The shadows weren't listening to me, and that was a problem.
They poured from my hands like liquid darkness, writhing and spinning through my apartment with minds of their own. Furniture crashed against walls. Glass shattered. The vampires who'd broken down my door were scrambling backward, their confident assault dissolving into chaos as my power tore through everything in its path. I could hear Luna screaming my name from somewhere, could see Azrael trying to push himself up from where my blast had thrown him, but I couldn't stop it. Couldn't control it.
I was drowning in my own magic, and I had no idea how to swim.
"Sera!" Luna's voice cut through the chaos, terrified and desperate. "What's happening? What are you doing?"
"I don't know," I gasped out, my voice barely recognizable. The power was consuming me from the inside out, burning through my veins like acid. "I can't stop it. I can't—"
A hand clamped around my wrist, cold as ice and strong as iron. The vampire, the one who'd demanded I come with him, had gotten close somehow despite the shadows trying to tear him apart. His eyes locked onto mine, and I saw something flicker in those inhuman depths. Not anger. Not fear. Understanding.
"Breathe," he commanded, his voice cutting through my panic like a knife. "You're feeding the power with your fear. Breathe and let it settle."
"I don't know how," I choked out, but something about his presence, his absolute certainty, made me try. I dragged in a breath, then another, trying to focus on something other than the terror clawing at my throat.
"That's it," he said, his grip on my wrist never loosening. "Again. The power is yours, not the other way around. Command it."
I didn't know if I believed him, but I was out of options. I closed my eyes and reached for the shadows the way I'd reach for anything else that belonged to me. Not fighting them. Not drowning in them. Just pulling them back, firmly, the way you'd call a dog to heel.
Slowly, impossibly, the shadows began to recede. They slithered back toward me, pooling at my feet before sinking into the floorboards like they'd never existed. The apartment fell silent except for the sound of heavy breathing and Luna's quiet sobbing.
I opened my eyes to find the vampire still holding my wrist, studying me with an expression I couldn't read. Up close, he was even more devastating. Sharp features that looked carved from marble, dark hair that fell across his forehead, and those eyes. Silver-blue, like moonlight on water, and ancient in a way that made my stomach drop.
"What are you?" I whispered.
"Kael Thorne," he said, finally releasing my wrist. "Second-in-command of the Nightfall Court. And you, Seraphine Blackwood, is the Shadow Witch we've been searching for."
"That's not possible." I stumbled backward, my legs shaking so badly I nearly fell. "Shadow Witches are extinct. Everyone knows that."
"Apparently not." Azrael had managed to get to his feet, one hand pressed against the wound in his side that still oozed black blood. He looked at Kael with open hatred. "She's coming with me, vampire. Back off."
"She's coming to the Nightfall Court," Kael corrected, his voice calm but edged with steel. "Queen Thalia has ordered her brought in for her own protection."
"Protection?" Azrael laughed, the sound bitter. "Is that what you're calling kidnapping these days? She'll be your prisoner. A weapon you'll use against my kind."
"Better our prisoner than your father's plaything," Kael shot back. "Or did you forget that Malakai wants her dead? That he's been hunting Shadow Witch bloodlines for three centuries?"
"Stop." My voice came out stronger than I felt. Both of them turned to look at me, and I straightened despite every instinct screaming at me to curl up and hide. "Both of you, just stop. Someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on. Right now."
Before either could answer, Luna appeared at my side. Her face was streaked with tears, her hands shaking as she grabbed my arm. "Sera, please tell me this is some kind of joke. Please tell me those aren't real vampires and that man isn't bleeding black blood and that you didn't just destroy our apartment with shadow magic."
I looked at my best friend, at the terror and confusion in her eyes, and felt something inside me crack. "Luna, I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you. I just didn't know how."
"You're a witch?" Her voice broke on the word. "Like, an actual witch? And you never told me?"
"I didn't want you to look at me the way you're looking at me right now," I said quietly. "Like I'm a monster."
"You're not a monster." Luna squeezed my arm, and despite everything, despite the fear I could see written all over her face, she didn't let go. "You're my best friend. And we're going to figure this out. Together."
"How touching." Kael's voice cut through the moment like a blade. "But we don't have time for emotional reunions. More of my team are on their way, and they won't be as patient as I've been. You're coming with us, Miss Blackwood. Now."
"She's not going anywhere with you," Azrael growled, moving to position himself between me and Kael again despite his injury.
"Then you're condemning her to death." Kael's expression hardened. "The moment your father sensed her power awaken, he sent every demon in Chicago after her. They're coming. And without the Court's protection, she won't survive the night."
"Your protection is just a prettier cage," Azrael said.
"Maybe." Kael's eyes never left mine. "But it's a cage where she'll stay alive long enough to learn what she is and how to control it. Can you offer her the same, demon? Or will your father's hunters tear her apart before sunrise?"
The terrible thing was, I could see the truth in his words. I could feel it, actually, that crawling sensation on the back of my neck that said we weren't alone. That something was watching. Waiting. My newly awakened instincts were screaming at me that danger was coming, and it was coming fast.
"Luna," I said quietly, not taking my eyes off Kael. "I need you to leave. Get out of the building. Go somewhere safe."
"I'm not leaving you," Luna said stubbornly.
"You have to." I finally looked at her, at my best friend who'd stuck by me through everything. "Please, Luna. I can't protect you if you're here. And I can't do what I need to do if I'm worried about you getting hurt."
Tears streamed down her face, but she nodded. "Promise me you'll be okay. Promise me you'll come back."
"I promise," I lied, because what else could I do?
Luna grabbed her jacket and her phone, gave me one last desperate hug, and ran. I watched her go, watched the door slam behind her, and felt a piece of my heart go with her. Then I turned back to the two men who'd just destroyed my entire world.
"If I go with you," I said to Kael, "what happens to me?"
"You'll be safe," he said. "Trained. Protected."
"And imprisoned," Azrael added.
"Yes," Kael admitted, surprising me with his honesty. "Until we're certain you won't accidentally level half of Chicago with your power. Until we're certain the demons won't use you to destroy us all. You'll be confined to the Court. But you'll be alive."
I looked at Azrael, at this demon who'd crashed into my life bleeding and desperate. "And if I go with you?"
"Freedom," he said immediately. "I can teach you to control your power. Help you understand what you are. But the vampires are right about one thing. My father will hunt you. And I can't promise I can protect you from him alone."
Two impossible choices. A cage or a target. Safety or freedom. And I had approximately thirty seconds to decide which way I wanted my life to go.
The building shook. Not from my power this time. From something outside. Something big. Through the broken window, I could see shadows moving in the alley below. Not my shadows. Something else. Something that made the hair on my arms stand up and my new instincts scream run.
"They're here," Azrael said, his voice tight. "The hunters. We're out of time."
Kael's hand moved to the weapon at his side, some kind of blade that gleamed silver in the dim light. "Last chance, Miss Blackwood. Come with me willingly, or I take you by force."
The shadows outside the window began to take shape, forming into creatures I had no name for, all teeth and claws and eyes that glowed like embers.
And I realized I wasn't choosing between Kael and Azrael at all.
I was choosing whether to fight or surrender.