Yuni nibbled her nails, likely damaging the precious paint. Loma’s magic worked. He sat on the ground in the storage room and closed his eyes to better focus on the image Shade transmitted of Yuni pacing in her room. He only needed to be patient enough for her to leave.

  She wandered to the window and unclipped the curtains. The black-painted window obscured the outside. Erador tensed his hands on his knees. The closed window was the only thing preventing him from jumping out of his skin, but now he wanted it open. Leave. His fingers dug into his legs.

  Screams erupted outside. Erador ducked onto his knees and cupped his ears. Sharp jolts ran across his scars. The talking lurkers were like an ocean of vibrating echoes. His breaths entered as wheezing gasps. He wanted to imagine Loma’s encouraging hands on his back, but the idea of Slen’s cold claws destroyed any confidence he’d gathered from his sessions. Maybe it was never there to begin with.

  Yuni reached for the window and Erador went rigid.

  “Shit,” Erador mumbled. “No... no!”

  She pushed up the window, her pigtails fanning in the breeze. Black shapes smothered the ground. The lurkers slipped into the window past her, but she had no idea lurkers were pouring in her room.

  Erador commanded Shade to return. The shadow slipped under the door and sucked him through. A rush of cold slithered around his body, the comforting infusion was like he’d been wrapped in the safety of Loma’s arms. Erador flew out from the floor and smacked onto the edge of the table. Shade rushed a wave of apologies. Groaning, Erador rubbed his aching ribs and rolled into the shadows of the table to avoid yelling at him. His breathing lurched in and out of his throat as he tried to compose himself.

  He kept his eyes trained under the door, waiting for a screech. Lurkers couldn’t get him. He was safe. Erador shoved aside his worries and shot up, banging his head on the table. Rubbing the goose egg, he went into the light and cursed. Shade appeared, his berating was like a nagging parent invading his personal space. The only space he should feel safe to express without judgment.

  “What are you, my father?” Erador rolled his eyes. “I can hide if I want, dammit. As annoying as you are, can you blame me?”

  Erador’s skull prickled like rain poured on his head. He didn’t have time to worry about Shade’s feelings. He rushed to the window and unclipped the curtain, but stopped. Before sliding it aside, he checked that the lantern didn’t have a dark haze. He lifted the window a few inches and peeked outside. Yuni walked through the garden. Bent at the knees, Erador pushed up hard, but the window creaked and jammed. Yuni swung around, and he ducked under the windowsill.

  He trapped the air in his lungs. Moistening his mouth, he counted to ten and checked outside. Yuni continued through the path toward the back wall.

  Erador pushed slower, cringing as it creaked again but he lifted it enough without Yuni noticing. Leg first, he squeezed his back below the glass, and stumbled onto the balcony. He dangled off the side and slid down a pillar.

  Erador edged through the garden, but the dried leaves were like walking on bells. A barred gate creaked and he followed the sound as it screamed shut. He climbed the wall, placing his feet in the crumbled sections and peeked over the side. After checking her surroundings, Yuni wandered into the forest. Erador lowered onto the other side and inched to the edge. He placed his back against a tree and looked out, finding the green glowing light from her brooch.

  “Getting cold sweats, Moth?”

  Erador jumped, and let out a breath when Dethil smirked from next to him. “What are you doing here?”

  “Thought you could use some light,” Dethil said, lifting a bundle of twigs no bigger then his fingers.

  Erador lifted his lighter. “I’ve got plenty of it.”

  “How about some help?”

  Erador was about to ask why he would need it when Dethil’s tongue slid on his lip and his eyes moved to the scar on Erador’s jaw.

  Erador groaned and cursed Loma’s name. “Who else did you tell?”

  Dethil looked away. “Maybe Hawth.”

  “You told Hawth?” Erador said in a raging whisper.

  Dethil shrugged. “He won’t tell. Not that anyone would buy that you’re a scaredy cat.”

  “I’d like to see you get attacked by a lurker,” Erador said through his teeth.

  Dethil whistled. “Grumpy because you lost your meal?” He nodded toward the forest.

  Erador rushed inside, searching for the green glow.

  “Those lurkers won’t like light when they’re on fire,” Dethil said, following him.

  “They don’t die that quickly, not the large ones at least. I want to follow her in the realm because our footsteps will be muffled but I can’t.” Erador checked his watch. “There are a left few minutes until the migration hour is over.”

  “Migration hour?”

  “When lurkers move west with the sunlight.”

  Part of Erador didn’t want Dethil here, not if he would be going into the realm, but he would take the help. Loma at least picked someone he could trust. Erador didn’t ask why Dethil changed his mind on helping him because he didn’t want him to leave.

