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If he responded, I couldn’t hear it.

And then it all disappeared.

Epilogue

I woke, staring atthe ceiling.

Only it wasn’t the ornate, painted ceiling of my bedroom. Nor was it the bedframe I’d woken to for the past several months.

It was dark, unyielding stone.

I’m in Greymere.

That was my first thought before the events of the evening slammed back to me. Was this the ninth hell, for my treachery? I pushed onto my elbows and looked around. I was surrounded on almost all four sides by solid stone, the same dark granite above and below. It wasn’t polished and smooth, but rather a small room carved directly fromthe mountain.

Damerel.

There was no light source. It was completely dark, yet I could see perfectly.

Something was very wrong.

I slapped a palm to my chest, waiting to feel the terrified pounding of my heart.

Nothing.

No, no, no.

It can’t be.

I begged him.

I begged him… not to?

The only break in the stone was a small opening blocked with copper bars.

Cursed copper. I roughly shoved myself up, scraping my palms and feet as I stumbled over to the red-hued metal. I grasped them, desperate to deny the truth.

“Ouch!”

I startled at the sound and leaped back. Who had said that? But there was only me. I mumbled something and realized the truth: with my newly changed hearing, I no longer recognized my voice in my ears.

“Damn you,” I hissed, blinking rapidly.

Raphael had turned me. I’d begged him not to. Hadn’t he promised? Hadn’t he given his word he’d never take that choice from me? A taboo, he’d called it. To change someone without permission.

I’d rather die than live like this.

“You’re finally awake.”

A dark figure stepped forward from the shadows.

Raphael?

I blinked as he stepped out of the shadows.

No.

Demos.