His very soul might have just died before her.
And now it was up to her to finish the job.
She didn’t have time to think about how utterly wrong she’d been about him.
He’d lied.
Oh gods, he’d lied to her, and she’d taken it all for truth. And she’d carried him here, brought him right to the Acolyte’s feet. She’dkissedhim. She’d betrayed Arawn for him.
She was horrified, furious, her body so frozen in shock that she thought she might not be able to take a step. But then she was next, and she stumbled forwards, her hood low over her eyes.
The wolves snarled. She could feel their hot breath on her face as she knelt, trembling.
‘You wish to join us, child,’ said the Acolyte. ‘You made the journey to the Door, called to the dark as others have been called before. You made it past the defenses and proved yourself deserving.’
That voice.
Sheknewthat voice, and perhaps it was why the wind suddenly whipped around her, as if it recognized it too.
The Sentinel handed her the blade.
With trembling hands, she took it. And held out her palm as if she were about to slide it across her skin.
Do it,she told herself.Do it afraid.
She thought of thousands of names on bloodstained scrolls. Thecountless deaths and disappearances. The way her mother had looked, flayed open on the snow while she died.
She thought of Arawn, still waiting for her on the cliffside.
She thought of Izill.
She thought of Six.
You’re going to die someday,Ezer told herself.You might as well die for this.
And at the last second, she lunged forward, thrusting that blade up into the Acolyte’s chest.
Right into his cold, black heart.
41
She’d done it.
She’d killed the Acolyte.
Ezer gasped and stumbled away. The blade was still stuck in his chest, handle deep.
It was the first time she’d taken a life. The first time she felt the crunch of skin and bone, the squelch of a heart beneath a blade.
Her entire body trembled, overcome with emotion as she stared at him.
She waited for him to fall. To slump over, a sign that she’d completed the kill.
But the Acolyte …laughed.
He chuckled as he looked down at the pommel of the fine black blade, and said, ‘You didn’t think it would bethateasy, did you?’
He reached up with hands covered in dark jewels. And slowly, delicately, he slid the blade from his chest.
