“Bree!” Nick steps into my vision, blocking the armored boys from sight. “What are you still doing here? Get back to the Lodge! Now!” I pivot away from the clearing, but the other Pages have disappeared into the woods. I should have followed them. I have no idea how to get back. No idea which direction to run. Nick realizes this at the same time that I do and points his sword behind me. “That way. Run. Don’t stop.”

I sprint full speed into the forest, adrenaline shooting through my veins. I can barely see, but I keep going. I crash through brush. Briars scrape at my face and arms. I stumble.

Shouts echo behind me as the Legendborn take on the hounds.

Another howl.

Silence.

I turn. Did they kill the demons? Is it over?

Suddenly, the stench of mold and warm, stagnant water overtakes me. It clings to the back of my throat. The smell of rotten wood and dying things. Things that haven’t seen light in a long, long time. I cover my mouth.

A sound comes from my left, like a log breaking.

When I turn, two bottomless red orbs appear in the darkness a foot from my face. Glowing lanterns made of blood. One blinks, then the other.

Not lanterns.

Eyes.

I scream and stumble backward. Then, a voice. The nauseating sound of bones cracking, deep and sharp.

“You will help us.”

Terror condenses to a sharp point. I pivot, but the eyes appear in front of me. A ten-foot-tall, hulking shape steps through the trees.

At first I think the shape is an enormous human, but the movements are all wrong. Their joints bend in the wrong places. In the sliver of light from above, I see a broad chest and thick limbs covered with moss. An iridescent, shiny green liquid pours out of open gashes on mottled skin. A face stretches across a bulbous, swollen head. Two long strips of rotting flesh connect gaping jaws. Their tongue lashes back and forth like a snake tasting the air. The demon hums in satisfaction. “Yes. You will help us.”

I lunge to the side, but the demon moves too. Faster than I can track, so that they face me from the new angle, their held tilted to the side as if waiting for my response.

I think fast, heart hammering inside my chest. I can’t outrun this demon, that much is clear. Which way would I go if I could? Wherever I am, I’m closer to the Legendborn than I am the Lodge. This demon doesn’t seem to want to eat me like the hellhound did—yet.

I take a sliding step in the direction of the clearing but keep my eyes on the creature. “Help you? Are you—you sure I’m the best person for that?”

Lips pull back in a hungry smile, exposing two rows of black teeth that curl backward like scythes.