  Erador kept his distance from Yuni, where he would occasionally see her weaving through the trees and she wouldn’t hear their footsteps. It had been more than a half hour. What if this was a trap?

  The smell of burning wood perked Erador’s senses and the sight of a dilapidated house put a smile to his face. He hid behind a tree as Yuni moved onto the porch. Light streamed between the cracks of the deteriorating house. She shoved the stuck door and shut it behind her.

  Erador scanned the area and moved around the house, waving Dethil over. He found a broken window and peeked inside the empty room. The open door gave a view of Yuni in the front room, standing beside a lit fireplace. Erador checked his watch. The migration hour had ended. He crouched below the window and waited a minute longer before he pulled out the lighter.

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  He didn’t want to go into the realm, but he was afraid their feet would make too much noise in this old house. In the realm it would be harder for Yuni to hear their footsteps and if she did, they would sound further away. He couldn’t risk being caught, and with the migration hour over and the forest darkening, the lurkers had moved on.

  “When we go to the Shadow Realm, be careful what you touch,” Erador whispered. “What you disturb there carries into ours.”

  “Loma told me already,” Dethil whispered. “That’s why you shouldn’t use that lighter. It’ll be too loud.”

  Erador hesitated before sliding it back in his pocket. Dethil took a twig and clenched it in his hand that glowed orange and the stick lit, creating shadows. He stabbed it in the earth, letting it burn. Before Shade could hide, Erador locked him on the house with his fist. Dethil crawled in first, and Erador followed.

  Stomping out the flame, Erador checked the forest for moving shadows, but only the crickets chirped and a bird croaked. He climbed inside the house and lowered himself onto the floor. The screeching wood caused him to freeze, but Yuni didn’t notice. Dethil came in and grunted. When Erador went to shush him, he showed the splinters in his hand.

  Voices sounded in the other room. Erador crawled across the dusty floor to the doorway and peeked out. Dethil lingered behind him. A high-backed armchair faced the fireplace. Long fingers, adorned with shinning rings, laid on the armrest.

  It pushed off the chair. A tall slender shadow cast across the floor as a man in a green suit moved out from the chair. His blond hair was pushed back from his face with high cheekbones.

  Erador’s chest tightened when he realized it was Baubie. Questions and ideas ran through his mind about Hawth and his father. He subdued his feelings to listen to the voices muffled in the realm.

  “I’m worried about you,” Baubie said, twisting one of his rings. “You might be in danger.”

  Yuni backed away. “I’m not.”

  Baubie’s eyebrows drew in. “That’s not what I heard.”

  “He should mind his own business.”

  “He’s worried about you.”

  Yuni rolled her eyes and moved to the mantel. She picked up a dried tulip and a petal drifted to her boots.

  Baubie grabbed the flower as his eyes dropped to her brooch. “You shouldn’t wear that in the open.”

  Erador's heart spiked as he leaned closer.

  Yuni caressed the brooch as she turned away.

  Baubie sighed and set the tulip down. “If anyone finds out, you could be in—”

  “No one will,” Yuni said, firmly. “I’m leaving.”

  “Wait.” Baubie grabbed her arm, stopping her. “Please, be careful, Yuni. Some of them would do anything to stop his rebirth.”

  Yuni pulled away and walked out of the house. Baubie ran his hands down his face and dropped in the ripped armchair.

  “Hawth’s a liar,” Erador whispered, but his tone carried heavy. “He knows Yuni.”

  “What do you want to do?” Dethil said.

  Punch him, Erador thought as he made a fist. He wanted to talk to Baubie, but he didn’t want him to know they were here. Not until he confronted Hawth.

  Dethil took a step and the floor snapped, his ankle falling through. He muffled a grunt behind his hand and tried to pull out his leg, but it was stuck.

  Footsteps moved in the front room and Erador looked out as Baubie’s alarmed eyes stared at the open door. A chill ran down Erador’s back as he hid. He pulled on Dethil’s leg again, but the wood had stabbed into his flesh. Blood pooled around Dethil’s pants. He bit on his knuckle. Erador pried at the floorboard, but stopped when it groaned.

  A creak sounded outside as white light stretched in, dust lifting from the floor. They needed a distraction or Baubie would see them. Dethil was already on it. He lifted his hand toward the door and squeezed his fist, the fireplace dimmed and went out.

  The white light moved away with the footsteps. Erador pried on the floorboard again as a wail cut through the woods. Erador whipped his head toward the dreaded sound coming through the open window. He couldn’t pull Dethil back through Shade if he was stuck.

