The palace alarms began ringing shortly before dawn.

Not the slow ceremonial bells used during Court assemblies.

These sounded different.

Violent.

Urgent enough to shake the walls.

Eva woke instantly.

The contract beneath her wrist burned hot.

Not cold this time.

Fear.

Real fear.

And it was not hers.

The sensation hit hard enough to throw her upright in bed before she fully understood what was happening. Outside her chamber windows, silver lightning flashed violently across the Underworld sky while distant screams echoed somewhere deep beneath the palace foundations.

Wonderful.

Another disaster.

At this point, she was beginning to suspect the Underworld fundamentally lacked proper management.

The chamber doors burst open.

A palace guard stumbled inside breathing hard.

“My lady, you need to come immediately.”

Eva swung her legs off the bed.

“What happened?”

“The lower catacombs breached during the storm. Something opened the old burial seals.”

That sentence contained absolutely too many horrifying nouns.

The contract pulsed again beneath her skin.

This time she felt Acheron clearly through it.

Anger.

Movement.

And underneath both—

Pain.

Eva’s stomach tightened immediately.

The guard handed her a dark traveling coat while servants rushed behind him carrying silver lanterns and weapons.

“The Lord ordered every upper corridor sealed,” the guard continued quickly. “But the southern tunnels collapsed before the palace wards finished closing.”

Eva frowned while fastening the coat.

“And where exactly does that become my problem?”

The guard hesitated.

Then:

“The collapse trapped him below.”

The contract beneath her wrist flared violently.

Eva froze.

No.

Acheron was many things.

Ancient.

Terrifying.

Emotionally catastrophic.

But trapped should not have been one of them.

The descent into the catacombs felt like walking directly into the throat of a nightmare.

The deeper they traveled beneath the palace, the colder the air became. Ancient stone tunnels twisted endlessly beneath flickering silver lanterns while the sound of distant movement echoed somewhere far below.

Not footsteps.

Something worse.

The guards accompanying her remained tense and unusually silent. Every few minutes someone glanced nervously into the darkness beyond the lantern light as though expecting monsters to crawl directly from the walls.

Considering recent experience, that felt entirely reasonable.

Eva wrapped her coat tighter around herself.

“How deep do these tunnels go?”

One of the guards answered quietly.

“Farther than the throne remembers.”

That was an incredibly upsetting sentence.

The contract continued pulling at her now, warm beneath her skin like a thread tightening through darkness.

Acheron was close.

Somewhere below.

Another roar echoed through the tunnels.

The sound shook dust from the ceiling overhead.

Several guards visibly flinched.

Eva looked sharply toward the darkness ahead.

“That is not a normal sound.”

“No,” the captain agreed grimly. “It escaped from the corpse tide.”

Eva stopped walking.

“The what?”

No one answered immediately.

Wonderful.

The guards exchanged uneasy glances before the captain finally spoke again.

“When ancient wars destroyed the mortal kingdoms beneath the veil, entire cities died at once. Their dead were sealed inside the lower catacombs.”

Eva stared at him.

“You buried millions of corpses underneath the palace?”

The captain looked deeply uncomfortable.

“The throne was built afterward.”

“That somehow makes it worse.”

Another violent tremor shook the tunnels.

Stone cracked loudly somewhere ahead.

Then the lantern flames dimmed all at once.

The guards immediately drew weapons.

Eva’s pulse stumbled hard.

Something moved in the darkness.

Not one thing.

Hundreds.

The sound came first.

Wet movement dragging slowly across stone.

Then pale hands emerged from the shadows ahead.

Too many hands.

Rotting fingers clawed slowly across the tunnel floor while twisted bodies dragged themselves from collapsed burial chambers lining the walls.

Dead faces turned toward the lantern light.

Blue mouths opened.

The guards swore violently.

“Oh,” Eva whispered faintly. “That is absolutely disgusting.”

The corpse tide surged.

Everything exploded into chaos.

