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His hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. He glanced down at the blade, watching as moon and torchlight set its bloodstained face aglow.
Where is he, dammit? Where?
And where is Smoke?
Where is my black wolf?
Disoriented.
Walking the line between another time and place.
I am lost.
And then it came to him.
Aye. I know where he is.
Good God… I only hope I’m not too late this time.
Twenty-Six
It was seven years ago all over again. He was stalking the halls of Dietrich Castle, the heat of battle fever rising inside him. Stalking toward a reality he could already see take shape. Stalking, like the wolf that had protected his family’s sigil for so many years…
Three guards had stood outside the door, he remembered.
And all three of them were dead.
Rowan snapped back into the moment, staring down at those strewn bodies. Holes punctured their chests. Some fine-pointed weapon had found its way through their chain mail.
Good men, Rowan thought, just like on that night seven years ago. He carefully stepped over them. He was just outside Mary’s chamber. I suppose I need to acquire better guards, he thought with hysterical mirth.
Or truer friends.
He swallowed back a heave of laughter, biting his tongue until it bled. The metallic flavor pooled in his mouth.
What would he find when he opened the door? His wife, sprawled across their bed, her throat open from ear to ear?
Or my beloved Blanchette?
Rowan gripped the hilt of his sword a little tighter. He felt himself teetering along that razor-sharp edge of sanity.
The door swung open with just a nudge. Within, the hearth was burning, filling the space with its soothing crackle.
And in front of the carved, four-poster bed, waiting for him to come inside, with madness in his pale eyes and a dagger at his daughter’s throat, was a man who’d been an ally, a comrade, a best friend.
Somehow, I knew.
Somehow, I’ve always known it would come back to this. Another mistake from my past.
Because ghosts don’t die. They only change shape.
The better to haunt you.
The better to hear your prayers and deepest secrets.
The better to see your fears and desires.
The better to defeat you.
