Page 109 of When Death Whispers

“You lost her.”

I flinch at the accusation because it’s true.

“She was right here, wasn’t she?” he continues, voice smooth but lethal. “And you let him take her.”

I bare my teeth. “Like you did any fucking better? Where wereyou?”

The sandwich-stealing demon’s eyes flash. “Careful, human.”

“Fuck you,” I spit, my hands curling into fists. “I will burn this whole fucking world down before I let him keep her.”

He exhales a slow, dark breath. “Then it would seem, for once…” His head tilts, his smirk a cruel, dangerous thing.

“…we agree.”

41

The second my vision clears,I know.

This isn’t a dream.

It’s the Evergloom.

Twisted black trees claw at the sky—if you can even call it that. There’s no moon. No stars. No sun. Just void. And cold. Not the biting kind, but something hollower. A chill that feels like absence, like something here has consumed all the warmth and left behind only hunger.

Andhim.

Steorfan.

His hand clamps around my wrist, too warm compared to the chill in the air. Shadows slither from beneath his cloak like snakes that’ve been waiting to coil around me again.

I don’t think. I don’t breathe. I twist, rip free, andrun.

Branches tear at my arms. Roots catch my ankles. But I push harder, faster, deeper into the unknown.

Around me, the Evergloom stirs—like the trees themselves recoil at what I’ve dared. The air hums, not fury, but something quieter. Surprised. And beneath it… hurt. Not just from the realm. From him.

“You would flee from me,” he murmurs, and there’s something in his tone—something almost wounded. Like he cannot fathom it. Like he expected differently.

I almost look back. Almost falter. Because for a blink—he sounds... hurt. Like I’m the one who crossed some sacred line.

“You should not run here,” he continues, and his voice follows like a chill wind, weaving through the trees. “The Evergloom is not kind to mortals. And I would rip through half my realm to keep you whole within it.”

I shiver from the weight of that statement, but I don’t look back.

Until something stops me.

A sound tears through the air—wrong. Wet and sharp andstarving. Shadows peel from the trees around me, but they’re not his. They’re wrong. Misshapen. Glitching. Crawling on too many limbs, moving without rhythm.

I back up.

And slam into him.

Steorfan.

His arm wraps around my waist, yanking me back, shielding me behind his body.

“Stay close.”

---