Tell me what happened at the lake.”
“I thought I was scrying again,” she said. “Reva was there, just like in the fire. I tried to reach out to her, but as soon as I touched the water, it was like something just… I don’t know. Sucked me in.”
“Did you fall?” I asked.
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. In a pained whisper, she said, “I thought he was going to kill me.”
“Who?” the incubus demanded.
“The… the hunter. He was there.” She wrapped herself in a hug, her body trembling at the memory.
“Did he take physical form?” I asked.
She shook her head, and I sighed with relief.
“But he was still there,” she said, blinking up at me once again. “Like a shadow almost, but… different. It reminded me of an oil slick, actually. Dark like that—like you could tell it wasn’t part of the water.”
“And you’re certain it was him?”
“I heard his voice in my head. Ifelthim, all around me. It was like he could see me—like he knew I was there. He told me he’d been waiting for me. That he was going to kill the others. That…” Her eyes widened. “Oh, God. Reva. He said… he said the little one would break first.”
The incubus brushed her tears away with his knuckles. “We’ll find him. We’ll destroy him. He’s just taunting you, Gray.”
“No, it was more than that. He… he did something to me.” She got to her feet and began to pace. “The water got heavier. Thick. He was saying that stuff inside my head, and somehow, he kept pulling me down. I couldn’t get free—it felt like trying to swim in cement.”
“And then he let you go?” I asked.
Gray pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, shaking her head. “I used my magic. When I finally got to the surface, everything started spinning, and then I ended up back here.”
“So the hunter’s turning your own realm against you?” the demon asked. “How the fuck does that even happen?”
“For him to access her realm at all,” I said, “he must have a deeply personal connection to her. As for effecting physical changes there and holding her against her will…” My mind whirled with the possibilities, but each one came to a dead end. I’d never heard of such a thing happening among any of my Shadowborn.
“Sorry, but those are some bullshit rules,” the demon said. “This guy’s old man kills her mother, and now he can just, what? Take the reins in Gray’s realm?”
“That’s… not the kind of connection we’re talking about.” I looked at Gray, wondering if she might elaborate. She looked supremely uncomfortable.
I wished I could’ve made this easier on her, to say the words she was so struggling with, but hers was not my story to tell.
“I… need a minute.” Gray turned her back on us and slipped deeper into the woods, where she sat down at the base of a large oak tree.
