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A shuffling sound came next, someone moving in the shadows of the vast room. I shivered from the bone-aching chill and the terror rising inside me. Something moved toward me, shrouded in black. I bit back my cry as it came closer.

A torch flared to life.

Kefir held the torch aloft. He wore a deep-red cloak, and his coal-black eyes didn’t waver from me as he closed the distance between us.

“What have you done with Daire?” I asked.

“Nothing, yet. He’s my great grandson, and as much as it’ll pain me to kill him, I won’t have anyone threatening my rule.” He lifted his other hand, showing me the effigy I’d seen in my vision. “The time has finally come,” he said.

“What are you going to do?” I struggled against my restraints.

He tilted his head to the side. “You haven’t figured it out yet? I assumed your father had filled you in.”

Vesa hadn’t, but Daire had, and if I could delay this by keeping him talking, I would.

“I’m going to sacrifice you to the demon Nomas, like the four queens who came before you.” He placed the effigy on a stone altar. “You will die so I can live,” he said, then tossed the torch he held down beside me. It fell, then kept on falling, revealing a hole in the stone floor several yards wide. I was on a walkway suspended over the opening, and it was so deep I couldn’t see the bottom. The light from the torch grew faint, then disappeared completely.

Everything went dark and utterly silent. Several seconds ticked by.

Then a low rumbling sound rose up from below me, deep in the massive pit, a faint light growing with it. The sound increased, and so did the flickering light—

Boom.

I cried out as the sound rolled through the room and flames shot up all around us.

“I’ve had that effigy for five hundred years, maintaining my bargain with Nomas,” Kefir said. “And it was almost voided because of you. I searched for another like it, but my search was futile. I thought all hope was lost.” He smiled. “But then Vesa found you, Nomas’ next bride.” He gripped my jaw. I jerked out of his hold. “Unfurl your wings, Rose.”

I stared up at him in horror, afraid, confused. Then I saw them—four sets of white, shimmery bat wings hung on the walls in large shadow boxes, wings stretched out and pinned in place like some twisted butterfly collection. Nausea gripped me. “No.”

“Unfurl your wings,” he said, his grip bruising.

I shook my head.

A cry echoed around the room, and one of the guards dragged a young girl forward. Another male stood behind her, holding her black wings wide. “Either you give me your wings or I take hers. And if you still refuse, I’ll do it again and again until there are severed wings piled up at your feet.”

Oh goddess. My limbs shook so hard, it was only my shackles holding me up. What choice did I have? I couldn’t let him hurt anyone else. I nodded and unfurled my wings, feeling their weight as they appeared.

Kefir’s eyes lit with glee. “Vesa said they were magical. The same as those who came before you, but also different, unique. They’ll look beautiful on my wall, Rose. I promise I’ll think of you whenever I look at them, of your sacrifice.” The unmistakable sound of a blade ringing as it was pulled from its sheath came next. He walked around behind me and gripped the base of one of my wings. “It’ll only sting for a moment.”

“Please…no. Don’t, don’t…” He sliced, and I screamed, the sound raw and animal, morphing into a shriek like I’d made in the woods. He hacked and hacked until the weight gave, followed by the thud of my wing hitting the ground. I sobbed and collapsed against the stone wall.

“Almost done,” Kefir said.

The pain was so excruciating, the act so horrifying, I vomited on the stone walkway by his feet. He gripped the second wing, and the shriek that came from me as he sliced the second time was deafening, reverberating around the cavern. Warm blood trickled down my back and pooled at my feet. My legs gave out completely, and I hung there from the shackles at my wrists.

The loss of blood should weaken me, and eventually it would, but skilled in witchcraft or not, I was still a blood witch, and as blood poured from my wounds, the magic inside me stirred. It pressed against the darkness in this room that was stifling it, trying to expand and grow.

Kefir moved to the altar, placed his hand on the effigy, and tilted his head back as he chanted, repeating the words that would call Nomas, over and over again, like I’d seen him do in my vision. I searched the flames, knowing what came next.

There was a terrible sound, then something moved in the flames, something huge.

Oh god, he was coming.

Nomas was coming.

The demon from my nightmares rose up, his upper body looming above the flames, a twisted, hideous, horned demon. His piercing, cruel red eyes came straight to me.

“Bride,” he said, his voice distorted and strange.