“No more questions,” she suddenly snapped. “Make your choice. I have things to do, and I’ll have no more of this stalling.”
I tried to think, my mind desperately grasping for any thread it could pull—anything to stop this. But there was nothing. The glint in Andromeda’s eyes was harsh and angry, her patience fully spent. If I didn’t do what she demanded, or I tried to keep her talking, she would send the plague into Dubnos. This wasn’t a bluff. She didn’t care about the fae.
But if I gave her an excuse to attack them, she would surely take it. Her beasts and the storm fae already had once.
What was more, she’d given me a way out—a way to reunite with my mate. The need for him burned through me like the fires of Albyria.
“How many trials?” I asked. Instantly, I hated myself for it.
She smiled. “Three. Or four. However many it takes.”
I ground my teeth and turned away. This was the first, so only two or three more. But what would she make me do next? Surely it would be much worse than this.
Please, I thought, not daring to speak the words aloud.Don’t make me do this.But outwardly, I was a mask of calm. The only thing that might give away my despair was the flutter of my heartbeat in my neck.
Swallowing, I lifted my hand. The man sobbed, his entire body shaking like a leaf. Pain and anger raged through me and filled my head with the roar of my heart. Everything about this was wrong. I knew I would hate myself if I gave in to Andromeda’s demands, but I didn’t see a way out of this. The God of Death did not bluff. If I didn’t kill this spy, she’d destroy Dubnos. Thousands of innocents would die.
That didn’t make this all right, though. This man did not deserve this fate.
A tear threatened to spill down my cheek, but I blinked it back.
I thought of Kalen, of Nellie, of Fenella, and of Toryn. None of them would survive unless I killed this man.
I bowed my head. “I am so sorry.”
And then I brushed my bare fingers against his face.
* * *
Darkness surrounded me.
I blinked, and the darkness cleared. A pile of dust sat by my feet, and Andromeda stood beaming, hands clasped, smile bright. She looked like a proud mother. Bile rose in the back of my throat.
Turning away from the dead man’s ashes, I tried to understand what had happened. One moment, I’d been touching his skin, the next, I was standing here…it was as if I’d lost several moments.
My mind had done this once before. It had hidden the dark moments from my childhood deep inside me to protect me from the harsh truths of my world. But I couldn’t forget this, and I couldn’t avoid what I’d done. I had killed his man.
I’d done it to save others, but that did not make it right. And I refused to lose myself and forget.
“Well done, my daughter,” Andromeda trilled.
I tensed. “I am not your daughter.”
“You will be once your trials are done.”
Two
Kalen
Asharpcrackjolted me awake. Groaning, I rolled to the side, and a jagged rock dug into my face. I blinked at the harsh moonlight filtering through the roiling mist that rushed through the angry storm fae skies. My mind was made of mud, unable to latch on to anything more than the pain lancing through me.
Where in moon’s name was I? What had happened?
“Tessa?” I croaked, though my heart clenched at the sound of her name on my tongue. That crack I’d just heard. It had come from her, I was certain of it. If she was hurt, I’d rip apart the whole moons-damned world to save her.
The scent of lavender brushed my nose. In an instant, it all came rushing back—every cruel second that had landed me here, sprawled across the remnants of a broken city. It had all happened so fast and yet it felt as if years had gone by. Because they had taken Tessa from me.
“My son.” Bellicent’s voice wobbled beneath the crunch of boots on crumbled stone. She came to stop a few feet away, but she did not dare come any closer. “How are you feeling?”