  The forest darkened, but a lurker could survive several seconds to minutes in the dark before it perished. Erador raised his foot and slammed his heel into the wood but it didn’t break. He did it again as white light drew closer and the sliding sounds of a lurker resounded in the front room.

  Erador’s pulse heightened as he pulled harder on the wood but his hands slipped. Dethil pushed him away and showed his orange, glowing hands. He slammed them on the floor. Fire ignited on the wood and spread across the ground. Dethil directed the flames toward the door as Baubie’s lengthy leg stepped into the room. He quickly ducked out and his footsteps pounded away. Shade appeared and swirled around them in a panic, telling him to hurry. He made it clear he wouldn’t leave Dethil no more than Erador would.

  Erador tried the floor board again as Slen’s screech ripped from the other room and set Erador’s heart racing. “Make a barrier!”

  Slen stepped into the room in the shape of a wolf. Dethil directed the flames around the door. Screaming, Slen backed away. Smoke drifted to the ceiling. Coughing, Erador slammed his foot into the wood again and the floor split open as they tumbled into the basement. He cried out as wood punctured his arm.

  The flames flickered across the ceiling. Slen returned and snapped at Erador who dodged, barely avoiding the sharp black teeth dripping with venom. He crawled back into the darkest part of the cellar, pulling Dethil along.

  The lurker jumped down and scrapped Dethil’s arm. Screaming, he clutched the wound where his blood mixed with the tarry substance. Fire spread across the ceiling. Smoke filled Erador’s lungs and his eyes watered as he coughed and pulled Dethil further into the cellar. Burning wood crashed, between them and Slen.

  “Use Shade,” Dethil coughed. “Get out of here.”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  Erador covered his mouth as he pressed himself into a corner. The spreading flames didn’t deter Slen. He wanted to kill. Erador grabbed a piece of burning wood and tossed it at Slen. The lurker wailed and jumped over the flames, smacking Erador onto a table and pinning him. Slen stabbed his claw into Erador’s shoulder and he screamed from the searing pain.

  Slen stretched tall and thin, into the monster that almost killed Erador. The monster he feared that hovered over his bed. No. It was a dream. It had to be. Slen couldn’t come in the first world. In his room, the hands that reached for him were not pointed weapons a lurker used, they were deformed fingers and the face had several sunken eyes that peered into his soul. Shade tried to rattle him from his thoughts, but Erador drifted deeper into visions as his racing heart settled and pain left him. He was free.

  He was brought back when the claw left him and he cried out from the pain. Dethil smacked a fire iron into Slen, but it didn’t seem to affect him. Cursing, Dethil threw it down and backed away. Erador coughed, each breath was dry and hurt his lungs as he tumbled off the table. He wanted to curse Loma for telling Dethil to come and not explaining how objects worked. They were going to die. The smoke overtook the room and Erador could only make out Dethil’s feet.

  Erador’s watering eyes were forced shut. A hand grabbed him and pulled him up a set of stairs through an open cellar door. He was dragged a few paces through the forest before being let go. The cool air brought his lungs relief. He lifted his weak head and looked for Dethil to thank him but he was gone. The lurker screamed from inside the house and Erador hoped the fire would finally be Slen’s end.

  The burning house and smoke reaching into the sky slipped away from Erador as Slen’s screeches dulled, becoming nothing more than the sounds of a stringing instrument.

  Sweet smoke drifted through the dim space. White crystals hung above a woman with deep red curls on a small stage. She strung her fingers across an instrument and her lips opened, the sound of a screech returning Erador to the forest.

  His vision focused past the brush at a black being with fur and pointed ears, but as he blinked it was gone.

  “Erador!” Dethil slapped his cheek to get his attention. “Get Shade.”

  Erador forced his aching head up and looked past Dethil as Slen bounded toward them from the house. He shot to his feet. Only a flicker of his element was left in his weak body, but the fire cast a strong shadow on a tree. Erador tensed a fist to draw more power from his core to help Shade. Slen reached them, swiping his claws but he missed as Erador ripped Dethil through Shade and they toppled to the ground.

  Erador swallowed in breaths as the burning house brightened the forest.

  “Son of a bitch.” Dethil sucked in a wheezing breath and coughed. His eyes widened when he looked around as if a lurker was near, but he snapped out of it and grabbed Erador. “We need to go!”

  Erador used the trunk to push himself up. He could barely lift his arm to feel the hot and wet injury on his shoulder. He stumbled through the woods as Dethil limped along. Erador couldn't bring himself to look at Dethil’s injuries. It was his fault he let him come. He told himself that his mouth was too dry to talk, so he wouldn’t have to say anything.

  Thunder rumbled overhead and Erador took it as a sign to check on his friend. Black tar mixed with blood on his left bicep. Dethil was marked.