I pause, breath held as I await his response.
But there is none.
The connection between us…the link that held our thoughts together—is silent. Dark. As if that invisible thread that tied us together had been severed.
As the deafening silence fills my mind, a loneliness I haven’t felt since I was in Crea begins to creep back in. An isolation that Graylen had once filled. The void of my own thoughts forces me to see just how much room my soul had made for his.
But now that he’s gone, well and truly stuck in a place where I don’t know how to reach him, I feel it—a loneliness that I haven’t felt in a long time, not since the king’s camp in Crea.
A sharp voice cuts in through my hazy thoughts and muddied brain. “Lunaria, we need to get out of here.” Brielle.
I keep my eyes shut, blocking her out—blocking everyone out. There’s nothing good that awaits them, no joy or break from the grief. All I can do is allow the hazy numbness surrounding me to keep taking hold. Each voice is like a sledgehammer to my heart, chinking away at the carefully constructed door I’ve slammed shut behind it.
“That would be wise,” a deep, unfamiliar voice says.
My eyes spring open and land on the man talking.
My father. Daimon. Lord of Shadows, and the one we’re supposed to be appealing to for the trapped souls.More a god than fae,Leda had once said. And now here he is, standing before me with his face shrouded in shadows and covered in scars.
He’s the only one that could help us get Graylen back—the complete and utter idiot hero that he is—along with the souls of everyone else who is trapped in the Vale.
“You,” I rasp, that haziness flowing through me clearing enough to focus as I move toward him. Rage simmers beneath my bones, but I cling to the warmth of nothingness, tighteningaround me like a blanket on a winter’s eve. “Youhad something to do with this. Let him go—let themallgo.”
The words burn a path through my throat as they come out, each one scratchy and labored.
Darkness and shadow obscure his features in a hazy blur, but his eyes, black as pitch, watch my every move.
I take another step, voices of protest bubbling up behind me.
The wisps lighten, letting me see him a touch better this close up. But then I realize the shadows arereceding, revealing his face entirely.
Daimon towers over me. His eyes are wholly black with no white to be seen. My nose, which I once thought held a likeness to Reichardt’s, instead looksidenticalto Daimon’s. He has small freckles across his cheeks and nose like me, but most of his are slashed through with a scar.
What catches my attention the most, however, is the deep, pale scar that starts on his right shoulder, splintering up the side of his neck. It merges into a single jagged line over his cheek, through his eye, and stops at the top of his brow.
His face is calm, peaceful even.
My magic coils inside of me, ready to strike, but I force it down. Once I let them out, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop them.
Daimon is the ruler of these lands, the darkness that controls all the things that hide within it. More than that, he answers to Vidaris—to the goddess who took Graylen away from me. My heart squeezes, and another crack splits down my heart as fury sizzles through my blanket of numbness.
I bare my teeth at him, the haze slipping. Maybe he could’ve stopped Vidaris from coming here, from taking Graylen. But wondering whatcould’vehappened doesn’t bring Graylen back.
Daimon’s mouth curls into a smile, and before he says another word, I know.
This man is not our ally.
The moment the thought enters my mind, I feel an icy, rope-like shape wrap around my neck. My fingers fly to my throat, but there’s nothing there. I strain against his hold, my gaze darting to the side to try and catch sight of my friends, but it’s no use.
Leda’s snarl echoes from behind me, as does Brielle’s calm voice, trying to steady the others. My shoulders relax slightly knowing they’re still there.
My eyes find Daimon again. I know this is his doing.
Daimon simply holds his smile, no raising of his hands or twitch of his brow as his shadows tighten around me. Choking and hisses of frustration fill the air behind me, and I know my friends are in the same position as I am.
My airway constricts further, and I reach for my Essence in a panic. But my magic is completely spent. Empty. Shadows wrap like chains around my wrists and ankles, keeping my arms pinned to my sides and legs frozen in place. The ones around my neck slowly constrict tighter and tighter like a snake suffocating its next meal.
Zephyr hisses, her growl growing as she shifts toward me slightly.
