I don’t realize what’s happened at first, just that my magic is dampened, less.
I look down at Noemi, and she’s holding something in her hands, something shining with a familiar glow.
Golden chains, two of them. Each with an opal gem pendant.
The Tear necklaces.
“Noemi, what—” I start in confusion.
And then my world goes fuzzy.
Distantly, I feel Anassa collapse, the dizziness hitting her, too.
I try to draw a deep breath, but my body and my mind seem oddly disconnected.
I think I black out for a moment.
Opening my eyes, the world swirls around me before coming into focus.
I gaze around blankly. Where am I?
Tents—I’m in a camp of some sort. Noemi is with me, and Killian.
Killian, my betrothed.
I look at him blearily as he walks toward me.
“Good job, Noemi,” he says to the girl next to me, leaning down to pat her head like she’s a favorite dog. She looks at him in fear and then slowly raises her arm toward him, lifting the two necklaces she holds.
Her fingers are white, clenched tight around their chains. Killian strokes her hand and looks into her eyes. Slowly, slowly, she opens her fist so that Killian can take the two glowing jewels from her.
“Killian. Where are we? What’s happening?” My voice sounds strange to me.
“My beloved. You’re okay now. I’m here.” Killian turns to me and smiles gently. “Just hand me that crown you’re holding, will you?”
Crown? I look down, and there’s a strange crown in my grip. The Astreonan crown, I remember suddenly. But why does Killian want it?
“Meryn, don’t!”
Anassa’s voice rings in my head, and I spin around to my direwolf, confused. “Anassa?”
She’s prone on the ground, her eyes closed tight, ears back. She shakes her head, once, twice, as if trying to dislodge an attacker.
“Fight this, Meryn! You can fight this!”Her mental voice is twisted, agonized.
From behind me, Killian steps toward my wolf. He lifts his arm. His fingers are wrapped around the hilt of a sword made of glistening shadow that pulses when I look at it.
“Your wolf has been compromised, Meryn.” He gives me a look of pure sorrow and then, without warning, plunges the blade into Anassa’s side.
Pain.
It explodes in me, like a starburst of radiating fire.
My wolf howls in distress, and I fall across her side, pressing my hand to the blood that escapes her body.
My heart is bursting.
“Killian, what are you doing?” My voice is full of agony, the same agony that burns through my direwolf’s body. Why is he harming Anassa? What does he mean, she’s been compromised?