The guards formed defensive lines immediately while silver blades flashed through the darkness. The dead poured forward in massive waves, crawling over each other with broken limbs and hollow eyes.

Eva backed hard against the tunnel wall while one guard shoved a silver dagger into her hands.

“Stay behind us!”

Excellent advice.

Unfortunately impossible.

The contract beneath her wrist suddenly burned so violently she gasped aloud.

Acheron.

Close now.

Very close.

Then the tunnel ceiling collapsed.

Stone exploded downward between the guards and Eva in a deafening roar.

The impact knocked her backward hard enough to slam against the wall.

Dust filled the air instantly.

Screaming echoed through darkness.

When the debris finally settled, Eva realized with horror that she stood alone on the opposite side of the collapse.

The guards shouted somewhere behind tons of fallen stone.

The dead moved ahead.

Wonderful.

Perfect.

Exactly how she hoped this evening would continue.

The corpse tide noticed her immediately.

Dozens of hollow faces turned slowly toward the lantern still clutched in her trembling hand.

Blue mouths opened wider.

Then they rushed her.

Eva ran.

The catacombs twisted endlessly beneath the palace foundations, ancient burial tunnels spiraling through darkness while the dead surged behind her in horrible waves. Her boots slipped repeatedly against wet stone while distant screams echoed from tunnels she could no longer see.

The lantern shattered somewhere during the running.

Now only pale corpse-light followed her through the dark.

Excellent.

Really excellent.

The contract burned hotter with every turn.

Acheron was near.

Somewhere ahead.

Then the tunnel opened abruptly into a massive underground chamber.

Eva stumbled to a stop.

Ancient ruins stretched beneath the catacombs like a buried city. Broken pillars rose from black floodwater while enormous statues disappeared into darkness overhead. Thousands of burial alcoves lined the walls.

And at the center of the ruins stood Acheron.

Shadows exploded violently around him while silver-blue fire consumed entire waves of the dead. Corpses disintegrated into ash every time he moved.

But something was wrong.

Very wrong.

The silver cracks beneath his skin had spread across half his throat now, glowing visibly beneath the darkness. His shadows moved erratically around him, less controlled than Eva had ever seen before.

And surrounding him—

Hundreds of corpses crawled endlessly from the flooded ruins.

Acheron saw her instantly.

The reaction on his face was immediate.

Fury.

Pure terrifying fury.

“What are you doing here?”

Eva pointed breathlessly toward the tunnels behind her.

“Currently? Making deeply regrettable decisions.”

The corpse tide burst into the chamber behind her.

Acheron’s expression darkened instantly.

“Eva, move.”

Too late.

The dead crashed toward her in a massive wave.

Everything happened at once afterward.

The shadows throughout the chamber erupted violently.

Acheron crossed the ruins faster than sight.

One second he stood at the center of the flooded city.

The next he slammed directly into the corpse tide surrounding Eva.

The impact shattered bodies across the chamber floor.

Black shadows tore through the dead while silver fire exploded across ancient stone.

Then Acheron grabbed her.

Not carefully.

Desperately.

One arm wrapped hard around her waist before she could even breathe properly.

Heat detonated through the contract.

Eva gasped sharply as Acheron pulled her fully against his chest and leapt backward across the flooded ruins while the corpse tide surged beneath them.

The sensation nearly destroyed her ability to think.

Not fear.

Not entirely.

The overwhelming awareness of him.

His heartbeat hammered violently through the contract now. One gloved hand pressed tightly against her waist while shadows spiraled around them like living storms.

The dead clawed upward from the floodwaters below.

Acheron tightened his grip instantly.

“Do not let go.”

Eva stared up at him breathlessly.

“That was not remotely my plan.”

Another wave of corpses crashed toward them across the ruins.

Acheron turned sharply, shadows exploding outward again.

But this time—

The silver cracks beneath his skin flared violently.

Pain crossed his face.

Real pain.

The shadows lost control.

The corpse tide slammed into them.