Anassa’s voice cuts through the chaos roiling inside me.“Taking Saela into Astreona might actually benefit us. If any kingdom would know how to help a newly turned Siphon control her hunger or possibly even reverse the transformation, it’s Astreona.”
I pause at that. The possibility of helping Saela weighs heavily on me. My mind pivots away from my father and toward my sister.
He watches me as I think, but I just let him stare. Let him linger in the pain. Let him wait and fruitlessly hope the way I once did, before the tiny box arrived.
It becomes clear to me quickly that I’m not going to find any meaningful answers in this state. I need to consider it all in depth.
I breathe deeply, calming my heart rate. My shadows are still writhing around my father, trapping him in place.
With each deep breath I take, they loosen their grip, until finally they dissolve and fall away.
“Well done,” Anassa says, noting my increased control over my powers.
I’m in no place to appreciate the achievement. “Get out of my sight before I end you for real this time,” I say. My voice is too level because of everything I’m forcing down.
His brows twist up. I can see that he believes me. Thathefeels like a struggling rabbit in a snare. I might have spared him today, but my mercy has limits.
He rises slowly from the chair, his expression heavy with regret. I can’t care. Can’t pity him. He left the weight of an entire family on a kid’s shoulders.
Did he think this was going to be some touching, grateful reunion when he came here?
After everything I’ve been through because of him?
I wish he’d actually died on that battlefield.
He takes one last lingering look at me. He’s memorizing my face. I let him look. Let him see how dead the love I once had for him is now. Then he turns and strides toward the manor house, where his monstrous lover, Ruby, and her bloodsucking attendants wait for him.
Only when he’s gone do I let my pain show on my face, when there’s no threat that he’ll confuse my agony for girlish longing. My composure cracks, and my magic breaks free again. The shadows around me surge and writhe.
They’re searching for him. For the source of my pain. They want to snuff him out.
Rage, grief, and alifetimeof loneliness threaten to overwhelm me.
I want to cry now. Scream.
But the tears won’t come. My voice won’t work. My nails dig into my palms, and none of the emotion willmove. It’s all just lodged in my throat, choking me to death.
It’ll explode and ruin me if I don’t find an outlet.
I stalk back to where Stark awaits my return, Anassa padding behind. Stark pushes off the rubble when he sees me coming, his expression serious. My entire body is taut with painful, barely contained emotion.
“I need to hurt something,” I tell him.
“I can help with that,” Stark says immediately, already turning to lead me away from the manor and prying eyes, Cratos close behind.
And I follow him, shadows and ghosts trailing in my wake.
27
STARK
Meryn takes off on Anassa like an arrow from a crossbow.
I leap to Cratos’s back, and we follow behind, speeding up as Anassa pushes herself faster and faster. Their bond is a loop, sending their tumult of anger back and forth endlessly.
I don’t know exactly what happened in that broken-down castle courtyard, but Meryn’s emotions are far too strong to stay contained. They’re leaking through the mate bond—a potent cocktail that makes my muscles tense up, eager to spring into action, eliminate the threat.
We speed past forests and farmland, up and down hills.
