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"Has anyone ever told you you're terrible at encouragement?"

"No."

"Shocking."

I should have released her, but I didn't. Instead, I kept one arm around her waist while we continued. She fit against my side too easily. Too perfectly. Another thing I refused to examine. The Moonbells grew denser. Silver light spread across the forest floor until it looked as though stars had fallen among the roots. Beneath their glow, thin black lines appeared in the earth. Cracks. Not in the soil. In the realm itself. Through them, colors shifted. Gold. Blue. Crimson. Magic from other worlds bleeding through.

Poppy stopped. "Azaren." She breathed in amazement.

"I see it."

A cry drifted between the trees. Soft. Distant. A child.

Poppy's fingers tightened around mine. "That's what Mrs. Jenkins heard."

The voice changed. An elderly woman now. Then a man. Then⁠—

"Poppy." My own voice whispered from beneath the ground.

She went rigid. I pulled her behind me. "Do not answer."

The earth shook. The cracks widened. Infernal heat surged up through them, mingling with fairy light and something far older. Something that did not belong to either realm. The Moonbells bent all at once. Not toward the east anymore. Toward a clearing ahead. We entered it slowly. Nothing grew there. No trees. No grass. Only a perfect circle of frozen earth surrounding a split in the ground. The breach pulsed like a wound.

Light poured from it in irregular waves, revealing glimpses of places that should not have existed together. A burning sky. A field of silver trees. An ocean suspended upside down. And darkness. A lot of darkness.

Poppy whispered, "Oh my God."

Something moved within the breach. My sword ignited. The clearing filled with red light. A shape rose slowly from the fissure. At first, I thought it was a child. Small shoulders. Thin arms. Long pale hair that floated around its face as though it stood underwater. Then it lifted its head. Its skin was translucent. Roots and veins of light moved beneath it. Cracks covered its body, glowing from within. Its eyes were enormous and colorless, reflecting every realm at once.

Not a child. Not anything human. Ancient. Older than Hell. Older than Fairy. It looked at me. Then at Poppy.

Its mouth opened. "Home."

The word entered my mind rather than my ears. Poppy stepped around me. I caught her arm. "Stay back."

The creature shuddered. The fissure beneath it expanded. A shock wave tore through the clearing. I drove my sword into the ground and threw one wing around Poppy, shielding her as frozen soil and splintered roots flew past us.

The creature cried out in pain. Poppy pushed against my wing. "It's hurting."

"That's the point." I growled. "It is dangerous."

"It's hurting."

"It can be both." I had no idea why I was arguing with her instead of ending the thing.

It reached toward us, unfolding its long fingers. The air twisted. My infernal power surged toward it. I felt the pull instantly. It seized the magic inside me and dragged.

I snarled and locked my will around it. "No."

The creature's eyes widened. "Door."

"There is no door."

"Home."

"You have no home here."

Its grief struck me like a weapon. Images flooded my mind. A realm of endless twilight. Black rivers under violet skies. Creatures of light moving between crystalline towers. Then fire. Not infernal. White and absolute. The realm collapsed. The creature fell. In between worlds. Alone. Centuries passed in seconds. Voices. Fear. Hunters. Weapons.