Fear beaded on my skin like icy flakes and washed goosebumps down my arms. I spun around so wildly my feet tangled up my long skirt and I almost tripped, the sound of tearing fabric and my panicked heartbeat filling my ears. Hitching up my torn skirt, I burst into a frantic sprint, dashing as fast as I could toward the outside passageway that cut through the Keep. The end of the Hangman's Noose swung wide and dragged through the air behind me. Sage bounded by my side, his speed kept in check as I wove around the fallen soldiers that littered the courtyard.

Tendrils of hair whipped across my forehead as I chanced a glance over my shoulder. Graysen was trapped in place by dark magic that shivered all around him in a blanket of furious energy. A few soldiers, holding Zrenyth's chains, approached him warily like he was a savage creature. One of the soldiers tied his hands behind his back, coiling the thick rope tighter, imprisoning him further. Graysen stared in my direction. No one else could see the anguish carved into his features. The terror shining in his round, gray eyes. He couldn't speak but his gaze did—Run!

Valarie spun my way, slashing a finger, and pointed right at me. "Catch her!" she bellowed to her cadre.

Fright exploded through my veins. I jerked my head forward, pumping my arms and pushing myself faster, careening around the corner into the passageway. The gloom was broken up by the blue-flamed torches that wavered as I streaked by, stirring the air with my manic flight. The sound of my footfall rebounded off the walls in loud slaps, and then I erupted back outside, my bare feet clapping upon the wooden drawbridge as I hurtled across it.

The Keep, with its formidable walls like sheer cliffs, loomed above. Abandoned vehicles blocked the driveway. Several servants were emptying the cars' holds, removing bulky weapons bags, but they were distracted, their minds elsewhere it would seem from the perplexed glances they cast the fortress. No doubt hearing the chaotic noises filtering outward from the courtyard and wondering what was happening.

My feet kicked loose pebbles as I traveled over rough, uneven cobblestones, dodging around the cars, looking with longing and desperation at their metal forms. There was no use stealing one of the SUVs, not with the rope tied around my neck. I'd never get past the gates.

Behind me, I heard the shouts of Valarie's cadre as a few of them surged from the Keep. I skidded to a halt, the soft soles of my feet burning with friction. My hands clenched into anxious fists as I jittered in a panic. Sage whined and danced at my side, waiting for my decision of where to flee, where to hide. My skirt flurried wide, its hem grazing at my ankles, as I spun around, scanning the garden that was lit up with a colorful shimmer from flittering willwips and moonlight.

I didn't know what to do.

I didn't know where to run!

My gaze landed on a tall, crumbling building in the near distance. It reminded me of Graysen's tower but on a smaller scale. The cracked, white-gray stone blocks were studded with lichen. Wide holes, windows of a sort, were gouged out of the top of the circular structure and there was a rampart surrounding its roof.

The Birds of Prey Rookery!

I pushed off, angling for it, leaving the cobbled path behind to crash across the garden, jumping low-lying flower beds and trampling through rows of rose shrubs, their thorny stems scratching my shins and catching the tulle, ripping it as I bolted toward the ancient rookery.

My heart hammered against my ribs as I felt the cadre gaining ground, heard it in the sound of their rapid breaths and the fabric of their suits swishing as they thundered toward me.

Sage let loose a furious howl that startled birds from a nearby tree. They burst into the sky, a plume of dark shapes against the inky skyline. My wraith-wolf wheeled around, scuffing clods of dirt as he left my side. "Sage?!"

The balls of my feet sank into the earth, my toes curling into the damp grass when I stopped my panicked flight, pivoting around in fright. "SAGE!" Terror pitched my voice to a shrill note.

My wraith-wolf barrelled back the way we'd come. His powerful body chewed through the distance and he hurtled into the cadre in an attempt to stop Valarie's men and women from capturing me. His furious barking razored apart the cool night air as he knocked a few from their feet, sending them flying and tumbling over like bowling pins.

Sage physically blocked the cadre, darting forward and back, shepherding them like cattle with his manic speed and formidable size. My wraith-wolf deftly evaded their attempt to kick and strike out at him with their fists. He wrestled to sink his fangs into their legs, their arms, to rip their throats out, but the bottled lightning that collared him restrained him from acting on his aggression. It also trapped his form into a physical manifestation. He couldn't shift between the wraith-void and our world to make use of his ghostly ability.

And the cadre was too numerous. One of them swerved around my wraith-wolf, racing for me, cold determination gleaming in his gaze. His loyalty lay with Valarie, who wanted me recaptured and slung into the dungeon.

Hells!

I left Sage behind, swiveling to dart around a big bush of flax, its long, flat leaves slapping at my face and side as I dug deeper, pushing past the ache burning in my legs, the inferno scorching my chest. Crisp, dead leaves flicked up behind me as I raced across the garden toward the rookery. The wind tore at my hair, and my frantic speed caused my dress to ripple outward.

Valarie's soldier was gaining on me.

