Chapter 2

Ursula shoved the sword into the Kevlar scabbard and strapped it to her back. She was leaving her clothes behind, but there was no way in hell she’d travel to the Shadow Realm without Honjo.

By the window, Cera turned to her, a wicked glint in her silver eyes. “Are you ready?”

“Not really.”

“Have you ever ridden a horse before?”

Ursula shrugged. Good question. “I don’t think so, but I don’t remember anything from before the age of fifteen. For all I know, F.U. may have been a champion rider.”

Cera’s pale brow crinkled. “F.U.?”

“Former Ursula. My pre-amnesiac self.”

Cera flashed her a sympathetic you-should-probably-take-your-medication smile.

Ursula forced a smile back. Right. I sound like a nutter when I talk about the amnesia. Then again, we’re about to ride on the back of a giant bat, so a little nuttery is in order.

“Well,” said Cera. “Whatever the case, I’ll be guiding Sotz, so you’ll just need to hold on.” She arched an eyebrow. “I do hope you’re not afraid of heights.” “Not really.” A chill whispered over her skin. But I’m terrified of Nyxobas.

Her brush with the shadow void still haunted her nightmares—the god of night filled her with a horrifying, gnawing dread. A painful emptiness that still flickered in the hollows of her mind. She tried to push the thoughts away. Her voyage on the bat would be bad enough without dwelling on the void.

“Climb on.” Cera nodded at a pair of leather handles on Sotz’s saddle. “Grip there. Then step into the stirrups. Just be sure to hold on tight.”

Pretty sure I’ll be clutching on for dear life. Ursula pulled herself up to the windowsill, then hooked a leg over the saddle. Gripping the handles, she slipped her feet into the stirrups.

As Cera whispered into the Sotz’s ear, Ursula’s fingers tightened on the leather. It didn’t seem like the safest way to travel. Surely, hurtling through the sky on a giant mammal required a seatbelt or helmet.

In the next second, the bat launched from the window. For a moment, Ursula’s breath caught as the creature began a stomach-turning plunge, then the bat’s wings unfurled. Their path steadied, and they swooped past West 59th Street and over Central Park.

Ursula clutched the harness in a death grip, her pulse racing. Her auburn hair whipped about her face with each beat of the giant wings. Sotz angled his wings, and they turned sharply. The movement cleared the hair from her eyes, and she caught a glimpse of the Plaza Hotel.

“Where are we going?” she shouted over the wind.

“Brooklyn,” Cera said, turning in her direction, her sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight as she spoke.

The Shadow Realm is in Brooklyn? She frowned. It was hard to imagine the terrifying incubus Abrax cramming himself into skinny jeans. Maybe extending his talons to spear a vegan burger at a Park Slope diner.

The night wind whipped over her skin, and she shivered, thinking of the high demon. She had no idea if he’d made it out of the fae realm alive.

Sotz soared over the Plaza’s white marble crenellations, then higher above the twinkling lights of New York. Distant car horns floated on the wind, and the bat alternated each wing beat with graceful glides.

Her grip on the harness relaxed. The view was extraordinary.

The great avenues of New York carved between the buildings like golden rivers of light. All around her, skyscraper glass gleamed faintly in the moonlight.

As they flew toward the tip of Manhattan, she breathed a sigh of relief at the quiet of the night air. After four years living in London, she’d grown accustomed to the perpetual background hum of busses, traffic jams and people asking for money. Up here, she heard only the distant beat of a helicopter’s blades. Somehow, floating through the dark night sky felt like home.

Before she could get too comfortable, a piercing screech sent her heart racing. Cera screamed in an unintelligible language as Sotz folded his wings into his body. Ursula gripped the harness and they plummeted down, dropping out of the sky—but not fast enough.

As the wind whipped Ursula’s hair into her face, something large and scaly slammed into her side, nearly tearing her from the harness. The force of the impact sent them careening toward a skyscraper. Gritting her teeth, she clung to the handles with an iron grip.

Cera shrieked hysterically, letting go of the bat’s neck.

“Watch out!” Ursula pulled back on the harness. Her heart pounding hard against her ribs. Sotz’s wings snapped out, and Ursula jerked the harness away from the skyscraper. Sotz turned, veering away from the building.

F.U. had apparently been bit of an equestrian.

A second screech shattered the night, and she glanced to her right, her blood chilling. She caught a glimpse of an enormous, shimmering outline. A translucent creature, at least the size of a bus. And it was heading right for them. Bollocks. We’re fighting something nearly impossible to see.

“You need to steer!” she shouted at Cera.

Clenching her knees against Sotz’s sides, she drew Honjo from his sheath. The long katana glinted in her hands—and not a moment too soon. She twisted in the saddle, slashing at a long, translucent limb. The blade jerked as it cut into solid flesh.

A howl rent the air.

In the next moment, the creature yanked the sword from her grasp.

Her blood turned to ice. Honjo—her only weapon—had just been ripped from her hands.

Sotz folded his wings, diving lower. Wind whistled in her ears as they raced like a falling meteor toward the East River. Just as Ursula resigned herself to a watery death, Sotz unfurled his wings, redirecting them toward the steel cables of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Somewhere behind them, their attacker screeched, a bloodcurdling sound that shriveled her stomach. Adrenaline surged. Honjo hadn’t killed the damned thing, he had only annoyed it.

The Williamsburg Bridge grew rapidly larger and Ursula’s muscles tightened as she braced for impact. At the last second, Sotz turned, diving between the cables, heading for the tunnel’s mouth.

Ursula’s heart hammered against her ribs. Lights flashed in its entrance, and a rumbling noise echoed off the walls. A subway car is heading right for us. She shouted a warning, but with a single flap of his wings, Sotz cleared the train, flying between the car and the ceiling.

The train raced by beneath them, and she let out a long breath when they cleared it.

Only the flashing red signal lights illuminated the tunnel, flashing off the rows of steel beams and girders on the ceiling. They winged down the tracks as a second train rumbled toward them, its lights glowing brighter and brighter. At the last possible moment, Sotz veered left into a dark corridor.

This tunnel was completely dark, and only the sound of the air rushing by her head told her they were still flying. After what felt like an eternity, Sotz slowed the beating of his wings, and glided to a landing.

Ursula slid off the bat, falling to her knees on a dusty floor. Pure adrenaline pumped through her veins. “What was that creature? I couldn’t even see the bloody thing.”

Cera pulled something from her pocket—a glowing, violet crystal. From the stone, tendrils of magic snaked into the air, creating a sphere of light that illuminated the space.

Ursula surveyed the derelict subway platform, the space around them covered in broken wood and debris. “That creature,” Cera smoothed out her dress, trying to regain her composure, “was a dragon.”