But another part of me, the one tired of being left in the dark, urged me to listen.
“Do you think she feels the connection yet?” Seraphina asked, her tone filled with concern.
“She doesn’t trust us,” Fionn replied sharply. “To be blunt, I don’t think she ever will.”
My pulse quickened. Of course, they were talking about me. What else could they possibly have to discuss with such intensity? I gripped the windowsill, the cold stone grounding me against the rush of paranoia rising within me.
The voices below fell quiet for a moment.
“That attitude won’t work if you expect anything to change, Fionn,” Seraphina said. “She’s human, but that doesn’t make her weak. Humans have their own kind of strength. Their emotions, their fragility, that’s where their power lies.” voices faded below
kind of strength. Their emotions, their fragility, it’s where they draw power. Surely, you’ve learned this by now.”
“Learned?” Fionn scoffed. “If anything, I’ve learned that humans are inferior to us in every way.”
I was irritated by his arrogance and the fact that they were discussing me. I stood perfectly still, afraid the floorboards might creak and reveal I was listening.
But my need to hear the truth outweighed the risk of being caught. I listened more intently to what seemed to be a serious conversation.
“At least she’s beginning to trust Cillian,” Seraphina said. “Which is more than I can say for you or Torin. If we want her to make a choice, she must trust all of you.”
The choice.
The word sent a cold chill down my spine. Its weight heavier than anything else they’d said.
“You’re always the optimist,” Fionn said bitterly. “But you’ve seen what the curse does to us and to the marked. It twists everything. It warps our minds. Do you honestlybelieve she’ll choose anyone when she sees what we become when Vareth takes over?”
A chill ran down my spine at his words.
What do they become?
Monsters…came a whisper.
“Maybe our efforts are merely a fool’s errand, and the curse can never be broken, no matter what we do,” Fionn continued. “We’ve trodden this path many times before, Seraphina. Don’t you see? It always ends the same.”
“The Varethym have never spared the Marked,” he added, his voice like a commander delivering a decree.
“Every prophecy ends beneath the Blood Moon, and every star returns to its pattern in the Elora sky.”
What did he mean? It always ends the same. My mind raced, piecing together fragments of what I’d seen and heard since I was brought here.
The voices in my head whispered warnings, their urgency growing louder.
Escape.
Before it's too late.
Do not choose.
“Fionn, you’re letting the curse control you again,” Seraphina snapped.
“Tilly’s different. Her mark is different. We’ve never seen one like it. Vareth has chosen her for a reason. That’s why she’s the key to everything.”
Fionn’s voice took on a dangerous edge. “Her mark makes her a bigger target. And don’t pretend that the séance didn’t make it worse. You know it did.”
My blood ran cold. The séance. What had they done to bring me here?
“Stop it, that’s the curse talking,” Seraphina said firmly. “You need to stop overthinking the situation. This was the correctchoice. I know it, you know it. Otherwise, we would never have found her.”
