Chapter 36 #2
He took a step forward, the toes of his boots dusting the threshold.
They did not smolder or catch flame; still, when he grabbed hold of my hand, his was shaking.
An ugly, unwanted part of my mind screamed at me, a violent, desperate warning.
It hissed at me to drop his hand—to push him back inside the castle and slam the door.
But I shoved the voice away, pulling him toward me instead.
I wanted him to be free. I needed him to be free.
Erebus flinched, silver eyes narrowing, but he allowed himself to be guided forward. And, most importantly of all…
He didn’t burn.
After five hundred years of torment, Erebus was free.
It was night, as it always was, but stars dappled the sky, illuminating the surrounding forest with its iridescent leaves and a courtyard filled with sculptures, sapphire vases, and stone fountains with star-flecked water. His domain had been restored.
He fell to his knees.
I rushed forward, holding him close. He held my waist tightly, pressing his face into my stomach as a heavy breath rushed out of him.
A surge of overwhelming emotion filled my chest, almost too much to bear.
I needed him to be safe. I needed him to be happy.
And then, in a flash of clarity that nearly buckled me, I realized—I knew—I needed him as my friend, my partner, my lover.
I needed him now as I’d need him always.
Wind ruffled his hair, meandering through what remained of a few shadows atop his shoulders.
A sharp crack from somewhere in the trees snapped us to attention.
What had been silent and motionless a breath before was now pure chaos; demons swarmed at us from beneath the trees, screeching and howling in a desperate, hideous plea.
Some ran, some crawled, some limped, but they all moved as quickly as their distorted limbs allowed.
Erebus and I brandished our swords at the same time, and shadows rushed from the sky, the ground, and the castle itself to form a protective surge around us.
We didn’t have time to do anything—breathe, think, move.
So we held our ground.
Surprisingly, the demons stopped just before the lowest stair, leaving Erebus and me towering over even the tallest of the horde.
Eyes burned from within skulls, and teeth gnashed from bleeding lips as they beheld us, making way for two familiar figures: the tall, gray-faced demon with the mottled cape and the coal-eyed demon with the sharp tongue and judgmental stare.
The two demons who had kept me company—if that was what it could be called—when I was alone in the castle.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they each gave a quick bow.
“These two seem familiar,” Erebus said quietly, laying a protective hand against my back.
“The gray-faced one led me to your castle; I wouldn’t have found you without its guidance.
” I tightened my grip on my sword. The coppery tang of old blood, hot breath, and unwashed fur was close to making me gag.
“And they both found me when I was alone. They spoke to me from the woods whenever I was on your balcony.”
“What do you want from us?” Erebus asked, eyes sharp and assessing. The demons stilled, listening. “You’re all free now. Unless you’re back to demand your end—in which case, Esmer and I can gladly oblige.”
A chill swept down my spine, brutal and sharp. Erebus and me against hundreds of demons was foolish—an impossibility. But there was no other way out. The sword in my hands seemed to sense my desperation; it hummed, faintly warming my grip.
The gray-faced demon’s lips twisted into a deformed smile. “We aren’t free yet. But soon we will be.”
The coal-eyed demon nodded, expression solemn. “Free us. Cleanse us. Only you know how.”
The demons rose at the same time, a fiery, demanding hunger burning in their eyes.
And then they charged.
Erebus roared, bringing the surge of shadows down like a scythe.
The force slammed the first wave of demons into the stairs with a brutal crack that sent stones flying and hurled dozens more back into the woods.
In the middle of the chaos—among bleeding mouths, snarling teeth, and desperate lunges for our feet—Erebus threw us backward into a doorway-sized shadow.
It felt like slipping into a cold, icy pit.
As though ice were sliding through my veins and a wind were pouring through the inner workings of my heart and plucking out anything dark or broken.
It felt painful, briefly—but then it became a deep, comforting relief.
Something that held on to my soul and poured water through its cracks, setting it free.
We stumbled from the doorway of shadow, now on the other side of the castle’s sprawling courtyard.
“What was that?” I quickly asked. The demons hadn’t noticed us, but it would only be a matter of seconds before they did. “It felt like my entire being was being cleansed. Or judged.”
Erebus’s jaw tensed. “I could feel the shadows working to pull something out of you. To examine—as you said—your very being. Your soul, perhaps. I’ve never felt anything like it before. Something is different, Esmer.” He looked at me briefly, eyes flashing in concern. “Did it hurt you?”
“No,” I said, giving a firm shake of my head. “The opposite, really. Like a cold bath after a long journey in the sun.”
Some of his concern ebbed, but not all. “Good.”
A realization dawned over me at his admission. Something is different, he’d said. But what? If we worked together, could we purify the demons in the courtyard as we purified the woman at Evernight? Perhaps something had changed in us now that we were back in the present and no longer divided.
“Would you be able to create something like that again? A gate big enough that all the demons could fit?” The demons noticed us; they roared in frustration, hurling themselves from the stairs and the trees.
“If the shadows can quell or purify the demons, that might be our only chance at stopping them.”
Erebus’s mouth tightened. “Yes. But while I’m doing that, I’ll need your help containing them. A wall”—the demons were nearly upon us, crashing through the central fountain—“or a tunnel. Now—hurry.”
