Madrood stood on the other side of the clearing, his gaze locked on me. He dipped his head forward before he took flight, soaring above the building and toward the aerie.
The game was at play, but thankfully, I wasn’t her only protector.
I stalked toward the estate, but before I could reach the front steps, I was sucked back through the putrid gouge slicing a path between this world and the ether. The instant I was wrenched through, it sealed closed.
I landed hard on the ground on my knees, and remainedthere, holding my face with my palms while my heart rate slowed to almost nothing. I wanted to tip back my head and bellow. Call out her name. I’d promise anything as long as I could see her one last time.
Silence swept across this world, carrying bits of sand that scraped my skin raw.
Rising to my feet, I started walking.
Pacing along the wall.
Seeking a way through it to reach the woman I loved.
9
TEMPEST
In my dreams, I flitted to the king’s sitting area. I stood near the closed door with sweat prickling across the nape of my neck, making the tiny hairs stand rigid. Fear slithered down my spine. My heart was a newling chall caught in a steel trap, mewing from pain while the predator who’d laid in wait approached with a blade lifted. My nerves screamed, tensing my muscles for flight.
As I scanned the empty room, I swallowed back the oppressive feel of impending doom and shoved aside the dread coiling through my veins.
Blood roared in my ears, a thready flutter of panic I refused to give in to.
“You’re not at Bledmire,” I whispered, the words echoing back at me.
“Aren’t you?”
I spun to the left where the sound had come from, mystomach dropping in an endless free fall inside an abyss. Ivenrail’s empty throne sat on the podium, and the doors behind it remained closed.
There was no one here.
Or was there?
I flitted to the right side of the room where I snatched a blade from the wall and brandished it.
No one sat on the furniture, watching me with a slick smile, and no one crouched between here and the doors. Only the faint rippling crackle of flames on the grate and the feverish thud of my heart cut through the silence.
I knew better than to ask who’d just spoken.
Perhaps I still lay in my bed—and perhaps I didn’t. My bare legs, feet and arms, and the wisp of my thin nightie clinging to my goose-peppered frame suggested I was no longer at Weldsbane Manor.
Who had brought me here and why?
Subtle movement in a painting across the room caught my eye. The king had trapped someone new.
Sucking in a breath that felt like knives stabbing down my throat, I hurried toward him. As I passed the Wraithweave board, my eyes were snagged by a new piece standing near the high lady, one unlike any I’d seen before.
Footsteps echoed in the hall, making me jump, and I left the board and rushed over to stand beneath the large frame.
A centaur looked back at me, his human torso merging seamlessly into the powerful body of a bay stallion. He stood on a vast plain with clusters of leafless, stubby trees behind him. His broad shoulders glistened in the scorching sunlight, eachmuscle clearly defined and exuding strength. His chiseled jaw gave him an air of ancient nobility, and his deep brown eyes pierced mine when they met. Thick waves of black hair fell past his shoulders, catching the light in wild tangles that matched his untamed appearance.
Despite his gaze remaining locked on mine, he spun and danced, contorting his stallion frame while spiraling his arms in the air. I watched in horror, knowing he’d remain trapped here forever unless I could free him.
He came to a stop, his brow and chest gleaming with sweat. “Leave before it’s too late, child,” he said softly, peering toward the door to Ivenrail’s room. “You’re a fool to enter this room.”
“You called me here.”
