I never should’ve invited her through the portal. Never should’ve left her in the village.
Eason’s heat wanes, and he falls back onto the blood-drenched ground. His haunted gray eyes meet mine, overflowing with the same regret that floods my soul. “I tried to save her, but I was too late.”
How could we have left them all alone in that square? How selfish we’ve been. How foolish. Now Wynn is dead and Senan…
Shit. Where is Senan?
I try to push myself from the ground, but the excruciating pain in my back keeps me flat. “You must find Senan. Please. I need him.” He is my lifeline. My reason. My everything.
Eason’s head falls into his hands, and his voice breaks when he says, “The prince is gone too.”
Nine
ALLETTE
FOUR YEARS LATER
An icy breezecuts through the gap beneath the door as I stare at the marks on the brown wall. Four marks, one for each of the four winters Eason and I have spent in the human realm. The needle in my hand slips, falling onto the other sock in my lap, still dangling from the end of the thread. I should reach for it, but I don’t.
The hinges groan when the front door swings aside. Eason stomps in, two dead rabbits clutched in his gloved hand. Lately, he seems to be gone more often than not. I’m never sure when he’ll come back.
Ifhe’ll come back.
I can’t figure out why he bothers. He is a handsome man and could’ve easily found himself a human wife in the village. A partner who isn’t broken beyond repair.
I’ve told him as much, and yet he always comes back to me.
I rarely venture to town. Every time I do, my traitorous mind conjures visions of my mate. Laughing in the square. Purchasing trinkets and food from the vendors. Dancing around the fire.
In this realm, the trees are my friends. The stones my confidants. The wind keeps me company, as if it knows I used to hold its power.
Not anymore though.
A Scathian’s power emanates from their wings.
And without my wings, I’m as empty as the hearth where Eason kneels.
“Dammit, Allette. You let the fire die,” he mutters, shoveling ash into the bucket before adding kindling to the grate.
I didn’t let the fire die. The flames, the light, the warmth were stolen from me by this wicked world.
The sound of a striking match makes me jump. Sulfur and smoke tickles my nose. Under Eason’s careful watch, what starts as a tiny flame soon becomes a crackling fire. The air around me warms, and yet I remain cold.
Eason stands, tugging off his gloves before clasping my arms in his calloused hands. “You’re freezing. Let me get you a blanket.”
“I don’t want one.” I don’t deserve to feel heat. Not when I’m as cold and dead inside as the two people I loved most. I’d warned Senan that we would be cursed if the stars didn’t approve of our mating bond. Maybe if I’d refused, he and Wynn would still be alive.
But I didn’t refuse. I selfishly took what I wanted, and those I loved paid the ultimate price.
“Allette…” Eason’s eyes do that thing they always do when I disappoint him.
I can’t take more disappointment. “I see your hunt was successful.”
Although Eason looks like he wants to say more, he collects one of the skinned animals from the crude table. “It was. I caught these and killed a small doe. If you dry the meat, that should be more than enough to last until I return.”
This is what my life has been reduced to. Drying meat and darning socks.
He kneels on the bowed floorboards and skewers the animal on the spit, hanging it low over the fire before adding a larger log.