I could hear his panting breaths, his heavy footfall crushing grass.

Bristles scratched at my legs as I thrust myself between a pair of prickly shrubs. Bursting free, I sprinted across the small patch of lawn for the steps that led up to the doorway of the crumbling old building. I knew I was about to hurtle into pure darkness, and chilling fear clenched my heart, squeezing so hard I almost drew to a halt.

But Valarie's crony was right on my heels.

A swipe of fingertips brushed up against my back, reaching for me, for the Hangman's Noose skittering just out of reach.

A bellow of rage ripped apart the night. "DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!"

I flung a startled glance over my shoulder.

Graysen ran parallel to me, a distance away, shooting across the gardens with long strides. Rage blazed from his bloodied features. A fresh bruise purpled his cheek and a torn piece of Zrenyth's rope was still tied to one wrist as he cut along the lawn in a streak of fury. Surprise expanded my lungs to see him free. Though he wasn't employing his unnatural speed, he still moved faster than the cadre. He bent down and scooped something up from the ground. He yanked his arm back, his battered body twisting as he flung a stone at the man chasing me.

It whizzed through the air and struck.

The dull crack of breaking bone rang in my ears.

A strangled cry of pain followed and the soldier fell, skidding and tumbling across the lawn.

"RUN, NELLE, RUN!" Graysen roared.

More men and women were chasing me down.

Graysen yanked off his jacket as he dashed onward. Confusion bloomed as I watched him shift his trajectory, leaving me alone to fend for myself. He was swooping away, disappearing toward the thick carpet of dandelions where the night sky was streaked with gauzy gemlike colors.

There was no time to stop and wonder, to scream in terror and desolation—Why are you leaving me?!

I careered toward the rookery.

Behind me, I heard pounding footfall as the nearest woman caught up, gasping, "Give up. You'll never escape!"

In the far-off darkness, Sage's enraged barking broke up the ragged sound of my hot puffs of breaths, the fear rushing in my ears.

My foot slapped down on the first step leading up to the doorway.

Be strong, be strong, be strong...

A second step—

Three. Four.

A fifth as I climbed up the chipped, worn steps—

And I shoved the worn door open with my shoulder to plunge headlong into darkness.

The door slammed shut and a thick sheet of black descended upon me.

All light winked out.

Despite having willingly thrown myself into the rookery, my phobia ensnared me immediately.

Dark, dark, dark.

I can't see...I can't see...

Adrenaline and terror thrashed my heart to ricochet against my ribs. The smell of the rookery, the stone, and stale air, and the frigid cold of the pitch-black room were too much like the tithe prison. It felt as if a vise wrenched itself tighter and tighter around my throat. I couldn't drag oxygen into my lungs. My chest heaved as I began hyperventilating, trembling like a leaf with hot tears pricking my eyes. I struggled against the panic attack, but I couldn't breathe. I swayed woozily in the dark and my mind began to collapse under the weight of my distress.

Outside came a shrill sound of a female in pain.

A crash of wood on stone.

A heavy thud as someone barrelled inside.

I choked out a soundless scream.

A masculine pained grunt. "Shit. Fuck."

And then, through the shimmering veil of tears, I realized it was no longer dark within the rookery.

Astonishment drove my fear away.

Delight too.

Air got sucked into my lungs and the trembling in my limbs faded away as colorful, hazy light swirled all around me. Tiny willwips chirped excitedly as they flew about the rookery, swirling and whorling, and leaving filmy streaks of ballerina pinks and apple-green, earthy oranges and raspberry reds, metallic sheens. The ethereal creatures were pops of light that drove the darkness away with a wash of a rainbow.

They fluttered around my figure, chittering as they nestled in my hair and landed on the tips of my fingers, only to flit away in a scattering of rich hues. They were cute in their enthusiastic curiosity. A stark contrast to everything sinister that was happening to me.

The rookery expanded and obtained depth as their illumination washed through the space. My toes curled through a bed of straw. A drinking trough sat near a crumbling, winding staircase, and narrow seating curved around the eroded walls.

As the clouds of willwips danced merrily through the air I turned slowly to the man responsible for saving me from the dark.

Graysen had fallen into a sprawled mess on the straw floor, his jacket lay on the ground next to his hand. He'd used his jacket as a net to capture the tiny creatures, and the last of the willwips escaped the adamere folds to soar upward.

It was the slightest stirring of misty silver that drew my astonished gaze from Graysen's bleeding figure, up, up, up to the high ceiling of the rookery.

A cracking jolt blitzed my nerve endings alight. I jerked back, clapping both my hands across my mouth to stifle a scream as fright almost devoured me whole. The ghostly Birds of Prey were hanging upside down like bats, their talon-tipped toes curled around slender wooden beams stretched from wall to wall. They were pale apparitions that seemed to shift and fade and rematerialize in the murkiness of the stone ceiling. The Birds of Prey weren't-quite-alive and all of them were female. Like Sage, they were kin to wraiths.

