Niall sprung back from the door, yanking his hand from the door handle as though the metal stung him. Behind him, he heard Aisling gasp.

Twenty-one years. He rolled the number around in his head, unable to comprehend.

Odiana wouldn’t lie. Not about this. And he could believe the evidence of his eyes. It was Odiana standing in front of him, but not the same young woman he’d left behind. Now her beautiful face was pinched and stretched.

That meant the house … it had slowed time down inside, even more than it had for Aisling. The few precious weeks he’d had with her had taken twenty-one years from his life.

This is my punishment for the lies I told. This is what the house was trying to tell me. Maybe it wasn’t trying to get me to kill myself, but to step back into time and have my life again. But it would’ve been a life without Aisling …

Niall’s stomach churned as the full weight of the revelation crushed down upon him. His brother … the Quaesitor’s research … what had happened while he was gone? While he’d been inside the house doing … what he’d been doing with Aisling, his whole life had been flashing forward around him. He’d missed it all. He’d missed everything.

He leapt forward, and grabbed Odiana’s hand, trying to pull her further inside. Her skin felt different to how he remembered, not as smooth or supple. “Odiana, please. You must tell me, what became of my brother?”

Odiana yanked her hand away. “I’m not coming inside there,” she declared, wrinkling her nose in a way that was pure Odiana.

“Just tell me, please. What about Eamon?”

She screwed her eyes up, as though it was painful to speak of. “He’s fine now, Niall. Laneth let him go a couple of years ago.”

“He did? That doesn’t sound like something Laneth would do.”

“He would if I gave him something even more valuable in return.”

Niall’s heart sank. “What?”

“I took your note to Laneth. I gave him the secret to capturing atern.” Odiana rubbed her eyes. “I thought … I thought if I could save Eamon for you, then you’d find a way to leave the house. I thought with all my experience, my team would be able to beat Laneth to creating the weapon. But I was wrong on both counts.”

“What do you mean? What’s happened? Where’s Eamon?”

“Safe. He’s living with me. He’s not the problem. Laneth must have been much closer to a breakthrough than I thought, for he finished his device mere hours after I gave him your note. And he … he …” She gulped. “He trained the device on the university. He drained all the Quaesitors of their atern, every last one of us. We’re walking ghosts now, just one magical spell away from death.”

“That’s not possible.”

Odiana held up her wristband. Niall’s eyes widened as he saw the blinking number. 10. Odiana had only ten units of magic left, enough for only a single tiny spell.

Behind Niall, Aisling gasped.

“I’m lucky,” she said. “I still have a little left, enough to keep me alive. So many died—”

“He can’t do this to you.” Rage burned in Niall’s chest. How had this happened? Laneth was a Aedifex, a builder. His job was to make cabinets and mend fences. He should never have been able to assemble so much power. With enough atern to power an entire university, Laneth could perform any spell he wanted. He was the most powerful man in the whole of the fae realm, and he had a machine that could strip that atern from anything.

If you’d been there, instead of inside the Hollow, this never would have happened. Guilt crashed against Niall. He was so selfish, thinking only of his own needs when he thrust that note through the door. He should have been more careful. In the wrong hands, that information …

“I’m going to find a way to stop this,” he insisted.

Tears sprung in Odiana's eyes. “It’s too late. He wants inside the Hollow, Niall. He’s assembled an army of followers – desperate fae who he tempts with the promise of unlimited atern. They’re building an enormous ray, big enough to suck all the atern not just from the Hollow, but from the void itself.”

“That’s insane.”

“I know, but he’s insane, so it makes sense. I don’t have much time. He has guards all around the house, so none of us can get to you to warn you. I managed to take out one, but I don’t have long before he’s discovered.”

“Odiana, you have to listen to me. Go get all the Quaesitors you can, as well as any Venators who used to be in my unit, anyone who might stand up to Laneth. Bring them here and I’ll find a way to let you in. It’s safe, I promise. Once you’re inside the house, you’ll be able to figure out how to channel the atern to stop him. Our only chance is to use the atern before Laneth gets his hands on it.”

“Niall, I have to—” Odiana’s mouth hung open. Her whole body stiffened. She stared down in surprise.

Niall’s eyes followed her gaze. An arrow pierced Odiana’s chest, the bright-red tip poking through the front of her robes, the shaft ringed with blood. She made a gagging sound as she gripped the shaft with both hands, her eyes wide. Pain flooded her face.

“No!” Niall reached for her, meaning to sweep her into the house. Odiana toppled over, hitting the porch with a horrible crack. She didn’t move, her piercing eyes staring up at the gray sky.

Rage boiled inside Niall. This was senseless. Odiana was probably the greatest mind the fae had produced in decades, and now she was dead because she’d tried to warn him. He was a curse, a poison to anyone who cared about him.

