The thing stepped through.
Nora could not move.
For one terrible second, she could not even breathe.
It was tall enough to scrape the broken archway with its shoulders, yet its body seemed to shift between solid and shadow. Black skin covered its frame, marked by thin silver lines that pulsed like veins. Its face was almost human, but the eyes were wrong. There were no pupils, only two enormous silver circles that seemed to look through everything standing before them.
Aurelia stared at it.
The creature stared back.
Then it smiled.
“Mother.”
Nora's stomach twisted.
“No.”
The word came out barely above a whisper.
Caelan stepped backward.
“We need to get out of this city.”
Mara looked at him. “There is nowhere left to go.”
“There is always somewhere.”
“Not now.”
The creature