I shoved my fear aside and focused on the shadows; if I couldn’t manipulate them, we’d be lost. They felt like a web around me, a web with strings I could pull and shape.
I mentally pulled one, two—that’s not enough—then grasped for fistfuls and armfuls, forcing them into a tunnel that the demons began to surge through.
Not enough.
I squeezed the shadows narrower and narrower, resisting every part of me that wanted to scream or run. The tunnel was as large as I could make it; I had no more to give.
It has to be enough.
The first demons to reach us lunged for our throats.
I flinched, losing my grip on all the threads—and they crashed over the demons like a wave, merging with a pitch-black gateway that Erebus hurled down the tunnel in a frantic sweep.
I could feel the shadows pulling at the demons, plucking out every broken, terrible thing.
For a brief moment, all was dark.
And then…
It was as if the shadows had been pulled from the sky itself, rendering the stars as brilliant as I’d ever seen them.
The castle and its courtyard were washed in silver, revealing hundreds of demons losing fur, teeth, claws, skulls, wings—hundreds of broken, distorted creatures transforming before our eyes into adults and children. They were human.
All of them.
The gray-faced demon had become an equally tall man with dark, honey-brown hair, and the coal-eyed demon was now a pale, lithe man with sharp features and black hair that framed his jaw in a smooth sweep.
I recognized them instantly—they were the two men who had entered the coliseum with Erebus at Evernight.
“Ceveon—Sorren,” Erebus choked out. “All this time, you were both here?”
“Always,” Ceveon said weakly, attempting a small but roguish smile.
A few tears began to slide down his light brown face, but he brushed them away before they could reach his jaw.
“With you, always. Though your domain got to feel a bit stifling, I’ll admit.
Especially when you can’t communicate properly inside its bounds. ”
“Stifling? That’s putting it lightly,” Sorren muttered, scowling at Ceveon.
But when he turned to behold Erebus and me, his face settled into something that nearly resembled relief.
His eyes, like Ceveon’s, were glittering, but he did not cry.
“Fortunately, five centuries pass in a blink when your mind is tethered to that of a demon. Now the curse is broken and the real work can begin.”
My eyes swept the dreamers, heart racing at the thought of finding Eden or my parents.
My throat tightened as I braced for what I might see.
But when they didn’t appear, a painful blend of disappointment and relief washed over me.
If they weren’t here, then surely that meant they were somewhere better—with the Maker in paradise.
Still, the unexpected hope of hugging them one last time nearly shattered me.
“Esmer, what—” Erebus began, noting my distress, but was sharply cut off.
“How curious,” a new voice interrupted, its silky pitch threading through the courtyard, “that the demons in your castle weren’t demons at all. Merely locked-up souls, just as the tales declare. But you broke that narrative when you set them free today.”
Somnus slid from the trees, hair covering his robes in inky tendrils.
He didn’t look at all surprised to find us; in fact, I sensed he had been watching the scene unfold from the very beginning.
Around the castle courtyard, dreamers struggled into sitting or kneeling positions.
Hundreds of dreamers, some sobbing, some groaning, some staring silently at the stars.
Ceveon and Sorren staggered forward, flanking Erebus and me.
“Somnus,” Erebus bit out. “You knew. You knew that these humans were locked inside the bodies of demons. All this time—all this time.”
“You should be grateful,” Somnus said lowly, scarcely touching the ground as he strode toward us. “Aren’t you pleased I led them back to you?”
“I’d be pleased to have known freedom five centuries ago. For myself, and all these innocent dreamers.”
“Impossible,” Somnus said with a dismissive shrug.
“Your entire domain was locked, shielded from outside interference until you tricked Esmer into taking your place. Whom, by the way, you wouldn’t have had the pleasure of meeting had you been freed five hundred years ago.
You really should thank her, considering—”
“Erebus shouldn’t have to thank anyone for being set free, me included,” I countered vehemently. “And don’t imply that his suffering was valuable just because he met me. There is never nobility in suffering. If there’s anyone to thank, thank the Maker I found Erebus when I did.”
I found Erebus’s hand and squeezed it. Shadows left over from the dreamers’ cleansing drifted around our bodies, winding through our fingers and clinging to our feet as if they wished to protect us.
“And find him you did. Curious,” Somnus murmured, leveling us with a withering stare.
“Either way, I saved you the hassle of collecting all these poor, lost souls. They scattered like mindless beasts the moment they broke free from your castle. Fortunately, leaving the castle allowed them to speak and have a somewhat-functioning sense of logic. Otherwise, my task would have been a bit more complicated.”
I shook my head. “But they’re not mindless at all. They’re human. All of them.”
“That depends on your definition of ‘human.’ Their mortal bodies have already perished, but their souls remain intact. That will be something to deal with when you begin commanding them, I’m afraid.” He added, muttering darkly, “If they will even listen, that is.”
“What do you mean, ‘deal with’?” Erebus bit out, face paling.
Somnus swept his arms wide. “You have a Corruptive curse to break, a half-dead army to train, and a red-eyed demon thirsting for your souls. Quite the mess on your hands.”
A serpentine smile slid across his lips.
“Best get started, Shadow Weavers.”