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THERE'S SOMETHING EXHILARATING about the feel of raw magic; such as the feel of first snowdrop falling from the sky and touching your skin, chilly and exciting.

Black mist cocoon the carriage like a manifestation of a dome as the conveyance moves through a shadow tunnel only a shadow creature can navigate, leading to the heart of Shadowlands, Thanatos' kingdom, the shadow creature's kingdom.

Emerick—the hunter—is seated at the front seat, his eyes strewn shut in concentration. Smokey charcoal mist pours from his outstretched palm, urging the carriage forward amongst the darkness around us. Only my enhanced sight makes it possible for me to even see anything.

I hadn't quite believed earlier when he'd revealed shadow hunters to be part shadow creatures themselves. But now, it was very evident. Such powers weren't humane. Although that struck a question on why they hunted their own kind? It didn't make sense.

Emerick had clearly stated he couldn't because he wasn't powerful enough to do so and wouldn't even if he was, help me with the supposed capturing of his master, that he doubted anyone working for Thanatos even would. He'd, however, said that if I wished, he could take me—and only me—to Shadowlands and then whatever happens afterwards, wasn't on him.

Aeslyn and Joseph had clearly stated their disapproval about going there without a backup army. Dulcamara, on the other hand, had spun another one of her senseless riddles, something about all roads leading to Rome.

In some twisted sense, I'd considered it my go-to sign. Dulcamara is a seer, an insanely powerful and intuitive one. I knew better than to ditch her agreement when I've very well known from experience how her sight had always been right.

Besides, I was desperate. That monster had my sons with him if he hadn't already. . . .no, they're alive. They have to be.

I'd been preparing to face Thanatos for four years. I knew he had a kingdom of his own, but no tracker could ever find it. The shadow hunter was my last reprieve after the agonizing search and I didn't want to miss the opportunity of invading Shadowlands because apparently, only shadow creatures have access to the passageway of the shadow tunnel.

If we let the first shadow hunter we found in four years go, heavens only knew when we'd find another one who'd willingly take us to their land. I could always compel them to take me but I wasn't particularly sure at this point whether my compulsion even works on the shadow hunters, considering how I can't read Emerick's thoughts. We could keep Emerick captive but then, my enemity wasn't with him. It was with his master. He didn't deserve captivity in any form.

It wasn't like I hadn't defeated an entire troop of supernatural armies all alone myself before. I wasn't particularly a liability on my own. It was now or never. I had to do this, risks be damned.

Emerick had been outright it wasn't a good idea even though he'd simply expressed that, in order to get going, we needed some sort of conveyance to settle in—preferably a carriage rather than a modern vehicle—and then he'd use his shadow powers to teleport us to the shadow tunnel that leads to Shadowlands. Lot of shadows in one sentence, I know.

"Are we there yet?" A familiar voice pipes in from the compartment designed to place the luggage trunks.

Emerick jolts on his reigns of power from shock, the black mist of the tunnel darkening around us to a level where it appears like we're stuck in a black hole.

"Who in the dark hell?!" He bellows, turning around from his seat to look past me at our unwelcome guest.

Joshua does a rather dramatic show of rising from his hiding spot, shaking his head to tame his mess of dirty blonde locks and then proceeding to brush off imaginary flint from his clothes.

"Hello there, old friend." He beams at a gaping Emerick, before swishing over the back seat in one fluid movement to land beside me.

Emerick begins, "When did you-"

"He tends to secretly follow." I explain with a sigh, shaking my head at my grinning friend, "Honestly, I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect him to be here."

Joshua winks, "Part of protector duty. Not that you even need a protector but whatever. You give me far less credit." He sounds wounded.

I pass him a blank look and focus back on Emerick, "We should continue on our path. Joshua will follow no matter what we do to ditch him behind. Perhaps, it's good he's here. I'll trade him to get something in return."

Emerick blinks probably taking that as a joke when Joshua juts in again,

"She's serious. She wouldn't admit but I'm quite useful." He shrugs, emanating proudfullness.

Emerick glances at Joshua as if he's lost his mind, "You're okay with her trading you to your supposed enemy?"

"She's done it before. Offering me in return for something and luring people into a fool's trade. Melly here knows I'll always return unscathed. Makes my heart warm at the trust she has on me." Joshua wipes away a non-existent tear.

I roll my eyes, "He's powerful enough to stay alive." I don't provide more information than that to Emerick but he nods nonetheless, still seeming perplexed.

Having decided Joshua couldn't really be gotten rid off, with a resigned sigh, Emerick gets back to moving the carriage through the shadow tunnel.

Minutes pass before he speaks again,

"If I may ask," Emerick's eyes are shut in focus but his words are clear, "Why do you wish to capture master Thanatos?"

"He killed my mate. He has my sons captive. He's a monster. What other reason do I need?" I state calmly, too calmly.

"Oh." A gentle frown deepens between his brows.

"You don't sound surprised."

There's no giveaway of Emerick's emotion when he says, "You're not the first one who's mate or family was killed by Thanatos. Infact, mine were one of the firsts."

Fury and astonishment rages my veins, "And you still wouldn't want to help me capture him?"

The frown grows, his eyes still shut, "Everything is not as it seems."

How are you so chill about this?!
I'm too furious to even voice out anything.

It's Joshua who questions this time, curiosity dripping his tone, "Is this the part where you say he's a good man and he kills only those people who deserve it?"

