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His eyes looked apologetic. “I will have to escort you.”

I swallowed. “I understand,” I said hoarsely.

Prisoner. I might be the closest thing to royalty where we came from, but even I wasn’t absolved from justice.

Clades didn’t try to bind my wrists, and I appreciated that.

We began to walk, following the others toward the portal. I lifted my chin as Infernari stared. Clades was right—even if I didn’t feel strong, I needed to act like I did. My comrades could sense weakness, and the weak never lasted long in Abyssos.

My boots crushed old skeletons as I strode across the cavern, pulverizing the bone to dust. It had never bothered me before, the sacrifices humans made for my kind, but now—but now...

Out of nowhere, a sound like the crack of thunder deafened my ears, rolling through my body. My knees buckled. The sound came fromwithinme.

I gasped, doubling over, my hand going to my chest.

No no no no no.

“Lana?” Clades’ voice filtered in from somewhere far away.

Distantly I realized he was all that was holding me up, that my hair shielded me from the prying gazes of every other Infernari in the room. But my eyes had turned inward, inward toward my web of connections, where a new essence had formed.

One that tasted like honeyed liquor, that sounded like stone striking steel, likeinnovation. An essence that looked like the ancient castles of my homeland come to life. In my mind’s eye, I reached out and touched that essence, and it brushed back against me like a cool breeze.

I recoiled because I felt it—him—on the other end.

A new bond had been forged, a connection that had no business existing.

And as it finished snapping into place, a cold sweat broke out along my skin.

I was now fully mated to the betrayer of my species.

Jame Asher.