We continue until we pass a window, where I can’t help but pause to glance out. I drift toward the opening, my brow creased as I try to make sense of what I’m seeing. This castle, if it can even be called that, already has me disoriented, but out beyond the window, the world falls away, as if this place perches on a mountain pinnacle. Lavender skies arch in all directions, shot through with early stars.
This window is paneless, the stony aperture opening onto nothing, and I lean out to study the grounds below. Only…
My stomach dips. Thereareno grounds. The foundations of this place plunge into an abyss, the castle curving around a chasm like a serpent coiling around an egg. A lone island arises from the center of that darkness, barely large enough to support the oversized hourglass resting on top. Silver filigree twines along the hourglass’s struts while its convex curves gleam in the starlight.
I survey the thing, my throat going dry. Is this what Amriel meant by the hourglass in his “courtyard”? The emptiness below resembles no courtyard I’ve ever seen, but the hourglassdoeslook magical. The sand within defies gravity, somehow gathered in the top half while the bottom half remains empty. The whole thing must be as tall as I am, and the island it rests on can only be accessed by a thin land bridge barely wide enough for one person. The bridge leads to a cliff that faces over the treetops of what I can only presume is the Wildwood. Only I’ve never seen the Wildwood from this angle. From here, I’m lookingdownon it, the forest unfurling like a carpet below.
“This is where your journey will end,” the Shadow says beside me, “if you make it through the Wildwood.”
I swallow hard. The bridge looks impossibly narrow—one misstep, and I’ll plunge into that darkness. “And then I’m supposed to destroy that thing? That hourglass? If I break that, it’ll break Amriel’s curse?”
The Shadow makes a sound that’s half apology,half confirmation. “Yes.”
“How, though? I just…smash it?”
“Yes. But you have to get to it in time. The hourglass can only be broken when its sand is flowing. And the sand will only fall once you’ve entered the forest.”
That takes me aback. “You mean I’ll have a time limit?”
“Yes,” he says tightly. “You will.”
A headache germinates in my temples. This day keeps going from bad to worse, but I have to believe these awful events fit Ishanna’s plansomehow. If only I pray hard enough, if I prove myself devoted, she’ll protect me.
“And what’s out there, exactly?” I cage my bottom lip with my teeth, my gaze sweeping over the sinister foliage of the Wildwood. I don’t presume to have any idea what those shadows conceal. “In the forest?”
The Shadow grunts. “Many things. The Wildwood is a maze. A labyrinth. A very dangerous one.”
“Oh,” I murmur faintly. “Right. Of course.”
I stare down, the forest swelling to fill my vision. Nausea blooms in my belly, and I pivot to find the Shadow watching me, misery splashed across his features.
“Why didn’t you listen to me?” he says. “Itoldyou not to let him Claim you. I told you not to let him send you out there.”
My jaw tightens. He can’t be serious, can he? “No. What youdidwas give me an impossible choice. It was either this, or…what? Become your possession? Your plaything?”
“Yes,” he says, without the slightest hesitation. “But I would’ve been good to you, Princess. I would’ve protected you. Belonged to you. I would’ve made you feel things you’ve never felt before.”
“Things?” I give him a narrow look. “What things?”
“I could still show you. If you want.”
That wrings a full-body shudder from me. “Goddess, no. Forget I said anything. I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with this idea, anyway. You don’t even know me.”
“I don’t have to. You’re my mate. That goes deeper than any knowing.”
The words saturate the air, pressing in from all sides. He sounds socertain, but also brutalized, like this knowledge guts him. I swivel back to the window, desperate to escape the weight of his wanting. “You say that, but I don’t even know what mates are. We don’t have those in Aethrolia.”
The Shadow steps closer, his scent washing over me in dizzying waves. I brace my palms against the sill, needing something to anchor myself to. Anything.
“Mates,” he says, low and insistent, “are exactly what you think they’d be. They’re two souls carved from the same star. Who, if they’re lucky enough to cross paths, are meant to surrender to one another. To entwine. Most fae never even find theirs. It’s rare. But when we do, weknow, like I knew in your garden. Like I know right now. You’d know, too, if you weren’t human. It’s just that your senses are…different. You don’t experience this the same way I do.”
I eye him sidelong, then give a short, sharp shake of my head. “No, I don’t. I don’t feel anything at all. I’m not sure I even believe you.”
A long silence unspools, the quiet pulling so taut that eventually, I have no choice but to face him again. A challenge blazes in his yellow eyes. “When you look at me, you feelnothing? Not even a flicker?”
I open my mouth to confirm, but the words lose momentum before reaching my airway. Because deep down, at my hidden center, something trembles when I stand before him. It did in the garden, and it does here, too. Only now, I dread what it might mean.
“What doyoufeel?” I ask, ignoring his question, shoving mine at him like a rebuttal.
