Darius shrieked, a high-pitched, entirely un-lordly sound that echoed off the vaulted glass ceilings. He stumbled backward, clutching his right hand against his chest. The smell of searing flesh and melted metal filled the ballroom.

Where the binding rune had touched my bare arm, not a single mark

The transition back to the Shadow Realm was a violent rip through space, a breathless plunge into the dark that left my knees buckling the moment my boots hit the obsidian floor.

I stumbled, the solid shadow sword I had summoned in the High Court shattering into a thousand wisps of black smoke. Th

"Stay with me, Aria. Do not close your eyes. Open your eyes!"

Lucian's voice sounded like it was coming from underwater, muffled and distant. I tried to obey him, but my eyelids felt like they were made of lead. The fire in my shoulder had spread, turning the blood in my veins to acid. Every beat