Sentur’na, you have returned to us. At last.
As I walked to the Thief’s Tower, the city rebuilt itself around me, crumbled bricks reassembling themselves into proud buildings with gabled roofs, dead trees sprouting leaves as verdant as springtime, and the sky above blushing with the colors of dusk. The moon, full as it had been when I’d sought its tears, hung within a net of stars. Stars whose blood adorned my gown.
I glanced at Edan, wondering if he saw the city as I did. Something about his dark expression told me he did not.
This isn’t real,I reminded myself.But how real it feels. Like I belong here.
For the first time in weeks, I felt alive. It had been so long since I’d felt my blood rushing from my cheeks to my fingertips, stirring my heart. No longer did I feel the presence of the demon inside me, looming in my thoughts and tightening hergrasp.
Thiswas how the isles would seduce me. Not with my family, but with power. With life.
The ghosts bowed to me, their long, crooked arms outstretched. Others clamored for Edan, boldly reaching for him in spite of the dagger he wielded. The meteorite glowed brighter than I’d ever seen it, a shimmering silver that was nearly blue.
“Leave him alone,” I seethed, hissing at the ghosts who drew too near. They backed away, nails scraping against the stone path as they crawled to obey.
Bandur was waiting for us at the Thief’s Tower, a hideous hybrid of wolf and man flanked by a pack of wraithlike wolves. When he saw me, he bared his fangs with pleasure.
“You have finally come,” he greeted me from the top of the stairs. He spared a glance for Edan. “And with the oath breaker.”
I looked over and saw that Bandur’s wolves had surrounded Edan, separating us. Angrily, I whirled to face the demon.
“An incentive, if you will.” Bandur gestured at Edan. “To ensure you complete the ceremony. I warned you he was not invited, Sentur’na.”
How I hated the way Bandur spoke that name. My name.
“Do you hear your new friends? They claim you.”
I did hear. Thousands of voices, each an icy pinprick stabbing me from every direction.Our new guardian has arrived.
My amulet weighed on my chest, and my whole body felt like stone. My dress went dark, its fabric inky as the eternal night above. I lifted my skirts and forced my leaden legs onto the first step and the next and the next, up to the Thief’s Tower.
Fear gripped my heart.
Was it truly my fate to become the next guardian of Lapzur? What if I couldn’t fight Bandur?
I reached the mouth of the tower, where Bandur awaited me. Wisps of smoke trickled out of the jagged crack in his amulet, forming a dark cloud around me.
Without ceremony, Bandur yanked my amulet from my neck, closing his claws over it. Smoke drifted through the seams of his fingers into the amulet, and though my mouth was clamped shut, a rush of cold stung my lungs and chest, making me gasp aloud.
When he opened his fist, my amulet had become black and lackluster—like his. Like a demon’s.
Bandur’s amulet—its round obsidian surface, dull and scratched—suddenly blazed to life. The wolf engraved on the top sharpened, its fangs gleaming, its ruby eyes glittering.
“The transfer of guardianship has begun,” he said, hanging my amulet over his neck.
I didn’t struggle as the breath was squeezed out of me. Instead, I looked him calmly in the eye. I prayed he wouldn’t notice my shaking hands reaching behind my skirt to unhook my scissors.
In one swift motion, I grabbed the scissors and stabbed him in the neck. Bandur howled, and I dug the blades deeper, until black velvety blood welled out. Then I wrenched out the scissors and snipped the amulets’ chains, catching them as they fell from his neck.
The smoke abruptly stopped. Air rushed back into my lungs as my amulet reconnected itself back over my neck, and my strength returned. Smoke gathered at my feet, curling around my ankles like snakes. Flames tickled my fingertips as I tucked Bandur’s amulet into my skirt.
An arrow flew past me and pierced Bandur’s shoulder. He ripped it out and snarled at Edan, who’d managed to break free of the wolves.
“Go!” Edan shouted, wielding the dagger, leaping up the stairs toward Bandur. “Go now!”
I was already running. We’d planned this meticulously. He would fend off Bandur while I raced to the top of the tower.
Ghosts swarmed after me. Their airy hands tore at the train of my dress, some close enough to graze my skin. But I was already marked by a demon; the ghosts could not harm me.