"No," Emerick's retort doesn't miss a beat, "It would do you well not to consider Thanatos as anything short of wicked. He's not good. He's far from humble. But we understand him."

"We as in the other shadow hunters included?" Joshua quips his head to the side, clinically observing the slight release of Emerick's breath as he nods.

"You're all twisted, aren't you? Supporting a master who's nothing but a murderous maniac." I ask acridly, trying to calm my inner turmoil.

"Think what you may." Emerick doesn't look remotely fazed, as if he hears such words often but when he opens those grey eyes to stare straight at me, I feel his words echo in my head, "But sometimes, people don't really have a choice."

"There's always a choice." I affirm.

Emerick let's out a humorless laugh before shutting his eyes in focus of his powers again, "You'd be surprised to know how wrong you are."

There's a fierceness in the way he speaks which renders me speechless for a moment. I try again desperately to read his thoughts and come up empty. Beside me, Joshua seems just as confused and intrigued.

But before any of us could utter another word, the carriage jolts to a sudden, violent pull.

Joshua and I are careened forward in our seats by the force of it.

Emerick curses under his breath, flutters his eyes wide and with another rather explicit curse I hadn't expected the calm-looking hunter to utter, stands up and pulls open the carriage door abruptly in the middle of the shadow tun-

Except we aren't really inside the tunnel anymore.

I blink at the sudden lighting outside the carriage, look past the open space of the door to find a girl grinning maddeningly at Emerick, standing in middle of a....throne room?

"Greetings, brother." She croons.

Wild raven hair knotted in a tight braid, blood-red lips grinning a cheshire grin and grey eyes startlingly similar to Emerick's alit like light bulbs, she's the epitome of gorgeous.

Emerick's sister holds some sort of black rope in her hands and when I step out of the carriage with Joshua behind me, I notice those ropes are made of smoke—or shadows—and their other ends are bound tightly around the carriage as if she'd literally pulled the vehicle out of the tunnel with her shadowy ropes.

"Does beauty run in the family or something?" Joshua openly gawks at Emerick's sister then glances at the hunter in question.

The girl finally averts her gaze from her brother to spare Joshua a cursory glance before focusing on me, "You really did do your task and get her."

"You didn't particularly mention what my supposed 'task' was, Esme. It had taken me being abducted to realize why Thanatos had even asked me to capture a sydar from Lycor when we hadn't done a stupid exposure task like that in years. It was staged to be seen so that I get caught by the crimson court trackers." A guilty look passes Emerick's features as he looks at me before he conceals it, "I apologize for tricking you to get you here."

I don't know why but the sincerity in his apology despite the bizarreness of the situation brings a genuine small smile to my face, "Don't worry, I knew."

Confusion seeps Emerick and Esme's face.

Joshua tsks beside me, "Dudes, you really shouldn't take Melly to be a fool. Ofcourse, she knew you offered to get her here so that you could present her to Thanatos. He'd been looking for her for years now and his court members that you shadow hunters are, probably knew that too. You think she didn't catch on to that? Especially when you so clearly mentioned that you'd only take her? She came here because she wanted to. Simple."

Joshua always got me, it was crazy. But his personality aside, he was colossaly smart and filled with ancient power. There was a reason why he held the mark of protector on his wrist since his birth and destined to be by my side in any fight.

It was because he'd never be a liability, it was because I knew without batting a breath I could leave him behind on a battlefield and he'd make it out perfectly fine. It was because he'd been my constant friend for so long, even back when the sun priestesses—

"Why, pray tell, do you want to be here willingly?"

The voice that spoke was like whisky on a winter night—warm and sensual and all shades of intoxicating.

My head whips towards the source of it, sight fixates on the lounging form of a male seated on the throne above the raised dais.

Clad in rich black tunic and breeches, shadows swirl behind him like serpents awaiting to sink their teeth into your skin. He wears a bored expression—sharp, smooth facial features knit together so insanely well it was disturbing.

When he angles his head to the side, dark inky hair shifts with the movement to fall over his shadowed eyes, catching the dim lighting to reveal the deep blue and green streaks in those luscious locks.

There's blood on his cheekbones, blood on his fingertips, blood on his lips.

"Oh don't worry, the blood isn't mine." He purrs as if he were a lover inviting his partner to join him for nightly pleasures.

I couldn't see his eyes beyond the mass of silken hair, couldn't decipher the precise color of them but I knew they were trained on me intently and it sent a shiver skittering down my spine, igniting every muscle and nerve and bone.

It's sickening how beautiful he is for a man so deeply drowned in sins.

Sins. . .

It's like I've been thrown into a frozen lake. Fury along with the long buried grief boils my skin as realization dawns, as I put together who he really is.

This man. He's the reason I lost Ryan forever, he's the reason I haven't known where they are or what happened to Lysander and Elian in the last four years. This man right here is the reason my life is falling apart.

I know I can't kill him, but I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to hurt him just as bad as he'd hurt me.

"Thanatos." I breathe, barely controlling myself from erupting.

Eyes alit with mysteries, his sensous mouth lifts into a smile, "Hello, darlin'. I've been waiting for you."

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Sheesh.

So....your views on Thanatos?👀

What do you think Mellisa meant when she said Joshua is powerful enough to return alive?

Any guesses on what Emerick was on about people not having choices?