s a mouthful

ng ancient stirred in the air unspoken, heavy. It wasn't just the pull of the mate bond anymore. It was s

d a word since w

poke louder t

skin, like lightning behind clouds. I wanted to reach for him. To tell him he didn

lie I told, every truth I'd swallowed, eve

y on the cold

f betrayal thi

me and Ronan that hur

like it had secrets of its own. The wind shifted strangely here. The trees grew sideways.

an without feeling the wei

ead, I

way through the rocks, toward the cliff's edge. From here, the valley below lo

est a

from

d kept buried too long wo

t just

s cu

at burned whenever Ronan touch

as a

ris

ng inside m

aw y

rough the silence, low

oo softly, like the wind might carry

I could feel the heat radiating off him. Even now, even in the afterma

't spea

I d

ed to

le

u what the mark mean

flinch. Di

ke ripping the ski

ark. It's not even

t his a

shattered obsidian. "Th

adow Court. The Queen marked me before I was even born. She knew I'd be the key to b

nd you waited unti

g up every night with my back on fire, not knowing what I was or why I kept see

cut worse th

didn't know what it meant until Kade's death.

ow?" h

if the moonlight didn't know how to touch them. "Now

away. Fist

the one thing I h

ou're th

k again until

ep. The closer we got to the Vale's edge, the more twisted the world became. Birds flew back

d, always watchin

as breaking

it alre

to morning. The trees here were wrong thick with veins, bark lik

want to g

want to go

ew what wait

l. And a war that

ough here?" Ronan ask

es

onto the

oll

into the Vale f

wallowed by someth

past the weeping stones, past the field

ke a wound i

I knew what it w

g faster than we th

still. Like a man on the edge of

rough first

n't st

say a

I d

ouched the threshold

t human. Not beast. Something el

the world

y eyes, everyth

longer in

omewher

ere...

sed like flesh. The air smelled of ash and d

hadn't hea

thought

ttle key," the Sh

owly, heart

t, her crown made of bone and flame,

and the gr

ally come b

ed to

oul

ped around my wrists,

whispered. "And now I can

were never meant to escape," she murmurs, her voice like silk wrapped in thorns. Behind her, a portal opens showing Ronan, tr