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“They’re found along the inner edges of the shadows at the end of Sombra. Loki will bring you there, and he’ll wait for you to best the shadows—or to fail them.”
Fail them… oh, I don’t like the way he said that.
But what else can I do?
“Fine,” I say, exhaling roughly. “You’ve got a deal.”
“Yes,” murmured the duke. “I thought I might.”
CHAPTER18
THE SHADOWS
HOPE
It turns out that the edge of the shadows where I’m supposed to find this one specific flower for the demon duke is located just past Nuit.
Loki points that out as he leads me through another portal though I didn’t need to see the structures in the distance behind us to recognize it. The stifling air weighing me down, the heat causing sweat to spring up along my brow… even the rotten egg stink is a pretty big clue that we’re not in Mavro anymore.
My shoes sink into the fields of ash. At this point, I’m beginning to feel like a freaking ping pong ball, the way they have me going from the small village to the capital and back, and I’m ready to just get this over with so I can trade the flower for Sammael’s freedom.
And just about then is when I notice the skulls popping out from the ash.
Like the village that Malphas and Shannon brought me to before, the ground is red covered with ash in varying shades of blacks, whites, and dingy greys. The sun—or maybe it’s the moon, I can’t really tell—is red, the rest of the sky a gloomy shade of dark grey a little bit softer than the ash.
I didn’t notice the skulls right away. Bleached white, covered in the ash, it’s only when I see one—complete with a twisted set of horns attached to the sides—only a few feet in front of me that I can’t deny where Loki’s brought me.
In a world full of immortal demons, I’m looking at the place they all go to die.
Duke Haures didn’t tell me that. When I murmur my suspicions to Loki, all the other demon says is that he survived a hundred years in the shadows before he found his mate. It doesn’t matter, though. As if Sammael is warning me from back at the duke’s castle, he knows the true purpose of the shadows at the end of Sombra—and the monsters that call it home.
And I’m supposed to go in there.
The wall of impenetrable black shadows in front of me still manage to look alive which is daunting, considering I know this place signifies death for so many others. If I go too far off the main path, leaving the edges where the ashbalm flowers grow, I’d be little more than a snack for some of the beasts who hunt in the shadows.
The demons are hunters, too. This is where some of the villagers come to hunt for the meat that feeds them all. That’s why I should be perfectly safe staying to the edges. The prey animals have learned to avoid it unless they want to end up on a plate, and those that are too stupid or weak to avoid being hunted shouldn’t present a danger to me.
Shouldn’t… but you never know, do you?
I could turn around and change my mind. Loki can make portals and it’s not like he doesn’t know how to open one into my house; he already did before so he could snatch my mate for the demon duke. Maybe Malphas and Shannon are still in Nuit and I can hitch a ride back to the human world with them.
Of course, I’d have to accept that Sammael was gone for good if I did that…
Breathe in, Hope. Hold it. Exhale.
Again.
Clenching my hands into fists at my side, I do my breathing exercises, trying to push back against my anxiety before I give in to it.
This is it.
Do I want to save Sammael?
I— yes. I do.
And that means I’m going in there for Duke Haures’s flower. With nothing but my bare hands, the phone in my back pocket, and the irrational hope that the ruler of this world can be trusted, I’m going to do this.
I have no other choice.
