Shivers washed down my skin as the creature stared directly at me. It didn’t have a face, so I couldn’t see any eyes, but I knew I was its focus. I actually felt it studying me, peering down into my body and analyzing my soul. I stood, frozen, teeth clamped shut with an aching jaw, entirely vulnerable.

Snap out of it!

I reached for power, yanking it from the Line. Wind from the spirit world blew my hair back as I shoved my hands forward. My magic slammed into the creature, hard and rough. I kept pushing, shoving it toward the spirit world whence I knew it came.

The creature jolted backward. Its shock vibrated through me. Its delighted surprise. It seemed…proud, somehow.

That jolt was all I got. The creature bent over and buried its fists in my grass, resisting my magical thrust.

More shivers arrested me. I didn’t know how I could decipher its feelings, and I certainly didn’t understand why it would delight in my attack. But I did know this thing was powerful as all hell to withstand me.

A rumble shook the foundation of the house. The sea crashed against the cliffs beneath us.

Kieran was awake, and the Demigod knew his territory had been breached.

I entwined my magic with air, a gift from the soul link with Kieran, and whipped the creature. I dug into its chest, grasping for a soul and not finding one. I used spirit and air to tear at the shadowy form. To rip at it. To punch a hole through it.

It shook its head, fighting my efforts. It had more power than I did, even in this strange, non-human form. Or maybe because of the non-human form?

Kieran stalked into the kitchen like a commander joining the front line, muscles rippling along his bare torso. His fuzzy slippers did not take away from his ferocity. How could they, with his infallible confidence and the malice burning brightly in his hard eyes? Power built around him, the ocean now roaring not far from the house. Storm clouds gathered overhead, laden with heavy rain, and swirling fog engulfed the street. His power rolled across the grass where the creature knelt. The windows shook in their frames and the ground continued to tremor.

I sensed a pulse of uncertainty from the creature. It appeared to be having second thoughts now that Kieran was on scene. His power trumped mine, without question. It looked up, the plane of its face level with mine, its eyeless gaze digging down into my soul again.

And then it stood, faster than thought, and zipped beyond the fabric of the veil. Just like that, it was gone, disappearing into a place I didn’t know how to follow. Not that I would have tried. For a moment, all I could do was stare.

The Line still throbbed around me. Kieran came to a stop by my side, followed by Jack, whose turn it was to stay in the spare room for the night.

A huge wolf loped into the kitchen to join us.

“Always late to the party,” Daisy muttered. Mordecai replied with a snort. If Daisy had been afraid of the threat she couldn’t see, her voice didn’t show it.

I was terrified.

“What was it?” Jack asked, gripping a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. He was a Kraken—he had to fight with non-magical weapons outside of the water.

Kieran shook his head and looked down at me. Something in his eyes set me on edge.

“I don’t know,” I said softly. I tried to explain the creature I had seen. “It tore down my repellent magic like it was nothing. It withstood my attempt to shove it back into the spirit world. I used everything I had, and it…”

“Had the power of a Demigod,” Kieran finished for me. “Given I can see ghosts, thanks to our soul link, but couldn’t see this and you could, it could only mean one thing.”

“One of those Hades bastards is paying house calls.” Daisy put her fisted hands on her hips, now gripping a knife tightly in each. She’d clearly intended to help fight. We needed to have a talk about that.

When my limbs stopped shaking.

“They can…travel through the spirit world,” I said, clearly late to the party in piecing it all together. “Someone was checking up on me.”

“That someone got a surprise, I’ll wager,” Zorn said. “He didn’t stay long.”

“I couldn’t see it, but I could feel the pulse of a Demigod’s magic. Must be the Hades Demigods’ power of invisibility.” Kieran wrapped an arm around me and directed me to a seat at the island. “Looks like they aren’t invisible to us all.”

I heard the pride in his voice, but it was misapplied. “It doesn’t matter that I can see them. I can’t do a damn thing to stop them. You saw what happened. It didn’t go anywhere until you showed up. Could it be…” I took a deep breath. “Could it be my father?”

Kieran had taken my DNA and compared it with other Hades Demigods, the only people that could sire a Spirit Walker as powerful as me. He’d found out that Magnus, a powerfully cunning Demigod who killed his kids, was my biological father. It had not been a welcome revelation, and after the battle with Valens, my identity was no longer hidden. Sooner or later, I would have daddy issues.

Kieran kneaded my shoulders, his touch welcome, and glanced at Jack, who moved to the coffee pot. “I can’t say for sure. It’s a possibility. But I have power to rival theirs,” Kieran said. “If you can see them, we can work together to combat them. Together we are impervious to their greatest asset.”

The note of pride was back, and I wished he would just cut it out. Because yeah, if we were in the same place when that thing came back, or another one came to check me out, we’d be okay, sure. But he couldn’t always be by my side, and any experienced Demigod would be smart enough to know it. Next time, they’d get me when I was by myself and vulnerable. Next time they might not leave so quickly, or be thwarted so easily.