I knew they were watching me, but I didn’t care.
I would tear through the entire world, stone by stone, if it meant finding a way back to her.I had forgotten her—gotten so wrapped up in this realm, so lost inhim—that I’d abandoned my own mother to suffer alone.
I brushed against something unnaturally smooth amid the rough soil.I scraped away the caked mud with trembling hands, dirt wedging beneath my broken nails as I clawed at the earth like a woman possessed.
And then I saw it.
My heart beat wildly in my chest, my eyes stretched wide.Carefully, I reached toward it, fingers hovering just above its surface.
A violent jolt struck me—a power so intense it felt as though my soul was being torn from my body.
I shook off the sensation and lunged forward, clamping my hand around the damn thing, screaming through my teeth as I wrenched it from its earthen prison.
The stone was small enough to fit in my palm, its edges jagged and cruel, but smooth as silk everywhere else.It pulsed with a deep crimson glow, shadows twisting inside like trapped smoke, writhing against their cage.
Theo and Tavrik dropped to their knees beside me, their faces pale as death.Sorrow was etched into the lines around their mouths, a silent understanding darkening their eyes like storm clouds.
I wept.Great, heaving sobs that shook my entire frame as I curled inward.I bowed my head, tears streaming down my dirt-stained cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out, grip tightening around the stone’s jagged edges until they threatened to pierce my skin.The words were empty—pathetic against the magnitude of my betrayal.“I’m sorry.I’m sorry.I’m sorry.”
Each repetition grew more broken, until they were nothing but fragmented sounds torn from my lips.
Darkness crept in from the edges of my vision.I swayed, the world tilting beneath me.
Theo’s arms shot out to catch me before I could collapse.He pulled me against him as I broke apart.
My body convulsed with cries torn from the deepest part of my soul.
Theo smoothed a hand over my hair.“Shh.It’s okay, Elira.”
Nothing about this was okay.It would never be okay again.
Rage surged through me, burning away the sorrow.With a sharp, strangled cry, I tore away from Theo’s embrace, stumbling backward.
“I’m leaving,” I rasped, my voice so ravaged by emotion it was barely recognisable.I pressed the stone against my chest like a shield, its pulse synchronizing with my racing heart.“I’m taking the stone.I’m going back to the mortal realm.”
Theo and Tavrik exchanged a wary glance, tensing, as if preparing to restrain me.I kept talking, the words tumbling out in a frantic cascade.
“I’ll destroy it.”I began moving restlessly, cutting a frenzied path through the disturbed earth.“I’ll protect my mother.I’ll—” My voice splintered.“I’ll trade my life for hers, if I have to.”
I was coming apart at the seams.
My thoughts were spinning too fast—a hurricane of desperation and fury that was about to sweep away whatever remained of my sanity.I dug my nails into my scalp, breaking skin as if I could physically tear the madness from my mind.
Tavrik’s large hands clamped onto my shoulders.“Elira, stop.”
I snapped my head up, eyes wild and unfocused. Snarling as I tried to wrench free from his grip.
His steady gaze locked onto mine, pulling me from the edges of hysteria.
“Zaheera will know,” he said carefully.“She can enter your mind whenever she wants.If you try to deceive her, she’ll see right through you.”
I froze.
Zaheera could hear my thoughts.My intentions.Nothing in my mind was truly my own as long as she held the other end of the cursed bargain.
I exploded.
