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I shook my head. “Not while in wolf form. Not yet. Not fully.”

I remembered the glowing yellow eyes that stalked towards me when I was dangling from the tree at the bandit camp. But I was so close to blacking out, they were nothing more than a blur.

Balor’s brow furrowed. “Well, where is this mate of yours?”

My heartbeat quickened as a lump formed in my throat. “I lost him in the Forest of Torment. I…I just left him there. Alone. I wasn’t in my right mind, Balor. I…oh gods.” I pressed my fingers into my temples.

My uncle took a step closer and replaced his hands atop my shoulders to comfort me. “It’s alright, Aurelia. He is a lycan. He will make it through the wards.”

I tilted my head to the side as a thought arose. “How didyouget through the wards, Uncle?”

“It took me over a year to learn to make it through. To this day, it’s still not easy.”

“Then how the hell did you thinkIwas going to make it on my own? If even you could barely manage – if Elias isn’t even here yet – how did you expectmeto get here?”

“Because—” His voice cut off in an unnatural way.

“Because what?” I asked, brow raising in impatience.

Balor shook his head, his eyes losing focus and blinking erratically for a short moment.

“You can’t tell me.”

His gray eyes made contact with mine, but his lips did not move as an ominous voice answered from behind me.

“Your family seems to have many secrets they don’t want to share.”

I whirled around to find King Volund stepping around a building, followed by three warriors and a woman I hadn’t seen before. Although I had never seen her face, I knew exactly who she was by the sinister energy she projected.

Sarai.

Her straight, black-violet hair reached her collarbone in the front, but was much shorter in the back. Her lips were painted a dark purple to match the color of her skin-tight dress that reached her feet and had a slit up the thigh. Her eyes were silver-colored, and they bore into me with such malice, I wanted to shrink.

Anger and fear enveloped me all at once. I pried my eyes away from the evil witch to look at Volund, but Balor stepped in front of me and blocked me with his arm.

“How and why the hell are you here, Volund?” Balor’s voice boomed in the quiet of the forgotten kingdom.

“I could ask the same of you, cockroach. I had my witch scry for the princess and her dog. Imagine the surprise I felt when I learned where they were headed.” His eyes darted to mine, and his lip twitched upwards. “You continue to surprise me, Princess Aurelia.”

Balor glanced at me. “What does he mean?”

“Your niece and I have unfinished business,” Volund interjected.

Balor’s eyes remained fixed on me in confusion, but I couldn’t form words. Instead, I only gave him a pleading look.

Volund continued. “Is this where you’ve been hiding all these years? Your own brother exiled you and you had nowhere else to go but this gods-awful place? Look at it. It looks like shit.” He glanced around before laughing. “Suits you well, I suppose.”

“How did you get through the wards?” Balor asked calmly, letting the insults pass right over him.

Volund’s eyes narrowed as he scowled. He gestured a hand towards Sarai who stood there, eyes not leaving me for even a second. If looks could kill, I would have been dead on the ground where I stood.

“It’s easy to get through witches’ spells when you have your own witch pet, wouldn’t you think?”

I expected Sarai to react to being called a pet, but she didn’t look away from me – her eyes hungry for what looked like murder.

“King Callum knew that all too well, didn’t he, having his own little pet?”

My hands clenched into fists at my sides. “My mother wasnothis pet,” I spat.