The scream is so loud I clap my hands over my ears and close my eyes. It’s the sound of a thousand stars dying, and something being reborn wrong.
I open my eyes and see the stars above me flicker like they’re trying to stay alive, but their life is being snuffed out.
No!
The bond!
What did I do?
Then I feel him—Eryx.
A power surge rips through me—violent, raw.
And then a second later, all the darkness in the landscape pulls into a tight vortex—for a brief moment only bright white is left.
The white holds for a beat as if it just caught its breath, and then the vortex explodes outward.
The black flies back into place?—
And there’s Eryx.
I nearly collapse with relief.
He looks like an angel of death—his shadow wings lift up from his back…but they’re wrong. The golden lines of power that now run through them are jagged, erratic.
He sees me on the ground, and his eyes lock on Helena.
Without a word, he lifts his hand. The air charges.
We’ve done this so many times together that my magic instantly feels his call and responds.
Triesto respond.
He pulls the shadows in. My magic leaps to help him, but it rips inside me.
I scream.
A real scream this time.
His head snaps toward me as he releases the shadows.
Pain snaps me in half. The black and gold thread between us fractures—not cleanly, but jagged, sparking.
I feel him through it.
Wild.
Furious.
Uncontrolled.
“Chelsea—”
His voice echoes wrong. He steps toward me.
The bond pulls tight. Too tight. He reaches for me?—
And the magic surges again. It slams through the broken tether. White explodes behind my eyes.
