Two girls. Two secrets.
Only one can survive.
Years before Nelle Wychthorn plans her escape, Tabitha Catt may unearth something in a Horned God's lair that is the key to freedom.
Desperate to save her beloved aunt from a dark curse, Tabitha is out t...
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Where is she? Where is she? Where is she...?
The carefree smile I'd plastered on my face ached with the effort to appear at ease while I frantically searched the hall for Aunt Ellena.
"Tabitha..."
My aunt had disappeared from sight when I'd been torn from my vigil by Oswin's grandfather, whom I'd had to separate from yet another brandy and end his flirting with the widow Mrs. Ramsey.
Varen had been right, I was worried. I couldn't tell him of Sanela, not here, not like this. Gods, what she'd revealed earlier this afternoon...
Sanela's horrifying confession was an ominous storm gathering at the back of my mind.
And I certainly couldn't tell Varen the truth of why I was so anxious tonight.
I was worried about everything.
Freaking everything!
I'd felt Varen's attention on me a few hours ago. A featherlight stroke down my spine, almost as if he'd physically caressed me with a sultry breeze. I'd practically had a heart attack when I'd discovered he was here. I hadn't obtained his wyrmblood, and as such, he was in danger. I didn't want Varen anywhere near the Banquet Hall this evening. I needed him in his quarters, tucked away safely for the night. Far away from my aunt and that thing.
"Tabitha..."
Clutched in my hands was my sequinned purse, used purely to hide the fact my hands were trembling. I was suffocating under the terrifying weight of responsibility that bore upon my figure like I'd been buried under a rockfall.
The dark magic inside me was just as unsettled, and that was putting it mildly. It was jumpy, twitchy, and nervous. My senses slunk through the thick throng of dancers as they whorled around the floor in a foxtrot, a swirl of colors and steps. It was a ghostly touch, a pluck of my otherworldly senses like a taut string vibrating a wrong note.
There!
She was dancing with Markel.
Aunt Ellena and Markel had been deeply entwined in each other's company tonight. They hadn't left each other's side since arriving at the wedding ceremony and I'd had a front-row seat to their blossoming romance. Any other time I would be swooning. They were so comfortable together, teasing each other with playful grins and laughter, and my aunt touched Markel often, her hand lingering longer on his arm than a friend would do.
As they smiled, staring into one another's eyes while twirling across the polished floor, the world surrounding them had faded away like mist obscuring the landscape, and it was just the two of them wrapped up in each other.
But tonight had been ruined by that thing inside her.
It wasn't just Aunt Ellena tonight, it was here too, a threatening dark shadow, and I swore I'd caught it peeking through her eyes, watching me just as closely as I watched it.
