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I recoiled. “It fucking smells like me?”

“Or maybe, you it?”

This time, Andrues grinned at himself and I sent a book flying toward his head. He caught it inches from his skull without looking away from the small animal and gently set it on the windowsill.

“Regardless of what it is, I don’t want a companion. What Iwantis to be left alone.”

“You do not have a choice,” Andrues said, finally pulling his eyes away from the rodent and standing to his full height. “Familiars attach themselves only to witches and make themselves known only when a witch’s power surpasses a certain threshold. They were rare even before the war. There have been few witches throughout history that possess magic great enough to require one.” He lifted a brow at me and I groaned. “It seems, Ataliia, you are more powerful than we thought.”

I turned away from him and slumped into my favorite armchair. “One of these days, you’ll learn to not underestimate me.”

I kicked off my boots and flung my fingers toward the fire, watching as flames burst to life against the ash-coated stone.

“What exactly are these things supposed to do?”

“I do not know the full extent of it, but they are known to be an extension of the witch they are bound to. Once a familiar attaches itself, their life force is tied to yours. They cannot live if their witch’s heart ceases to beat,” Andrues answered, unstrapping the sword from his side as he fell into the chair across from me.

I swore up at the ceiling.

“A new responsibility I didn’t ask for, lucky me,” I deadpanned.

Andrues leaned back into the chair, making himself comfortable as he clasped his hands over his abdomen andignored my statement. We sat in silence for a long moment, my words quietly lingering against the popping of the fire.

Finally, I broke the silence.

“I don’t need you to stay with me you know.” I looked down at my nails, picking at the polish painted across the pointed tips.

“I know,” was all Andrues responded as he pulled a small book from his coat pocket and opened its pages.

I studied him in the silence.

My mind wandered back to the first time I saw him, the beauty and darkness that was mixed into his features. Something in the moment he lowered his hood and his eyes locked on mine felt familiar, like he knew there was a darkness in me just by looking.

That had always scared me about him—it still did. I could hide from everyone, but not him. He was no stranger to the dark, and it almost felt as though our darkness called to each other.

That’s why I loved Ardan, why IneededArdan like the air I breathed. He brought out the light in me, he brought out the good. All of which had been snuffed out when he—

I shook my head, clearing my throat before the sob building there could escape.

I stood abruptly, turning my head to hide the tears threatening to pool behind my eyes.

“I’m going to bed,” I said, the words clipped as I strode toward my bedchamber before Andrues could respond, the static in my ears growing louder with each step I took.

I grabbed the handles of the double doors as quickly as I could and shut them behind me, pressing my back to the cool wood.

I let out a shaky breath as I sniffed away the tears I refused to let fall and pulled the Valerian root from my pocket.

Sleep. All I wanted was sleep.

AndrueswasgonewhenI stepped into the sitting room the next morning and I thanked the Gods I wouldn’t have to see him.

I had woken myself in the middle of the night screaming, like I had every night since we arrived in Locdragoon. It wasn’t the dreams that Landers was concerned about that haunted every single one of my nights—those only came every so often, and I could handle them.

It was the pain of the Uthrens wrapped around my body, the Svech being packed into open wounds. It was reliving every moment of agony in those chains—watching Ardan’s murder—that tore me from sleep in terror.

The Valerian root was not helping like it had when I first started taking it and I’d been slowly taking more and more of it at a time. But these last few weeks it seemed to barely touch the dreams, which was why Ineededthat tonic.

I pulled on my leathers, and plucked an apple from the parlor table. Elric would show up at my door any moment now and the thought of seeing him this morning made my stomach churn.