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“I can’t do it, Father.”
“I won’t save you this time,” he snarled. “You have to use your power against this creature. It’s the only way.”
I gasped, whirling back toward him. “No. You can’t mean that.”
But he was gone. I ran up to the wall and peered through the hole but saw nothing but the distant village bathed in light. Horror thumped through my veins. My father had left me here.
I was all alone.
The creature lurched out of the shadows. I screamed and dropped to the ground, covering my head as it lashed its sharp fangs at my face. A storm of fur and blood-soaked claws hurtled over me. Shaking, I rolled to the side, sand spraying into my eyes.
Sniffing, the beast leaned down and dragged its nose across my cheek, leaving behind a streak of wet saliva. A whimper sounded in the back of my throat as I stared up into the vicious face of the shadowfiend. Even though it was a monster of the mists, I understood it. I recognized the glint in its eyes.
Hunger.
Sobbing, I scrabbled out from under it and took off through the darkness, my feet stumbling upon rock and sand and dirt. The vague shape of the mountain range rose before me like another humongous creature ready to widen its jaws and swallow me whole.
I didn’t know where I could go. The mountains were dangerous. Impassable, they said. But the beast was right behind me. I could feel its hot breath on my neck and—
It crashed into me. My legs twisted, and my elbow slammed into the ground. I screamed as I reached overhead. The shadowfiend shoved its paws into my chest. Claws ripped into my skin. Painful venom tore through me. I couldn’t even think.
Choking on my sobs, I placed my shaking palms on the beast’s sweat-drenched fur and closed my eyes. Its fangs were only inches away from my throat. I had to do something, anything. My powers had never worked before, but if they didn’t help me now, I would die.
The shadowfiend would destroy me.
My palms slipped against the beast’s fur. I felt nothing—not a hint of magic at all. No rush of power. No spark of electricity on my fingertips. Nothing changed except one important thing.
The shadowfiend’s eyes went black. It tensed and then slumped forward, the life draining from its terrifying form. And then it landed heavily right on top of me. The monstrous body pinned me to the sand.
A scent like sweat and must and rotten eggs filled my head. I tried to wriggle out from beneath the creature, but I couldn’t move. It was too big and its venom charged through me. Soon, I lost feeling in my legs.
I was trapped there like that for hours.
Days, maybe.
Eventually, my father came for me and dragged me back over the wall.
According to Nellie, I did nothing but read for months. I didn’t cry. I barely ate. I didn’t even speak. And then first thing I said to her, after weeks of silence, was, “I can never trust him again. I can’t trust anyone.”
Forty-Three
Tessa
Icracked open my eyes as memories of my childhood tumbled over each other in my mind, flashes of a life I’d blocked out. And now that I remembered—parts of it, at least—the heaviness on my chest made it almost impossible to breathe.
My father had believed Nellie and I were the answer to all the mortals’ problems. The barrier had numbed his inherited powers for too long, and he’d never get them back. And so he’d thrown me out into the mists to spark mine to life, over and over, until that one horrible day. I’d killed the beast, but it had also killed me, in a way. It broke me for so many years.
Sudden pain lanced my skull, chasing away the memories. I lifted a shaky hand to my throbbing head, brushing something slick. I hissed through clenched teeth. When I pulled my fingers away, they were stained red.
My right shoulder pounded in time with my head, and when I glanced around, I realized I had no idea where I was or how far I’d fallen. Heavy mist surrounded me, and I could not see farther than my own hand. Unease slithered down my spine.
I stood on wobbly legs and tipped back my head. I couldn’t see anything above me, nor hear anyone shouting my name. Everything was dark and silent and cold, and my head and shoulder hurt so terribly that I struggled to even think, let alone find a way to reach the others.
“Kalen!” I called out, turning in a slow circle.
I was alive, which meant I couldn’t have fallen far. I could stand, and I could breathe. That was something, at least. Their hearing was better than mine. So if I just kept shouting, surely they’d be able to locate me.
“Niamh! Alastair! Fenella!” I cupped my hands around my mouth, spinning in place. “Kalen!”
