Page 13 of Tangle of Lust and Lethargy

The change in Garrick’s demeanor was instantaneous and chilling. His eyes darkened like storm clouds gathering on the horizon. A muscle in his jaw twitched, and I could almost see the memories flashing through his head, none of them pleasant.

“I have,” he finally replied. “It’s in a dangerous place in the Unseelie realm.”

Memories of our last venture into the Unseelie realm battered me, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The ever-shifting landscapes, the whispers in the shadows, the constant feeling of being watched—it all came rushing back.

“How dangerous?” I asked, though part of me already knew the answer. My fingers tightened on the doorframe, bracing for his response.

Garrick’s eyes met mine, a grim understanding passing between us. “You remember what it was like,” he told me. “But this is different. The Sands of Yesteryear are in a part of the realm we’ve never dared to explore.”

I nodded slowly, recalling the map we’d seen in the Seelie queen’s court. There had been areas marked with warnings, places even the Unseelie feared to tread.

“It’s in the Forgotten Hollows,” Garrick continued, his expression darkening. “A place where time itself is said to unravel.”

His words crushed me. Our last trip to the Unseelie realm had been perilous enough, and we’d stayed in the “safer” areas. The thought of venturing into a place that even the Unseelie feared shot an icy bolt of terror through my heart.

“But we have no choice, do we?” I replied, more a statement than a question.

Garrick shook his head. “For Justice, for all of us, we have to try. But Sawyer,” he warned. “We’ll need to be more careful than ever. The rules we learned last time? They might not apply where we’re going.”

I nodded as determination and dread settled in my chest. We’d survived the Unseelie realm once, but this would be a whole new challenge. The Sands of Yesteryear awaited us in the Forgotten Hollows and, with it, our only chance to save Justice and set things right.

Garrick stared into the distance as if he were living another time. “Extremelycareful,” he emphasized. “Or we’ll never come back at all.”

Boom-boom-boom.

I jumped at the sudden, explosive noise that shattered the tense silence. It sounded like gunshots but sharper, more electric. My heart leaped into my throat, panic pumping through my veins.

“You’d better get in here,” Damon cried from somewhere in the manor, his voice tight with urgency and a hint of fear.

Garrick and I exchanged a quick, worried glance before springing into action. We ran out of my bedroom, our footsteps thundering on the old wooden floor. The hallway seemed to stretch endlessly before us, shadows dancing on the walls as we raced toward the living room.

We burst in, and I nearly collided with Damon. He was a statue of barely contained energy, as formidable as a crouching tiger. His gaze was fixed on something beyond the window, and when I followed it, my blood ran cold.

Damon gestured with his head, a quick, jerky movement. “Lightning struck the porch,” he explained, his words coming out in a rushed whisper. “Blinded us for a second, and those dudes appeared out of nowhere.”

I blinked, trying to process what I was seeing. Three tall, muscular men stood on the deck, their postures unnaturally still. At first glance, they looked like businessmen from the city. Crisp suits, polished shoes, an air of corporate efficiency. But as my eyes adjusted, I noticed something that made my skin crawl.

Their eyes. Pitch black, like pools of oil, reflecting no light. No whites, no irises, only an endless void that seemed to swallow all hope.

The air around the figures seemed to shimmer as if reality was distorting in their presence. The wooden boards of the porch creaked beneath their feet despite their statue-like stillness. A faint smell of ozone and something else, something ancient and wrong, wafted through the cracked window.

“What are they?” I whispered, afraid even the slightest sound might provoke them.

Garrick’s voice was low and tense when he replied. “Trouble,” he said simply. “Big trouble.”

The planes of Justice’s face hardened, his eyes gleaming with the cold calculation of an apex predator. “Obviously, they’re demons. Some of Maci’s Seven Deadly Sins demons, though we don’t know which ones.”

As if in response to his words, one of the figures slowly turned its head toward us. Its movement was too smooth, too precise to be human. A smile spread across its face, revealing slightly too-sharp teeth.

Acquiring the Sands of Yesteryear had suddenly become urgent. Something about those guys made my skin crawl.

“Listen, everyone.” I tried to get my team’s attention, my voice tighter and sharper than I had intended. “The Mirror of Aethereal revealed our next task. We have to go to the Unseelie realm and retrieve the Sands of Yesteryear.”

Damon scowled. “What the hell is that? It sounds like something out of a Disney movie.” His fingers drummed an agitated rhythm on his thigh.

“Hardly.” Garrick glared. “It’s in the Forgotten Hollows, a place not even the Unseelie like to tread.”

Justice scrubbed his face, his complexion paling. “Seriously, we have to go back there?”

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