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“You are the monster,” I snarled. I had thought that my father had killed Elvira out of revenge for what she’d done to him. It felt justified. And even if it hadn’t, he was a Rogue—he wasn’t in control of himself.

But Sasha had had full control. She might have been weak, but she’d known what she was doing. She had gone into that cottage intent on slaughtering the two witches.

“It’s not like that,” Sasha said indignantly. “You know how evil she was! Remember the rage you felt toward her? She had to pay for what she’d done to you, to me, and to your father.”

“But she was my family. She was everything I had. And you took that away. You took away my home.”

“You have a home now, with Alaric,” Sasha said, her voice rising. “Are you saying you wish Elvira had lived? That she had turned you over to the witches? I did you a favor.”

But I couldn’t hear her through the mind-numbing fire coursing through me. I thrashed against the barrier between us, desperate to be free of her. “Get out!” I bellowed. “Get out right now! I don’t want this bond anymore.”

“Cerise—”

I screamed, shoving harder. Sasha roared in agony. The room flickered and warped, and I felt her wresting control from me.

“No!” I cried out, but it was too late. My body was transforming, my vision shrinking to that tiny box of awareness. The shift was clumsy, limbs twisting at awkward angles, pain shooting through me. Sasha let out a strained whimper as her white form emerged.

I threw myself against the barrier between us, hatred and loathing coursing through me. Sasha groaned, stumbling until she collided with Alaric’s broken bed.

Then an explosion of gold light consumed us both.

Forty-Three

THE WOLF

“That amulet is private,” said Chief Cartier, arms crossed as he looked down his nose at me. “I cannot allow you to have it.”

I stood in the castle library with the chief of the Vulpes tribe, resisting the urge to throttle him for being so stubborn. “You don’t understand,” I said through clenched teeth. “This is about traveling through the portal. If I could just look at it⁠—”

I froze as a sudden wave of agony flooded my mind. A violent shudder rippled over my body.

“Oh gods,” Tavik groaned. “Alaric, something is wrong. Very, very wrong.”

My heart quickened as panic and unease crept into my chest.

Then, I heard Cerise’s scream.

“Get out! Get out right now!”

I ran from the room, ignoring Chief Cartier’s bewildered protests. My legs pumped furiously as I sprinted faster than I’d ever run in my life, past alarmed servants and affronted nobles. I flew down the hall, then raced up the staircase, taking the steps two at a time.

“Hurry, Alaric!” Tavik urged, thrashing violently inside me. “I—I can’t reach Sasha anymore!”

My breaths sharpened, sweat trickling down my neck as I quickened my pace. My steps slowed when I reached my chambers, panting as I took in the gold light glowing from underneath the door.

“No,” I hissed, terror gripping me so tightly I couldn’t breathe.

I threw open the door, then shielded my face from the blinding light that assaulted me. As my eyes adjusted, I took in a canine form writhing on the floor of my bedchamber, surrounded by a brilliant aura that seemed brighter than the sun.

“Cerise!” I bellowed. “Sasha!”

No answer.

“Cerise, I’m here!” I called to her.

She continued to scream as if she couldn’t hear me at all.

A faint smoke rose from Sasha’s form.