Gone.
He’s gone.
I open The Safe to see a calico-wrapped package placed in the center of the wooden shelf. When I unravel the layers, I find an already ground-down lump of caspun I want to dump all over the ground.
I don’t want this. It works, butheworks better.
Not mine.
I stand on unsteady legs and pad toward my workstation, then mix my tonic in preparation for the nighttime horrors I can already feel clawing at my consciousness. Stepping onto the balcony, I look out to a velvet-clad night, imagining Rhordyn stalking across the castle grounds—doing his sweep around the perimeter before disappearing into the deluge of trees.
It doesn’t take long for my teeth to chatter, sending me racing indoors where I pull a top from my drawer and drag it on.
Staring into the hungry hearth that offers no reprieve, I begin up-rooting all thirty-three hairpins, freeing my hair before piling it on top of my head and securing it with a band for sleeping. I wash my face, retrieve my candlestick off the mantle, then make for the bedside.
Dropping low, I peel the rug back, revealing my hidden compartment.
I may be broken, confused, and painfully disappointed by the man who’s given meeverythingbut the one thing I truly want, but none of that stops me from lifting the rock, pulling Rhordyn’s pillow slip out, and digging my nose into the silky pleats ...
None of it stops me from holding it close as I climb into bed and blow out the candle, submerging myself into a pall of black.
Knotted in a heap, I reach behind my neck.
The silver latch is unfamiliar to my scorned and throbbing fingers because I’ve never removed this necklace before.
Never wanted to.
The metallic teeth finally give way, and the chain falls in a heavy heap amongst my sheets.
A sob bubbles out as my fingers trace the vacant path ...
My skin feelsbarewithout it pressed against me—like a tightness just peeled off and left me raw.
It’s strange.Unnatural.
But Rhordyn gave me the necklace, and I can’t wear it anymore. Not with Cainon’s cupla fettering my wrist.
Not withRhordyn’scupla fettering Zali’s.
My life is changing. The more I fight it, the more it’s going to tear at my seams.
I set the crystal pendant and baby conch atop my side table and take cover beneath the sheet, nuzzling a pillowcase that harbors the scent of a man who’s promised to another woman. Because tomorrow, I’ll be lighting the fire and feeding it to the embers.
I’ll be releasing him, something I have to do before I can release myself from this cage of my own creation.
Rhordyn was right ...
I’m better than this. Stronger than this.
It’s time I grew up.
Iroll onto my back and stare at a ceiling I cannot see, wishing it were lit with a fiery glow so I could watch light and shadow battle across it to the tune of crackling wood. A haunting lullaby that sometimes brings me a sense of peace.
At this rate, I’ll never sleep.
I sigh, reaching for the jar of night bark on my bedside table when a distant churn of heavy footfalls has me jerking up, sheets pooling in my lap, pillow slip clutched close to my chest.
Something’s wrong.
