The Interstice thickened with anticipation as the darkness pressed in, waiting.
Erethis watched Wolfe with those unblinking red eyes, studying him like a predator deciding whether to strike.
"Done." Wolfe's answer sounded like a death knell. A single word, delivered with absolute finality.
Erethis' smile widened into something triumphant. He stepped forward and placed one hand on Wolfe's chest.
Before I could blink, white light rippled outward from the contact. It poured from Wolfe like something being torn free. A flicker of futures that would never be. All possibilities collapsing.Fading.
A hundred years of life he'd never get to live. Traded. Forme.
And Wolfe didn't even flinch.
The light faded a heartbeat later, and Erethis withdrew his hand, looking satisfied, then he turned to me.
"Can't have damaged goods now, can we?" He snapped his fingers.
The vial in his grasp flared brightly, and suddenly, Ifeltmy soul being forced back into my body. The fractured pieces slammed together, sealing with brutal efficiency.
The wounds across my abdomen closed. The blood stopped flowing. My skin healed, boils and blisters becoming smooth and unmarred. My lungs stopped burning, and I could breathe without agony.
I was whole again. Though my body still felt weak.
Erethis held out the now-empty vial to Wolfe, a mockery of a gift.
"Here is the soul vial. The echo of ownership is still there," he said pleasantly. "You paid her price. Now she owesyou.”
Wolfe took the vial.
Erethis tilted his head, watching us both with obvious amusement, then he faded away. Within the blink of an eye, he was gone. So were the throne, the dais, and the grotesque collection ofdolls.
The Interstice began to collapse around us, the walls dissolving and darkness peeling back like layers of rotten fabric.
Wolfe was at my side in an instant.
He knelt, sliding one arm beneath my shoulders, the other under my knees, and lifted me into the safety of his arms.
"I've got you, Ziyka" he murmured against my ear.
“Wolfe…” I tried to say more, tried to tell him I was sorry, that he shouldn't have done it, that I wasn't worth a hundred years.
But weakness pulled at me. My vision blurred.
And then I was gone.
I woke to light.
Sunlight.
It filtered through curtains.
I was lying in a soft bed. For a long moment, I didn't move. I just lay there as my brain processed my surroundings.
The bedchamber at Vyrenth Hollow.
That’s where I was. And I was alive.
My body ached, though the pain was minimal.
