Comeon.
Show me something.Anything.
I’ve been circling overhead for hours. The ache in my wings has faded into background noise—the only feeling more potent is the roiling fear that I’m already too late.
It’s funny. All my life, I thought I knew what fear was. And then she was taken, and I realized, no—I hadn’t had a clue in the fucking world.
I swoop downward in the body of a falcon, coasting over the jagged seaside cliffs. The wards buzz beneath my wings, eager to shock me right out of the sky. To even graze that field would mean certain death.
I’ve been scouring the perimeter of Kylian’s keep for days, looking for chinks in the wards. But it’s useless. The magic here is airtight. Castle Illona is an impenetrable fortress. I’ve all but memorized the exterior of the sprawling palace—the dozens of pale marble tiers layered meticulously one on top of the other, the glare of the glass domes, the courtyards fragmented by ribbon-thin streams, the waterfalls pouring from the open archways to filter down the cliffs into the blue-green sea below.
I do another sweep, peering through the endless windows and seeing nothing.
Like I said. Useless.
In the time I’ve been patrolling, I have not seen a single soul inside or outside the keep. It’s some sort of illusion to protect against onlookers, spies, and anyone doing exactly what I’m doing right now. From here, the castle could pass for abandoned. No indication of life or the horrors I have no doubt lie hidden within those walls.
A blur of movement catches my eye on one of the turrets. Before I can even process what it is, I’m speeding toward it, my heart pumping with desperate hope.
Then I see it.
The small gray bird perched on the stone ledge.
Bastard.
The little tease ruffles its wings and jets into the sky, oblivious to the fact that it just butchered what little faith I had left. That one moment of distraction is all it takes for me to get a bit too close to the wards.
Fucking hell.
I jerk backward, plummeting a few feet as the electric shock rips through my wing, radiating up my entire left side. Not enough to knock me out of the sky, just a gentle reminder of what losing my focus will earn me in a place like this.
I change course, landing on the nearest palm to survey the damage. I suck in a sharp breath as I try to lift my wing. The feathered tip is slightly singed and stinging like hell, but I’m already healing.
“Nice going, idiot,”I can almost hear her saying.
If Serena could see me now, she’d be cackling—a smile stretched wide across her heart-shaped face. A pang shoots up my chest, making my throbbing wing feel like a paper cut.
Gods, I miss her. And it’s making me want to do stupid, impulsive things that are more likely to get me killed rather than get her back.
Patience never goes unrewarded, Zadyn. Be patient.
My father’s favorite thing to remind me as a child.
I’m trying, Father. But it’s driving me insane—being this close andnot being able to feel her through the bond. The blood ore has made it impossible for me to hear her, no matter how hard I strain against that wall dividing us.
This familiar bond between us has been there since before she was born—a tether linking us together, placed there by my mother as her dying act. I knew shortly after finding Serena in the human world that I would have my work cut out for me. As a child, she tried to kill herself at least five times a day, which was concerning. As she grew into a woman, the dangers shifted to external. Men not so discreetly leering at her on the streets of New York, cornering her in bars, thinking they were somehow worthy of her. Enter Annie Arnold—the kind of friend who could make a man’s balls shrivel with one scathing look. That was a great glamour. It worked like a charm until I realized I couldn’t keep it up.
Because over time, this bond changed into something I can’t describe. A crush on my part, turned infatuation, and now…I try not to think of it. Try not to feel it. But it’s impossible not to.
I had no idea the space she would take up in my heart. I had no idea that she would consume it completely.
I may not be able to hear her, but Iknowshe’s here, just on the other side of that alabaster stone. Likely terrified and alone. And I can’t do a single thing to assure her that I’m here and that I will rip this world apart to get her back.
Just as soon as I can figure out a damned way inside.
I fly along the shoreline toward the run-down city nearby as the sky turns powder blue, edging an overcast sunset. Through the thicket of tropical forest, I see three heads weaving through the maze of palms and exotic flowers. The sound of bickering floats up to me.
Voices I recognize.
