MasukThe night swallowed them both. Elena’s screams faded into the darkness until the house was silent, too silent. Outside, Rosa walked through the empty streets, coldly licking her skin, her slippers making a sound as they slapped the surface of the earth. She clung to Elena as the baby tried her best to move."Let me go! Mommy, please!” she cried. Silence. Only Kelvin’s steady. The street was empty. Wind hissed around her. Rosa didn’t stop, it was as if she was obeying the call of a spirit. Like they were waiting for her and she had to hurry. All Elena's cries fell on deaf ears. She walked until she got to the outskirts of the town She stopped at a tall, dark, covered house. The abandoned house. The wooden door creaked open before she touched it. They were waiting. Whoever was controlling her was waiting for her to meet them. To sacrifice her own child to them. While her husband lay on the ground back at the house, almost dying. Inside, the air smelled dusty, cold, alive
Pierce's vision narrowed to a blurred view. His fingers clawed uselessly at Rosa's wrists, not the witch's, and that was the cruelty of it. The face he'd loved and who he was so sure loved him tightened her grip around him ready to kill him She's still in there. Rosa's still in there. He tried to convince himself. His lungs screamed for air. The world tilted sideways. "Daddy!" Elena's voice cut through the room as she ran down. Rosa's grip tightened. Pierce felt something crack in his throat. His legs gave out. "MOMMY, STOP!" Elena shouted, and tears rolled down her face. Her voice filled with terror. "Please! Please don't hurt Daddy! What's wrong with you? Why are you doing this?" For a fraction of a second, Rosa's fingers loosened. Just barely. Just enough for Pierce to drag in a wheezing breath. *She heard her. Elena got through. "Mommy, it's me! It's Elena!" The little girl was sobbing now, the pendant clutched in both hands. "Please come back! I need you! I need my mommy
Pierce didn't hesitate. He rushed forward, scooping Elena into his arms just as Rosa's body fell violently on the floor. "Daddy!" Elena shrieked, reaching for what looked like her mother. "That's not Mommy right now, baby," Pierce said, his voice steady despite the terror clawing at his chest. He backed toward the door, and Elena clutched tight against him. "Abel Thomas! Get up NOW!" In the hallway, confusion erupted. Matthew stumbled out of his room, rubbing his eyes. " Pierce? What's—" "No questions. Downstairs. Move!" Pierce's voice carried the kind of authority that echoed around the hallway. Abel appeared at the doorway. He looked across the floor, “Rosa,” he tried to reach, “Stop, that is not your Roa right now. I'll explain later. GO!" Behind them, Rosa's body rose from the floor with a smile on her face. Her voice echoes around the hallway. "The children must come with their mother. The blood moon demands it." Pierce shoved the kids toward the stairs. "Run. Get
The reflection in the mirror showed Kelvin's sharp jawline, his broad shoulders, his calloused hands gripping the mirror's edge. Rosa's scream came out in his deep baritone voice. The woman holding the mirror smiled. She was ancient, she had black skin that could melt with the night, "You're in the in-between, dear child. The space where souls wait while their vessels are borrowed." Rosa stumbled backward, Kelvin's larger frame unsteady under her unfamiliar control. The room around her wasn't really a room at all. Shadows pressed in from every direction, occasionally flickering. Her mind immediately flew to her children "Where are my children?" Rosa asked, but her voice came out deep like nothing had happened. "What have you done to my babies?" The old woman set the mirror down on a table with a smile on her face. A dark smile. "Your children are precisely where you left them. Safe in their beds. For now." She circled Rosa slowly, her bare feet making a wet sound on the ston
Kelvin's eyes snapped open to darkness so complete it felt like drowning. His heart hammered against his ribs, no, not his ribs. Something was wrong. Terribly, impossibly wrong. He tried to sit up, but his body wouldn't obey. It moved, yes, but not of his own accord. His arms pushed against the mattress, his legs swung over the edge of the bed, his feet touched the cold hardwood floor, all without his permission. He was a passenger in his own body, except this wasn't his body at all. The realization crashed over him like ice water when he caught sight of his reflection in the darkened window. . Rosa's face stared back at him, her delicate face twisted in an expression of horror that he couldn't even control. Her dark hair fell over shoulders that felt too narrow, too slight. When he tried to scream, only a soft exhale escaped her lips. “What is happening? What is this?” The body, Rosa's body, moved through the hallway. Kelvin fought against the invisible strings pulling
Kelvin woke in a room that shouldn't exist. The walls were made of shadow, not painted black or draped in fabric, but literally constructed from darkness that shifted and breathed. . "Awake. Good." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. Kelvin tried to sit up, but found his body still burned and broken from the weapon's backlash. Rosa's healing had stabilized him, but he was far from recovered. Kelvin immediately screamed, “Somebody help me!” But no one came. A voice came to meet him. A shadow: Kevin saw only their shadows, not their bodies. "Kelvin Brennan," the central figure spoke, voice ageless and cold. "Do you know where you are?" "Hell?" Kelvin croaked through his damaged throat. "Close. You're in the space between spaces, where the Shadow Council convenes." The figure lowered her good "My name is Morrigan. I was Margaret's mentor, her guide, and ultimately, the one who ordered her death." Kelvin's blood ran cold. "You killed Margaret?" "We allowed her to die," a







