“I should probably tell the king everything that has transpired,” Crispin said. “Mind giving me a ride?”
“Only if you never refer to it asgiving you a rideever again.” I held my hands out to the guys. We might have gotten off easy with the vampires, for now, but the darkness being in the park worried me. The darkness being inmeworried me even more.
I was going to go to the apartment and have a glass of wine and a hot bath while I could.
22
After dropping Crispin off, Gabriel, Sebastian, Ringo, and I returned to the apartment. We were going to order dinner, I was going to have a bath, and we were going to go to bed. In the morning we would meet with Penelope and Varian to create the next pathway. Finding out what Penelope might want in the fairy realm almost made it worth it. Whatever it was must have been lost to her when my mom destroyed the old pathways, and the devil had been dabbling in everyone’s business since then with the intent of getting it back.
I had my glass of wine, a few candles, and vanilla scented bubbles in the bath while we waited on dinner. I slid further into the hot water, letting out a long exhale. Man, what a long day. What a longfewdays. I was looking forward to a full night’s rest, but I didn’t want to jinx it.
The water was hot enough to turn my skin pink, and the wine was just strong enough to blur the edges of my thoughts. I closed my eyes, sinking deeper until the water lapped at my chin.
That’s when the chill hit me.
Not from the water—from inside. A coldness that started in my chest and spread outward like frost across a windowpane.My eyes snapped open as my skin prickled with goosebumps despite the steaming bath.
I watched in horror as the water around me darkened, turning from clear to murky black. The vanilla scent of my bubbles soured into something metallic and ancient. The candlelight flickered violently, shadows dancing across the bathroom walls in shapes that didn’t match the objects casting them.
I tried to lift my hands from the water, but they felt heavy, weighted down. When I finally managed to break the surface, I gasped. Black tendrils of darkness swirled around my fingers, coiling up my arms like serpents. They didn’t feel wet like bathwater—they felt like cold, living things slithering against my skin.
“Hello, Eva,” a voice whispered, but it wasn’t coming from outside. It was inside my head, using my own voice.
I tried to stand, but the darkness pulled me back down, the water now completely black and impossibly cold.
“What do you want?” I demanded, my voice trembling.
The darkness coalesced in front of me, forming a face that was almost human but not quite right—like looking at myself through a warped mirror. “I want what you want,” it said with my mouth. “To be free.”
The bathroom door burst open, and Sebastian appeared in a swirl of darkness that was somehow different than what I was facing—sharper, more defined.
“What the hells?” he growled, his eyes flashing with fire as he took in the scene.
The darkness vanished like it had never been. I stared at Sebastian, and he stared right back as we both tried to make sense of what we’d seen.
Then Gabriel was there in the doorway behind him. He took one look at me, stepped around the devil, then took a towel off the rack.
Cursing under his breath, Sebastian stepped in to help me up, and together they got me swaddled and out of the bathroom, avoiding the wine glass that had at some point shattered, leaving wine like a watery bloodstain seeping across the tiles.
I endedup on the bed, towel still bundled around me, held in place by Gabriel cradling my shoulders against his chest.
“We should call Crispin,” his voice rumbled against me.
“Crispin got her into this,” Sebastian hissed, pacing back and forth across the bedroom carpet.
“That’s not fair.” My teeth chattering made my argument sound pretty weak.
Gabriel’s hand rubbed up and down my arm, bunching up the towel. I should probably get dressed, but everything felt kind of numb and far away.
Sebastian stopped pacing and looked at me. “Whatever that darkness was in the park, it was different from the rest.”
All I could do was nod. I wasn’t sure what it meant, nor what I could do about it.
“We can’t ignore this,” Sebastian continued, his voice tight with barely controlled anger. “That darkness—whatever it was—it spoke to you. Used your voice.”
I pulled the towel tighter around myself, still shivering despite Gabriel’s warmth. “I’m not arguing that it wasn’t creepy. I’m just not sure what we’re supposed to do about it.”
Gabriel’s arm tightened around me. “Is this what happened in the elven realm too? When you absorbed the darkness Crispin released?”