From the gate at the front of the path, Niall caught sight of a figure. Wearing the coat of a Venator, the fae’s long fingers gripped an empty bow, his eyes burning with triumph as he regarded the crumpled body of Odiana. He nodded at Niall, and nocked another arrow. He raised the bow, and drew the string back to his ear, a sadistic smile spreading across his face.

Niall slammed the door shut, just as the fae loosed the arrow. The door shuddered as the arrow buried itself in the wood, splintering the door directly in front of Aisling’s face. Aisling cried out, leaping back.

Without thinking, Niall grabbed her, wrapped his arms around her, and knocked her to the ground. He heard the glass shatter, shards skidding across the marble floor.

Aisling lifted her head, her eyes resting on the arrow quivering from the foot of the balustrade. Relief flooded Niall. If he hadn’t pushed her down, that arrow probably would have hit her.

Aisling’s eyes flooded with tears. “You saved my life,” she whispered.

“Of course.” Niall’s eyes glazed over. “I love you, Aisling. Your life is my life.”

Light flooded his body as the words left his mouth. He’d never meant anything as much as he meant those words. And even if she never forgave him for his lies, even if she refused to talk to him or touch him ever again, it was okay. For he had stripped himself of all the bullshit and avarice, and right here, right now, he was just Niall. And he was a better person for having known her, and that could never be undone.

His arms around her grew heavy, weighed down by the hope that surged through his body as she stared up at him with those huge brown eyes. He could see her weighing up his sins against … against what she felt for him. Would it be enough? He wanted it to be, so so bad.

Aisling pursed her lips, and leaned forward. For one terrified moment, Niall was certain she would spit in his face. But she pressed her lips to his, her tongue seeking out his own. Niall deepened the kiss, pouring all his emotion into it, giving her back all the good that she had given to him. The magic surged around them, wrapping them in heat.

Aisling broke the kiss. “I love you too, and I’m sorry,” she whispered against Niall’s skin.

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I am the one who is sorry. I’ve done a horrible thing, Aisling. I lied to you about why I was here, but I swear to you I didn’t come here to hurt you. I just wanted to save my brother. I’ve been sending notes to Odiana, just telling her that I’m okay, that she shouldn’t worry, and that the ray she gave me didn’t work. I wanted it to work so my brother could be free, so I’ve been researching the house’s magic in your family books, as you probably guessed. The last note contained the notations for the spell that bound the magic to the house. I found it in your grandmother’s diary. I thought Odiana could use it to free us both, as well as pay off my brother’s debt, but I was such a fool. I forgot what a fae would do for power, because of you, because you’ve made me a different man, a better man. But I should have realized. Now, Laneth will come and destroy the Hollow and take all the magic for himself. I don’t deserve you.”

“You were trying to save your brother,” she sniffed. “I understand that now. And you were trying to save me.”

“Was I? Or was I trying to save myself?”

“I think the fact that I don’t currently have an arrow through my heart because of you answers your question.” Aisling grinned. “I love you, Niall. I don’t like being deceived, but I forgive you for it. Just don’t ever do it again.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Niall beamed. Despite the gravity of their situation, his heart had never felt lighter. With Aisling’s love to guide him, he would see the world in a different way. If he lived long enough to undo all the damage he’d done.

“As much as I’d love to lie here with you all day …” Niall gestured to the arrow sticking out of the staircase. Aisling nodded. Niall sat back, and helped her to her feet.

“H-h-how did that arrow break the glass?” she asked, her fingers reaching for the arrow. It looked different from Niall’s arrows. The surface shimmered with tendrils of blue smoke. “Nothing should be able to get in here.”

Niall slapped her hand away. “Don’t touch that.”

He held his bracelet up to the tip of the arrow, watching the tiny dial on the side spring about madly. “It’s been charged with atern,” he replied. “This arrow is powerful enough to penetrate the shield that protects the house, especially now that it’s weakened.”

“How is it weakened?”

“The house has been giving you the power, so it doesn’t have as much as it once did. But even if it had its full power, it couldn’t stop that arrow. Laneth knows now how to charge objects with magic, and he has so much to spare, he will be able to create a whole army.”

“Shit,” Aisling said.

“Shit is right.” Niall slumped to the floor, burying his face in his hands. “I did this. I doomed us both.”

“I’ve been doomed for years,” Aisling said. “It’s not a new realization to me. You were right, Niall. This is no kind of life. I’ve been living like a ghost between these walls. It wasn’t until you came along and showed me joy, that I even felt like there was worth in my life to fight for. So, stop with the self-deprecating bullshit, and give me a bit of that fae bossiness. What are we going to do?”

“I know exactly what we’re going to do.” Niall balled his hands into fists and glared at the hole in the glass. “We’re going to fight.”