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“But that’s what I said.” Nova’s eyes brighten. “He’s not dead. He’s out there somewhere.”

“Nova, I don’t think you’re hearing me.” My tone darkens. “No one has ever come back from a hell dimension. Especially not The Shadow King’s.”

“Yet,” she says. “No one has come back yet.”

Frustration bubbles in my throat. Either she’s deliberately ignoring what I’m saying or she really doesn’t understand. Perhaps she doesn’t. Perhaps she can’t; she didn’t grow up with this. It’s a foreign language to her. Too complex to learn in the few snatches of conversations we’ve been able to have these past weeks.

I’m about to try a different way of explaining when a loud wailing sound shatters the air.

“Sarah?” Rev springs to her feet and rushes to one of the doors that lead off the living room. Before she reaches it, the door springs open.

“I saw them.” Sarah is shaking from head to toe. “I saw them.” She’s holding her wand, her fingers curled so tight around it that they’re almost white with the pressure.

“Saw who?” Rev puts her hands on Sarah’s arms.

Slowly, Sarah turns toward the window. She points a trembling finger. “Outside,” she whispers. “They’re outside.”

As Sarah speaks, the hairs on the back of my neck begin to prickle. Inside my head, Snow releases a low warning growl. I stand and gesture for Rev and Nova to stay back, inching to the window. Pressing myself against the wall, I peer down into the street.

And then my blood runs cold.

“Mack?” Rev asks, moving tentatively forward.

“Stop,” I hiss. “Nobody move.” Down below, clawing at the sidewalk in broad daylight, a pack of hellhounds begins to howl.

14

NOVA

The color drains from Mack’s face. He is pressed against the wall, frozen, not moving. Rev and I approach him slowly, instinctively flattening our bodies against the wall too. In the middle of the room, Sarah is still trembling except now she’s also muttering and shaking her head.

A howling sound shakes the air. It makes Sarah slam her hands over her ears and sink to the floor, where she wraps her arms around her knees and starts to rock back and forth.

A trickle of ink-black dread drips down my spine. The noise fills my ears, my head, and my mind. But it’s not wolves or dogs; it’s something else.

“Mack?” Rev whispers.

When Mack turns to face us, his eyes are flashing amber. “They’ve come for Nova,” he says.

Rev looks at me, but I can barely move. “What are they?” I ask, struggling to hear myself over the sound that is now swelling in the street, through the apartment, and every inch of Phoenix Falls.

“Hellhounds,” Mack says, darting away from the window and grabbing my wrist. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

Without another word, Mack tears across the room, dragging me with him. We hurtle down the stairs and he flings open the door. We are barely a foot into the street when something rounds the corner ahead of us.

A flash of teeth, surrounded by gray stretched skin, set with yellow eyes, and dripping saliva hurtles toward us. I can’t count how many beasts there are; there isn’t time.

Another hand takes hold of me. Rev is pulling us back inside.

She and Mack slam the door closed and lean on it as something barrels into the other side so hard that a large indent appears on its surface. Stepping back, Rev mutters a lock incantation. “It won’t hold them long,” she says, watching the door start to buckle under the pressure of the huge ravenous bodies that are slamming themselves into it.

“Upstairs. The roof.” She grabs me and we take the stairs two at a time. When we reach the landing outside her apartment, she yells, “Sarah, stay inside. Bolt the door. Don’t come out.” Then she keeps running ahead of me all the way to the roof of the building.

When we reach the open air, I realize Mack isn’t with us. My eyes widen. I’m about to lurch for the door and scream for him to hurry when he appears. “Tried a demon-repelling spell,” he says, panting. “Didn’t work.”

“That’s because they’re not demons,” Rev mutters, backing up toward the edge of the building.

“What are they?” I ask, pressing up against the cold brick wall and watching as Mack tries to reinforce the door to the stairwell.