But there were always worse things lurking on the horizon. Things he hadn’t even known to fear. The world’s capacity for cruelty and horror was so much more than he could ever grasp.

REBEKA

The behemoth was awakening on the horizon, trudging down the mountainside toward their ritual platform. Its face danced with all her failures, the ones her power had thrust upon her, those impossible choices: save her brother but sacrifice the rest of her family. Embrace this darkness but become a monster for it. Seek revenge on the people who did this to her and allow her brother to pay with his life.

She was tired of being strong for him while he tore himself to shreds. She was tired of carrying all her lies. She was tired of swallowing down anger—it sat like metal shavings in her gut. Wasn’t she allowed to be angry, to grieve, to hate? She’d treated her calmness as the only way to shield herself from criticism, but all along, she’d carried these monsters inside. She shared their breaths. Heard their whispers and saw the truths they saw. This path, too—it had its uses.

She moved through the ashy forest like smoke, the thick, tarry smoke of burning tires, burning leaves, burning bodies. Set me on fire, she thought, and I will choke you with my fumes.

The faceless figure stood in her path.

Stop this, it whispered. Stop them. Spare us—whatever of us is left.

Rebeka dropped to her knees, palms upturned at her sides. “I don’t know if I can.”

If you cannot stop it, then our world will corrupt yours. As surely as yours destroyed us.

It fed her images of the hungry demons who poured into her world, harnessed to the Nazis’ will. They’d been whipped into a frenzy once before, when Sicarelli had torn into their world and stolen what was not his. He’d chained the hungry demons to his will and used them to tear down the faceless creatures’ once-thriving cities. He’d drained their energy, used it to fuel untold works. Now the Nazis wanted to pillage it even more, tugging away everything that made the shadow world whole—stealing its energy for themselves.

It is why the Nazis hunger, why they crave. They want someone to pay.

Rebeka knew that hunger too well; it throbbed in her brother’s heart, sometimes even her own. “And what do you want?”

The faceless thing shrank back into the trees, into its ruins. We want to be left alone.

The shadow realm stretched and contracted around her. Time and space worked differently here—she’d already learned that much. Maybe she was too late. Maybe Liam was already dead, her brother already devoured—