Ether walks with me along a series of corridors. The sound of Ezra and Rhain’s necks snapping reverberates through my thoughts. I can’t seem to get their lifeless bodies out of my head, the twist of their necks, the empty look of their eyes. Ether had picked me up and removed me from the room before I was even able to react. Now, my eyes are streaming with silent tears.

“They are not dead,” Ether says. “Fear not, they will live to see another day.” Ether pushes a door open to his left and beckons me through it.

“I’m not crying because…” I falter, wiping at my tears. Why would he assume I was crying over them? I mean, I am, of course I am, but he wouldn’t know that.

He looks at me, unconvinced. “Come this way. This is the corridor that leads to the South tower. Aside from the prisoners and the handful of Punishers, no one enters this portion of the castle. We will be able to talk more freely.”

“Talk?” I murmur. What would he possibly wish to talk to me about?

He holds open the door, suddenly polite. Not having any other choice, I walk into a dimly lit corridor on the other side. It is dark and dank.

“Follow me,” he says. About half way down he stops and looks in both directions before he begins to talk. “I know who you are.” His eyes flick to the ring on my middle finger. “I know what you are to them.”

Instead of answering straight away, I wait. This could be a trick.

“You are wary of me? I do not blame you in the slightest, but I am not your enemy. Like your vampires, I must play my part.” Still I say nothing. I shiver from the cold, and from the strange feeling I get whenever I am near this man.

“If I hadn’t intervened then you would be dead now, fed to her loyal vampires. Queen Adrielle knew Rhain and Ezra were lying, so I gave her something to punish them for without giving away the true lie; that you are the missing daughter, that they are yours now.”

“How do you know all this?”

He looks down the corridor, making certain there is no one else about. Then he places his hand in his pocket and pulls out a blue stone, the same size and shape of the ruby Rhain had used to find me, of the emerald the fae had used to find Clover.

I look up at him in shock. “You are one of the three fated to find the missing daughter of Clan Vitae?” I ask.

“Yes, alongside Gabe and Mihr, my fellow Angels of Death, as everyone likes to refer to us.”

“How did you…?” I begin, then remember what Nostra had told us before we entered the Forbidden forest, that Lissandra had already managed to persuade the angels. “Lissandra,” I say.

“Yes. She gave us this stone not long after your three men left for the Earth realm. We departed the same day. We found her, our angel…”

“Where is she now?”

“She remains on Earth,” Ether says, his eyes sparkling like diamonds, the coldness gone from them now as he talks about her. “We were summoned back to Ever Vale by Queen Adrielle before we could make proper contact. Now that your vampires have returned, we will have the opportunity to get back to her.” Ether’s hand closes over the stone and he places it back in his pocket once more. “We leave after the ball.”

“And Blake? Is he actually here?”

“You know him?”

“We’ve met before. He saved my life.”

“He is being tortured as we speak…” Ether says slowly. He is troubled, I think I know what he is going to say.

“Devin?” I whisper.

“No, not Devin. Another Punisher has Blake.” The relief I feel knowing it isn’t Devin is immense, although it is overshadowed by the fact Blake is imprisoned and being tortured. A cold rage seeps into my bones.

“A Punisher called Abanthe has him. He is also one of the Queen’s Dark Knights, a loyal subject. Blake will be suffering.”

“Oh, God. We must do something. He helped us before… Did you know that Blake is one of Clan Spiritus’ three?”

Ether looks at me, surprised. “He is? I am sorry, I didn’t know that. I would have thought of something else to tell Queen Adrielle had I known. She will insist on his death once they have the information they seek from him.”

“That can’t happen, Ether. Nostra gave him the stone to locate their clan’s lost daughter. I thought he had returned to Earth. Why is he here now? We must help him.”

“Perhaps he found her and they returned to Ever Vale, just like you all did.”

“I don’t know. Blake knows where Nostra’s hamlet is. He spoke to him some months ago. If he had returned with the missing clan daughter, why didn’t he go there?”

“That’s a good point.”

“He cannot die. The prophecy…” I start. My stomach lurches.

“No wolf-shifter has ever survived the South tower. I am surprised he is not dead already.”

“Tell Rhain and Ezra, they will get him out somehow. They have to.”

“I will.” Ether rests his hand on my arm and squeezes gently. Sickness fills my stomach once again, and I have the sudden urge to throw up.

“Apologies, Accacia. I should stop doing that,” he says, removing his hand quickly. “I forget you’re not quite like the others.”

“What do you mean, not quite like the others?”

“You can die by other means, not just the sun. The curse, it hasn’t affected you in quite the same way. You are not immortal. Your heart beats differently to theirs. It is just as well, because if it didn’t the Queen would know what you truly are.”

“I hadn’t even considered that…” I say. That was the truth. In all this time, I hadn’t considered my own mortality. I guess I assumed that because I can heal so rapidly I have some kind of protection from death. Hearing Ether confirm otherwise makes me feel a little less safe. Here I am, heading to save the man I love, who could kill me without a second thought. That is not something I wish to linger on for very long, so I decide to change the subject. “Ether, what are you exactly?”

