“Nick was right,” I say in a low voice I barely recognize. “Merlins are monsters. You are a monster.”

His eyes widen, and his lips press into a thin, angry line—but I don’t find out what horrid thing he might spout next because he doesn’t get a chance to respond at all.

A crashing in the woods pulls our attention. A low howl. A high, piercing bark, then another that echoes against the closed-in courtyard.

Sel scowls. “What did you do? Call in reinforcements?”

I hiss, “I didn’t do anything, you asshole!” Like him, my eyes are glued to the graveyard.

We don’t have to wait long.

Three nightmares appear out of the woods and jump onto the stone wall. Three enormous foxes, green aether drifting up like steam off their scaly backs.

These are true Shadowborn. No construct. No illusion.

Sel’s hound dissolves until it’s nothing but silver dust.

“Cedny uffern!” Sel hisses. He slides backward into a fighting stance. “Call them off, uchel! If you kill me, you’ll never get close to Nicholas. All your efforts will be for naught.”

“They’re not mine!” I snap.

The partial-corp creatures leap down to the courtyard as one, covering the ten-foot distance easily. The foxes yip and snarl, chittering as they stalk toward us on long legs, their hairless, ratlike tails whipping behind them.

“I said call them off!”

“I didn’t do this!”

“Briana—”

“Please, Sel!”

His jaw clenches as he stares me down, fresh doubt at my plea warring with the fury in his eyes. A flash of blue-white aether, and then Sel is murmuring while aether streams rapidly into his hands. It collects into spinning globes in his palms. Then the globes expand and elongate until they form two long staffs that harden into shimmering crystalline weapons, dense and heavy.

Instead of retreating, the foxes snap their jaws eagerly at the sight.

“What are they doing?” I breathe, but Sel’s eyes are only for the demons.

Suddenly, all three hellfoxes release bloodcurdling screams, the sound bouncing in the courtyard and droning on and on until I cover my ears in pain. Then I see that it’s not a scream at all.

It’s a call.