Chapter 10

Noise faded. I went alone to Mirror Lake, black and still as ink beneath the waxing moon. The heat of the new bond moved in me—coexisting strangely with the hollowness sundering left. Footsteps. Heavy, tentative. I knew him before he spoke; tatters of a bond ghosted the air. “Leona.” Asher's voice was hoarse—authority gone, only wreckage left. I turned. He stood a few paces off, something clenched in his fist. The gold in his eyes was dull—crowded with regret, refusal, pain, and...