Sebastian

hands over his face. He was past tired, but he wasn't going to fall sleep anytime soon.
    Come to me , he thought, feeling his heart ache with wanting. Come to me. Because I don't know how to find you .

    We have saved the world with stones and mortar. And we have made our own prison.
    We cannot leave this place undefended. The Dark Guides, the ones who used the malevolent side of the human heart to create the Eater of the World, have disappeared in the shattered landscapes of Ephemera. We cannot take the chance of them finding this place and releasing this evil. We cannot take the chance of anyone breaking that wall.
    There are too few of us left. We came from lands all across Ephemera to fight the Eater of the World, but now that the world has become a confusion of shuffled, broken pieces, we can no longer find the places we called home. We have no hope of going back to our lives and the loved ones we left behind.
    So we will stay and guard this place. We will protect the people by restraining Ephemera as much as we can. And we will nurture the hope of someday restoring our world by protecting Ephemera from the human heart.

    — The Lost Archives
     

 

     
     

Chapter Five

 

     
     

     
    It swam beneath the sand, but only those with magic running in their veins would notice the rippling dark shadow that soured the land as It passed—and left behind a seductive lure to give in to the dark feelings the heart usually kept well hidden. All creatures responded to the Dark and the Light, but humans, with their agile minds, had always been the best prey—because It had been made to be their predator.
    Which was what brought It back to the part of the bonelovers' landscape It had anchored to the place called the Den. Full of darkness, yes, but at the core there was Light that made It greedy to devour—and made It shiver. The Den was filled with the same powerful resonance that had given Ephemera the strength to resist reshaping more than a small anchor point in that other dark, demon landscape.
    That would change. The incubi and succubi had become feeble creatures, contaminated by the human prey. But the purebloods that had been caged in Its landscapes were still powerful, still belonged to the Dark. They would be real hunters—and once they reached the Den, their presence would change the Den's resonance, would dim the Light.
    As It rose to the surface, Its massive form shrank, shifted. A moment later a handsome, elegantly dressed man stood on the rust-colored sand.
    A moment after that, Its scream of rage made even the bonelovers scurry away from feelings so dark and primal.
    Where an alley should have been, there was nothing but stone. Huge tumbled boulders blocked Its path.
    Even if It made the effort to scramble over them, It knew It would find nothing but stones.
    As It beat Its fists on the stones, It felt that same powerful resonance at the core of this strange landscape.
    Panting, It braced scraped, bloodied hands against the stones as It tried to crush the fear taking root inside It.
    The creatures called Landscapers were so diminished they were no longer a threat, were no more than feeble barriers standing in the way of Its desire to turn all of Ephemera into dark landscapes full of terrors shaped from the heart's deepest fears.
    But the one who had touched this place…
    A True Enemy was still out there. Somewhere.
    Changing back to Its natural form, It swam beneath the sand until It reached the pile of bones that were Its anchor to the lair of the Landscapers and Bridges.
    Its form shrank, shifted, grew eight legs. Its front legs lifted the bones It had turned into a trapdoor that led down to the tunnel that would take It back to the school.
    *
    Fifteen years had passed since she'd walked down this path at the school, but she remembered the feel of it—the sly rage, the envy and jealousy, the bitter despair that seemed to seep up from the ground beneath the flagstones. Feelings none of the other students, or even the Instructors, had been aware of.
    It felt different now, muted, as if those feelings, once so concentrated under this path that led to the oldest garden at the school, were spread out in a thin skin. But just as potent.
    And she remembered her mother's warning as she took another step toward the forbidden.
     
    Being at the school… It's an exciting time in your life, Glorianna. You'll he with so many young women who have a power like yours, the same life's work. And there will he the