Chapter One
Joy
The Elder Dimension stretched before me like a festering wound I had torn in reality itself. My fingers trembled as I stared at the door—my door, the one I had opened with my own cursed shadows. The memory of that moment crashed over me in nauseating waves: Ari’s triumphant smile, the red stars guiding my darkness, the terrible sound of reality screaming as the portal materialized.
“Good girl. You’ve just opened the Elder Dimension.”
His words still echoed in my nightmares, along with the devastation I’d glimpsed in Enzo’s eyes before I’d turned away like the coward I was. But I couldn’t let him die. He meant everything to me.
Thick smoke ran down my throat like grasping fingers, forcing harsh coughs from my burning lungs. Tears streamed from my eyes uncontrollably, hot rivulets cutting through the soot coating my cheeks as the toxic fumes from the burning bayou invaded every breath.
Eagerness flared in Ari’s blue eyes, making them gleam with predatory anticipation. His fingers clamped around my upper arm with bruising force. “Shall we?”
“Wait—no!” I pulled on my arm, heart racing. “That wasn’t the deal! You said if I came with you, you’d heal him first. What about Enzo?”
He tightened his grip. “You’ll do exactly as I say or your precious vampire dies a long, horrible death.”
I didn’t want to enter that darkness. I wanted to run back to Enzo, but if I did, I would only watch him die.
I dug my sandals into the soft and spongy ground. Across from the cathedral, orange flames licked hungrily at the cypress trees around us, casting dancing shadows that made the bayou look like the entrance to hell itself. “What is it that you want me to do?”
“I need you for protection.” He yanked me toward the suspended portal, my shoulder screaming as the socket threatened to give way. I tripped over a tree root and nearly fell, but he jerked me to my feet.
“From who?”Me? Was he kidding?My chest tightened. I stumbled again as he pulled me toward the looming portal. Its surface rippled like a liquid mirror, shot through with veins of gold and silver that pulsed like a heartbeat. The air around it hummed a melody that was almost beautiful, almost familiar, but just off key enough to make my stomach turn.
“No—wait!” I dug my heels into the soft mud, felt it squelch and give way beneath me, but he was too strong.
One step. Two. The acrid smoke from the burning oak stung my nostrils. The oppressive Louisiana heat pressed against my skin, thick enough to taste. Cicadas screamed their final chorus. It was all I had left of home.
Of Enzo.
My foot crossed the threshold.
Everything inverted. The air tasted sweet—too sweet—like overripe fruit on the edge of rot mixed with honey and something floral that made me dizzy. Cold kissed my skin, but it felt alive, curious, like invisible fingers trailing across my arms. Gravity felt wrong, as if I might float away or sink through the ground at any moment. Colors were brighter, more saturated, hurting my eyes with their intensity.
I twisted back, my body moving through air that felt thick as syrup. Through the portal's shimmering frame I caught one last glimpse: Enzo's body crumpled on the cathedral steps, his white shirt soaked crimson. Real. Solid. Mine.
Then the portal sealed with a sound like a sigh, and I was drowning in beauty that felt like a trap—everything too vivid, too perfect, too wrong.
My knees buckled. The ground beneath me felt soft, yielding—not mud, but something else. Moss? Petals? I couldn't focus, couldn't breathe through the dizzying sweetness.
His grip on my arm shifted, loosened. Before I could think to run, Ari looped his arm through mine with practiced ease, his fingers wrapping around my elbow like a shackle—no longer dragging, but escorting. As if we were attending a ball instead of my kidnapping.
"The queen."
Pain shot through my temples. “Queen of what?”
He gave me a sinister smile. “The Unseelie. Your queen.”
“She’s not my queen.” My free hand curled into a fist at my side. I was human. I’d been raised human. Whatever Unseelie blood ran through my veins didn’t change that—didn’t make me one ofthem.
Ari’s grip tightened just enough to make my bones ache. “I suggest you be more respectful, because Alanna hasn’t been the same since her father was murdered and she was trapped in the Elder Dimension.”
My steps faltered, sandals squelching in the muddy ground. “What do you mean murdered?”
“Gunnar Khan murdered her father, and I am here to inform her that I have him.” Something in his tone—smooth, self-satisfied—made my teeth clench.
I had never met Gunnar and only knew that he was King of the Dark Demons. Dangerous? Probably. But a murderer? The only source for that was Ari—and he lied as easily as breathed.