One of the birds flicked her eyes open and I met her pitch-black gaze, no whites.

Her soft nose crinkled and black eyes slit as she hissed fiercely, bearing vicious, piranha-like teeth. She fell, flipping over, to land silently on the bed of straw in a crouch. My mouth went dry as she unfolded herself slowly and loomed over my shorter frame. A phantom wind teased her mane of tight curls and ruffled the tattered dress to float about her lithe figure.

"Stay still," Graysen whispered. "Don't move. Don't run."

Her sisters followed one by one in the same sinister, silent manner until I was surrounded by the spectral creatures. They circled, their talon-tipped fingers curled into claws, and narrow gazes fixed unblinkingly on me.

Graysen continued his warning. "They're volatile, unpredictable, even with us. More so when they're threatened with a newcomer in their rookery. They'll try to intimidate you, or worse, try to kill you."

Their leader leaned closer, snarling, the flesh-shredding teeth glistening in the light. She sniffed, the exhale shivering my hair. A long, forked tongue flickered out, and I almost shrieked, my stomach pitching queasily, as the tip of her tongue grazed my cheek in a long smear.

Her eyes flashed wide.

She reared back and screamed. The shrill sound, a call of threat, pierced through the rookery.

The Birds of Prey attacked.

I threw up my hands, shrinking as her sisters slung forward, screaming like banshees, slashing at my face, pulling shy, just close enough to terrorize me but not to hurt me. I felt the loose locks of my hair lifting and falling as those behind me raked their talons at my head. The tearing of fabric as they hacked at my dress was a murmur beneath the Birds' screeches.

Graysen had risen to his feet and carefully moved through their surging mass. "It's okay, I'm here. You need to earn their respect. Stay strong." He reached a hand out slowly to draw my own away from my face and laced our fingers together. His tightened around mine and he brushed his thumb back and forth along my trembling palm in reassurance. He slowly edged closer until he was right behind me and banded his free arm around my middle. I molded my shaking figure into his warm, protective stance. "I've got you," he whispered as the Birds of Prey continued to harass us, whirling and lunging, snarling and hissing.

A thunder of footsteps.

A crash.

The Birds' attention was ensnared by someone else.

They froze. Their black-eyed gazes struck straight for the worn, rotting door just as it smashed open and one of Valarie's men shoved his way inside, his breathing loud, his footsteps thudding upon the straw bed.

The rookery exploded with eldritch screeches.

The Birds of Prey streaked forward, talons extended, gnashing vicious teeth. They moved so fast, swifting and whirling around the rookery, their ghostly figures churning like windswept smoke. It was hard to see through the eruption of violence. I could only make out blurred images and snippets. The soldier fought back, trying to fend them off, striking with his fists and losing. He stumbled, throwing his arms over his head to protect his face as they clawed and bit at his arms, his hands.

He toppled backward, falling through the open doorway, and struck the stone steps with a shoulder, disappearing from sight. Despite Graysen's earlier instruction not to run or move, I pushed free from his embrace and rushed across the rookery to peer through the doorway. The soldier lay in a crumpled heap on the lawn, groaning dazedly, alive, but left with bloodied slashes over his face, a chunk bit out of an ear, and his fingers a gruesome mess of flesh and bone-white knuckles.

The Birds of Prey whirled around me in ghostly streaks. My heart eased into a slower rhythm as their churning motion calmed and they drew closer to where I stood with my fingers curled around the edge of the stone wall. I blinked in astonishment as they bristled, not at me, but toward those shadowy figures gathering outside.

I drew slowly back to where Graysen stood puffing out a relieved breath and dragging a hand through his damp hair. The Birds of Prey seemed to vibrate differently in my presence. They cocked their heads, curiosity gleaming in their black eyes as they watched me retreat. There seemed to be protectiveness in the way they settled around me, giving me space but ensuring with their numbers that I was guarded.

Perhaps they knew what resided in me, trapped, but still very much there, and that I should be respected.

A few of the deadly birds drifted to the open doorway on phantom winds, bearing fangs and screeching in warning at Valarie's cadre amassing outside the rookery.

They weren't going to let anyone come in here.

Well, they'd allowed Graysen.

And then Sage, who limped inside, whimpering but wagging his tail, happy to see me, Graysen too. My wraith-wolf barrelled forward to lick his face where he'd dropped to his knees to greet my big, overgrown puppy.

The willwips, undisturbed by the Birds of Prey, danced above Graysen, tinging his hair and broad shoulders in splotches of silver, soft coral and vivid yellow colors.

Graysen glanced up, his hands buried in Sage's misty fur, offering me a tentative smile. His irises had darkened back to their original color. When his blacks met my grays my traitorous heart swelled at the sight of him.

Fractured painfully to see him so badly hurt.

And then shattered into shards when I had to admit to myself that I hadn't been honest earlier. Some spark of truth had flared within me when he'd confessed that he loved me. But I'd beat those feelings back and incinerated them beneath my building temper.