“Does my title not give it away?” he laughs, though it is bitter, hollow. “Before the curse we brought life into the world and now I am a monster.”

“Like a midwife, you mean?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It is what we on Earth call the people who deliver babies, who look after the mother before, during and after childbirth.”

“Then that is what we once were. We delivered the children of Ever Vale.” Ether presses his long slim fingers against his eyes. “Now, we bring death. Now, everything we touch dies. That is, except for the members of Clan Lux.”

“So that’s what I feel when you touch me. Death.”

“Yes. That’s what we bring. That’s why my people reside in the Shadowlands. It is a place that the Queen herself has no desire to enter. She called upon us when her Dark Knights left…”

“My knights, not hers,” I snap.

“I stand corrected,” Ether says, his eyes glinting with amusement. “Queen Adrielle needed us to take their place, to bring death to those who betrayed her. I, alongside my brothers, have been waiting to get out of this castle for months. I do not enjoy what I am. Though the lives I have taken have been many, I remember every one.”

Ether looks like an angel in the stories I read as a child, and yet he has the power to destroy, just like Devin, just like the Queen herself. “She is so cruel. Twisted. To distort what you once were into this. I don’t think I have ever hated anyone more in my life. We must defeat her. You must leave as soon as you can and find your clan’s missing daughter.”

“We are planning on leaving after the Jubilee ball. Queen Adrielle will not allow us to depart until then, but before we go I will make sure Blake is freed.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You must still survive Devin. That is why you are here, is it not?”

I look up at him. “That obvious?” I ask.

“As soon as I saw the ring on your finger I knew who you were, that you belonged to Rhain and Ezra. Given Devin’s relationship to them, I automatically assumed he was the third fated to you. I only hope you’re able to pull him from the darkness that chains his soul now.” Ether bends down slightly, so his face is close to mine. “I am reluctant to take you to him. Perhaps you should leave it to Rhain and Ezra to get him out of the castle. The Queen will just assume you are dead anyway.”

“Dead?”

Ether sighs. “Yes, why else would she give you to him? What better way to punish Ezra than to give his plaything to Devin. The Queen is very aware that Devin doesn’t have the same control as his brothers in arms. You are meant to die this night. She is counting on it.”

“Devin was able to control himself around me before,” I say, trying to sound more confident than I feel. I have no real idea of what I am about to walk into, apart from the fact that Devin is unrecognisable now and the hope that my love for him, and his love for me, will save us both.

“Damn it, what was I thinking? In trying to assist your men, I have put you in great danger. This was a bad idea. I shall take you to safety.” Ether grabs my arm, but I snatch it away.

“No!” I say immediately, knowing that would be a big mistake. “If I walk away, then Devin will be lost and so too will you all. I will not abandon him.”

Ether’s face is tight but he doesn’t try to persuade me otherwise, which is just as well because the sound of a door opening at the other end of the corridor and someone approaching prevents us from speaking further. Ether begins to walk once more, my arm clutched in his hand. The same cold dread creeps over my skin. He looks down at me, an apology in his eyes, but he doesn’t let me go. We stop when we meet the oncoming stranger. My throat constricts in shock. It is Devin, and he is covered in blood.

“Ether, what is this?” he says with undisguised disgust.

“A gift from the Queen. She came in with Rhain and Ezra. She is to be yours now,” Ether says, dropping my arm. Warmth returns to me at once.

“I have just fed,” Devin says. He knows I am staring at him in horror, at the blood that is splattered across his face, that dampens his hair. He raises a finger to his cheek, wipes off some of the blood then licks it, savouring the taste. “There is nothing like fresh blood spewing from a vein.”

Ether ignores the obvious attempt to scare me. “Ezra and Rhain have displeased the Queen. This woman here was Ezra’s plaything, now she is to be yours. Queen Adrielle insists.”

Devin narrows his eyes at me. “Interesting. Then I suppose I must have her.” He lifts his gaze to Ether. “Are you heading to the chambers?”

“Yes, Queen Adrielle wishes for me to check on the progress with the wolf-shifter,” Ether says.

“He is strong. So far, he has not given up any information, but Abanthe is talented in getting what he needs out of the prisoners. He will talk, eventually.”

“Good. Queen Adrielle is impatient today. I shall head to the chambers now.” Ether takes one last look at me before he is gone, and I am left alone with a man I barely recognise. Devin’s dark eyes lower to the bare skin of my neck, to my ample cleavage, then back up to my face. A face that’s so very different from my own.

“This way,” he says, grabbing hold of my arm and pulling me towards a darkly lit staircase that I hadn’t noticed until now.

“Where are you taking me?” I manage to ask, my voice barely recognisable to my own ears.

“To my apartment, of course. I think I may still be thirsty after all.”