My smile falters. “Last I checked, I am a prisoner.” I tap the bars between us with a fingernail, the slightclinkunderscoring my point.
“Easily remedied,” a female voice answers.
A face I didn’t think I’d see again materializes from the shadows. Selene looks the same as she did when I last saw heralive. Her long purple hair catches what little light filters into the dungeon, creating a halo effect. I clutch my chest.
“Selene?”
Selene puts a hand on her hip, striking a pose that’s so painfully familiar it hurts. “In the flesh.” Hesitation flickers across her face, followed by a rueful smile. “Well, sort of. I don’t really know what we are, but we aren’t alive.”
I laugh through my tears. Selene is here. Taken too soon because of my cowardice three years ago. I’ve changed; I’ve learned from my mistakes. “I can’t believe it’s you. Pallas will never?—”
“We need to hurry,” Wilder tells me. To Selene, he asks, “Did you grab them?”
Selene lifts an old-fashioned key ring into the air.
Wilder takes the keys from her and sticks the largest one into the lock. It turns with a whine of ancient metal. The iron doorway opens. Wilder rushes inside the cell. I throw my arms around him with enough force to nearly knock him backward.
I breathe him in, not caring that he’s sopping wet. I cling to him as if he were my salvation.He is.
“I’m sorry,” we say simultaneously, then laugh.
Wilder pulls back just enough to meet my gaze, his hands still holding me close. I smile up at him as if he were the sun. He’s the most vibrant thing in this entire realm. So beautiful. So perfect. So mine.
“We need to hurry,” I say. “Ravi needs to close the rift.”
“Kosac opened the rift, not you,” Wilder replies, causing me to trip.
Kosac opened the rift? That means I’ve been blaming myself for something that wasn’t my fault in the first place. But if he opened the rift, does that mean he can keep doing it to reach me?
“It took an enormous amount of power,” Selene comments, as if she’s reading my thoughts. “If he tries again, it will only weaken him further.”
I nod. If he tries again, we’ll know how to stop him. At least that’s what I tell myself as I pull Wilder out of my cell.
“You think you can run in those?” His eyes drop to the satin slippers on my feet.
“I have a wedding to get to.”
We move swiftly through the castle, choosing speed over stealth.
Soon, we’re exiting through a servants’ entrance. The damp air hits my skin, chilly but welcome after the stale prison. We traipse across the wet grass toward the forest.
No one stops us. No alarms sound. It’s nearly too good to be?—
A loud horn blares, the powerful sound sending goose bumps over my skin. The earth vibrates a moment later. I look at Wilder, my heart lodging in my throat. He looks at Selene.
“Hoofbeats,” Wilder says.
“Dullahan,” Selene confirms. “All of them.”
“Run.”
I drag Wilder toward the forest. We’re running for our lives now. The trees loom ahead, offering potential cover. Behind us, the hoofbeats grow louder—a murderous rhythm that matches the pounding in my chest. If the Dullahan catch us, we’re all doomed. My soul already belongs to Kosac. What will he do to Wilder and Selene for helping me?
The air burns in my lungs as we sprint, but I don’t slow down. Ican’tslow down. Freedom is ahead, and death rides at our backs.
It’s wedding day.
I pull back the curtains, and darkness swallows the room I share with Meg in its navy-blue hue. I’m too anxious to sleep, needing everything to go perfectly today, which is why I’m up just before dawn to take a shower and go over my to-do list again. Meg mutters something incoherent in her sleep, still curled in the sheets, looking cute in her matching pajama set—lavender with whimsical unicorns and ruffles.
