Because the room darkens. My mouth parts in disbelief—stone weeps above me where ominous storm clouds gather.
Tides drown me.
My husband has summoned a stormunderground.
A shaky, trembling step back.
My eyes are glued to the rumbling clouds. A sharp crack of thunder, and I flinch. My back hits the wall just as a flash of lightning rips through the room.
A vise grips my lungs. I can’t breathe.
The clouds grow thicker, darker, closer.
Thunder booms louder, but the deafening shrill in my ears drowns it out. My knees buckle. The cavern walls shrink in around me—darker, then darker still. The shadows will swallow me whole.
Lightning flashes again, its electric heat brushing my face.
I try to scream, but there’s not enough air—a muffled whimper is all that slips free. My ragged gasps echo in my ears. Tides, there’s not enough air. My husband’s wrath has sucked it all from the cavern. Thunder keeps rumbling, closer and closer, and dark spots dot my vision.
Water shouldn’t drip from stone.
Thunder shouldn’t rattle a ceiling.
I shouldn’t feel lightning on my skin.
Through the darkness, I catch sight of black boots approaching me, each measured footstep echoing with lethal promise.
The storm in his gray eyes is more terrifying than the one he’s conjured.
“So many lies you’ve managed to tell me,wife,” the Dark Commander spits, halting before me. “At least your fear was one truth.”
Darkness surges—and then there’s nothing.
Chapter Forty-Nine
“Youkilledme,Mayah.”The voice is raw, splintered.
No. No, no, no.
Blue eyes bore into me, accusing and cold.
Dead.
“You don’t love me anymore. But you didn’t have to kill me for it.”
No, no. I—
“Just hang on a little longer.”
Daak.
Awareness reclaims me with a violent jolt. I suck in air, greedy for the breath that my lungs won’t accept. Storm clouds overhead, lightning crashing around me. The threatening caress of electric heat on my face.
Eyes clenched shut, I brace for the next thunderclap.
A beat passes.
It never comes.
