MERYN
Sleep—or is it?
I open my eyes to unnatural darkness.
It’s vast. It’s alive. It’s immediately in my lungs and seeping into my pores. But I know this feeling. I can face it. I can master it.
Killian doesn’t know what I know about this place: that my ancestor-god Nocturn sometimes speaks to me here. I have to assumehe’sthe one responsible for its existence.
It has nothing to do with Killian—he’s only a pest, an infestation.
Soon to be eliminated.
I turn, scanning. My eyes sting as I strain myself trying to see into the swirling vat of shadow. I don’t see Killian or sense his presence.
Does he know that I’ve come? Does he have to be asleep at the same time for this to work? How long will I have to wait? The longer he doesn’t appear, the stronger the creeping paranoia tingling along my spine grows.
I can’t see anything, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t here, watching me.
I shut my eyes, the difference between closed and open negligible, andvisualize armor around me. Armor he could never get through, smelt and forged from the same shadows surrounding me.
Myshadows.
When I open my eyes, a glint of eerie blue makes me wince.Killian.
I let my head drop toward my chest. I’ve done this before. A hundred times and a hundred times after that.
Women in pain.
I pull my pain to the surface. I call on the emotion I’ve been resisting formonthsbecause it would have been too debilitating to live with.
And it’s healing, almost, to let it out like this. To wield it. To own it, be it.
To be weak in a way that is powerful.
I let my eyes grow glassy with tears, and then I look up at him and gasp. “Oh, thank the goddess. Killian!”
He steps toward me out of the shadows, wariness playing across his features. “Kitten.”
Swallowing down my disgust, I move toward him, arms outstretched. “I’ve been trying to get back to you ever since we last talked. I’m so sorry it took me this long.”
Killian holds up a hand, halting me before I reach him. He raises an eyebrow. “My forces told me you were in Nocturna. That you went to Linsfall and took the Tear we located there. I thought I made myself very clear.Youwere meant to stay put in Astreona until I summoned you.”
Tears slide down my cheeks. “I didn’t want to take it.” You hideous fuckturd. “After what happened at the border, Lucien insisted that we come here to hunt you and Alistair down. I figured out where the Tear was, and I took it so I could bring it to you! We shouldn’t trust anyone else with these.”
His brows lift in surprise. “Oh. But you attacked my troops.”
I shake my head. “Only because Lucien was still with me. I couldn’t let him know what I was planning.”
Killian purses his lips, moving closer to me, putting his hands on my arms in a way that I’m sure is meant to be comforting. “And Lucien? Where did he go?”
Twisting my face into a parody of menace, I say, “I killed him, just like you told me to. I cut off his head while he was sleeping. His crown is yours.”
Finally, a disgusting smile creeps across Killian’s face. “Good girl. So you have both the crowns, the Tear from Linsfall, and your necklace. The Mother Priestess told me about that last one.”
Fucking bitch. Of course she did. I’m not going to tell him about the Tear from the tower, but if he already knows about my necklace… “And Lucien’s. He had a necklace, too. It was easy to remove it once he no longer had a neck.”
“And what do the necklaces and the Tear from Linsfall do?” There’s a greedy glint in his gaze now. “Will they help us defeat Alistair?”
