Eryx stepped closer to her, his voice softening. “You think I don’t know that? I lived there once. That’s where I’ve been all these years.”
Every head turned toward him.
“What?” I whispered.
He sighed, his shoulders lowering slightly, like the weight of years was pressing down on him. “When we thought you were dead, I didn’t beleive it. The shadows were already hunting us. I stayed behind to hold them back, to keep the door from opening completely. It worked for a while. But when she vanished, I couldn’t leave the realm. It took everything I had just to keep the darkness from consuming what was left of my soul.”
I stared at him, struggling to picture it—my father trapped in that world, surrounded by the very monsters he once fought. “So how did you get out?”
“The bond.” He said simply
