Her chapped lips opened just barely. “Why?” she mouthed. No one answered, and the image of Hilandria vanished behind her as she was dragged deeper into the catacombs.
It took her a long time to realize that the rattling sound in her ears was iron chains clanking together. The manacles pinched the flesh of her wrists.
She was dumped in front of a crypt, but she barely had the strength to breathe, let alone make an escape. Two male voices filled the silence. One she recognized—the Dark Lord. The other, she had to open her eyes to identify.
Kit Wilding, the man appointed General of the North after chasing the Shadowfolk from their homeland years ago. Levon’s family,Sable thought. The family she’d never met but had heard plenty about. Most of the rumors had been confirmed by Levon himself, including how they took pride in torturing people in their halls of onyx. Levon had claimed he was different from them. And Sable had believed him—most of the time.
As General of the North, Kit was required to check up on the Sylvanas at the House of Ice throughout the years. Every time he visited, Balthazar made sure both Sable and Killian were either wearing their rings or were out of sight entirely. There was always the fear that Kit or someone working for him had the rare ability to see through glamours, but enough years had passed without incident that Balthazar had stopped worrying.
Now, as she lay upon the freezing floor of the catacombs, she couldn’t help but wonder how this had happened. After so many years spent undiscovered, how had the king and his army finally found out where she and Killian were hiding? Had someone betrayed them?
It doesn’t matter anymore,she decided as someone crouched beside her. She didn’t bother opening her eyes, and even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t have had the strength. She was spent, her soul fluttering feebly inside her, a scrap of paper tossed about by wind.
Her brother was gone—dead, possibly. The burned corpse of the man she loved was hanging from the tree of ice like a wind chime of bone and charred flesh, directly above the grave of her oldest friend. And the whereabouts of Balthazar and Rhea were unknown. Dead probably, too, she decided. Like everyone else she’d ever loved.
A murmuring began, the words indecipherable, yet even the sound of them left her cowering. There was a flash of light, and Sable welcomed it. Perhaps it was the light that would lead her between worlds. To the afterlife.
Once she was there, she would find her family. She would find Hannelore. And she would never let go of them again.
~
After the bright light faded, there was only silver. Cold, hard silver. It encircled her like the walls of a coffin, pressing in until she couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
It felt like she was buried alive.
Where was she? This was not the death she had so greatly welcomed.
Sable’s vision whirled as her thoughts melted into confusion. She tried to press against the walls, searching for a gap to squeeze through, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t feel her fingers or her toes—it was as if she were nothing but air. A ghost.
Her breathing grew erratic.
Where was Killian, her brother? She had to get to him, had to save him.
But the longer she pressed against the gleaming silver surrounding her, testing its strength, the more confused she became. Who was she just thinking about?
Killian—that’s right. She was thinking about Killian.
Who was Killian? Suddenly, she couldn’t remember. What was happening?
Breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth, she tried to recall how she had wound up here, trapped inside this… This—
Where was she?Whowas she? What was her name?
As she pressed back into the farthest corner she could find, surrounded by that endless silver, a cloud of silence settled over her thoughts.
For the first time in her miserable life, she was alone—that was all she knew for certain. It felt like half of her was missing, as if a chunk of her soul had been ripped away, leaving her naked and bloody.
Alone.The word was a mocking echo inside her head.
The silver turned into a sea of unending black as her soul curled in on itself, like flower petals closing at sundown, and she gave herself over to the darkness.
~
Avalon awoke with a jolt, her head spinning as she sat up in bed.
The king and his Wolf.The king and his Wolf had trapped Sable inside the mask.
Avalon’sfatherhad trapped her inside the mask.
