Shadows rush around me, enfolding me. They lift me up until I’m weightless, floating in a sea of dark.
“Well done, my child,” comes that strange, booming voice.
I twist my head frantically—who is it? Is he here, whoever he is?
But all I can see is the pitch-black shadow magic twisting around me in all directions.
And then the shadows loosen their grip, and I’m falling down, down, down…
47
STARK
I’m not fast enough to stop her. Barely fast enough to catch her.
The dagger is buried deep in Meryn’s chest. Her face instantly leeches of color. As she stumbles backward, my arms wrap around her form. I’m screaming, my voice hoarse, incoherent.
All I want is to protect her—from herself, from others, from things we barely understand—and yet—
The room tilts.
There’s a sensation as if we’re all falling upward. I can’t take my eyes off Meryn’s crumpled form in my arms, my entire world reduced to the place where the dagger meets her flesh, but Noemi and Venna gasp, and they both go sprawling in my peripheral vision.
The room rights itself, and Meryn and I slam hard into the floor. The dagger in her chest heats and lights and then… disappears.
Blood spurts viciously from the wound, creating a red ocean that will drown me. My hands instantly cover it, as if I can somehow stanch the wound, but I know.
Iknow. Death and I are well acquainted.
She’s gone. Her body is cold. Her hazel eyes are wide and unseeing.
Agony rips through my bond with Cratos as he lets out a mournful howl, dropping to the prostrate form of his mate. My vision slips, blurs. A dull whine starts in my head, rising in my ears until it’s all I can hear.
Faintly, I’m aware of Noemi’s mouth moving as she says something—her hands on my arm, consoling.
I shake her off roughly. I don’t need her fucking consolation.
Heat burns behind my eyes, and I lie down next to Meryn, the violent red coating us both. My hands and arms are slick with it. It blooms across her front, pools beneath her, spreads out in a dark creep.
The room is shaking. No.I’mshaking.
Meryn.
What did you do?
48
MERYN
Darkness. I’m not moving, no longer falling.
But I’m separated from myself, as if Meryn Sturmfrost is a stranger. One I don’t envy.
And then I hear him. He’s whispering words I can’t make out, his breath uneven on my cheek. His arms are around me, shaking. His entire body, shaking.
Stark.Stark.
I’m alive. I’m alive, and so is he.
