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I distractedly notice that we’ve entered another room, our footsteps echoing against the stone walls.

“I know that the Night King’s magic kept you two apart for seven years,” the Thief continues. “I know you made each othersuchardent promises—the Night Kingdom really does know its way around romance. ‘Until darkness dies’ … Truly, that’s a sweet sentiment.”

“You know, there’s only one problem with that phrase—

He stops and turns to face me.

“Me.”

Chapter 43

My brows furrow. “What are you talking about?” I glance around us as I ask.

I’ve been here before, I realize.

There’s those bonelike columns, the ceiling that gives way to the dark night beyond. There’s that unsettling pool, which hums with magic, and then there’s the Thief’s throne. This last one glints and flickers in the candlelight, its peaked spires looking especially sharp and deadly.

The Death King’s throne room.

Nothing good ever happens in these rooms.

“I’m talking about who I am,” the Thief responds.

He begins to circle me, and my skin burns brighter than ever.

“You saw all those fallen soldiers at my doorway. We both know I was not born in this kingdom, that I invaded this place. That I have lived for centuries—that Galleghar used me to save his own life.”

He finishes circling me, coming back to my front.

“So who am I?” he says. “The question everyone wants to know.”

The place is ominously still, and the only sound comes from the pool that stretches out on the other side of the room.

“Not a conqueror,” he shakes his head, “not a king. I came from a time before such things.

“You see, I am not a man. I’m agod.”

A…god?

“Don’t look so shocked, enchantress,” the Thief says. “A woman talks to the darkness—is she really so surprised when the darkness talks back?”

I don’t have time to feel disbelief or to question the Thief’s claim. His body begins expanding before my eyes, his form darkening until he is nothing more than the shape of a man. Pinpricks of light—stars they seem to me—glitter from deep within that darkness. I can barely make out his features amongst it all.

I take a step back as that still air begins to move and churn.

Around us, candles flicker, and the hum from the pool seems to grow louder.

“All this time, you’ve wanted to know who I am. Enchantress, I’mEuribios.” He breathes the name with a shiver of magic. It skitters across my skin. “I am what camebefore.”

I feel that part of his magic then—not the wickedness of it, but thewildness.

I stare up at him as he gets larger and larger. The room begins to darken, his form sucking away the light.

Amongst all that darkness, I sense his smile, and it chills me to the core.

“Once, Death and Night were the very same thing. Once, there was nothing else.”

The room is giving way to shadow, and the Thief is losing his form.