“I heard him! He was calling my name!”
His breath ghosts along the shell of my ear as he exhales.
“I am telling you, Neve Devlin,” he murmurs, “whatever is out there… it isnotyour father and you will have nothing to do with it. Do you hear me?”
I claw at his arm, but it’s hopeless. He’s too strong, too solid, too immovable.
My fight drains away all at once. My shoulders sag, and a small, broken sob slips free.
“Yes,” I whisper. “I hear you. Just… please. Put me down.”
Slowly, so slowly it feels like a test, he lowers me to the snow. My bare feet sink into the cold, and for a breath his hand stays at my waist, fingers brushing my damp nightgown, skimming the curve of my hip before slipping away entirely.
He steps back.
I look over my shoulder, trying to swallow the sob rising in my throat. My eyes burn, my lips tremble blue, and I’m certain I look a sight. Frizzed braid, flushed cheeks, half-frozen and wild-eyed.
But the way Luceran looks at me is… not disgust.
His breath stutters in his chest. He straightens his shoulders as if it might hide it, fists curling at his sides while his gaze drags over me once… twice… before he wrenches them away.
“Inside.Now,” he commands.
I nod, head bowed, and turn toward the castle.
But the moment he turns too… I run.
I bolt across the snow, feet slapping the ice with a sharp skid. I don’t know how I’m upright, how the ice doesn’t crack, but I don’t care. I only see him.
“Father!” I cry. “I’m coming! Wait!”
He stands at the center of the lake now, still and patient, arms held out in welcome.
Neve… come to me, Neve…
Tears sting my eyes. I can almost feel his embrace.
Then something slams into me like a falling boulder.
I’m thrown sideways, sliding across the ice. The air is punched from my lungs as a massive weight bears down on me, pinning me flat.
A groan rattles out of me as I blink up, and at first I don’t believe what I see.
A massive, white wolf straddles me, its front legs caging me in. Its breath pours hot mist over my face, its enormous chest heaving. Silver-edged fur bristles in the wind. Its teeth gleam like blades in the moonlight.
But what makes my blood freeze is not its size, or strength, or impossible beauty.
It’s the eyes.
One blazing blue.One molten gold.
My breath fractures. “Luceran?”
Before the wolf or I can move again, a sound tears across the lake.
A guttural, inhuman snarl.
We both snap our heads toward the figure I thought was my father.
