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I tugged a cord through the final eyelet in my armor, loosening the binding. My body tightened, anxious.

I was branded. I hadn’t seen the damage, but I could feel it. My heart was heavy, pulled by a calling to travelelsewhere.

With my armor gaping around me, the sea air made my skin clammy. My hands trembled as I lifted the leather away.

My sweaty tunic stuck to my skin as I pulled it off, revealing my tighter undershirt. The tank cut to a soft V between my breasts. Carefully, afraid of what I might find, I tugged the V downward, exposing the space above my heart.

The Brand was easy to spot. Uncomfortably so.

The skin wasn’t normal. My body was…wrong.Wrong,like the gray skin of the Shade general. My muscles clenched as I examined it closer.

The mark was nonintrusive, the size of a thumbprint. It was gray, the color of ash, and it reflected the light, shiny and slick. I ran a finger across it, finding the skin unnaturally smooth.

My stomach turned.I’m broken.The blemish summoned dark thoughts.Bastard. Flawed. My mother’s mistake.

Heart racing, I stumbled, falling to a seat on the bed.

“Are you okay?” Zayne asked.

“I’m fine.” I waved him away. “I need a moment.”

“Okay.” At first, he focused on the Brand, but soon his gaze wandered. To the swell of my breasts, my exposed midriff, and down… A flush claimed his face. “Sorry,” he muttered, turning away.

“Don’t worry about that. Not now,” I replied. Truthfully, I hadn’t minded. Teyr, the heat of his wandering gaze had distracted me, stopping the spiral of my thoughts. Instead of worrying, I wondered at his handsome face.

Another glance at my defacing Brand reminded me of my bleak circumstances.

“Okay,” I breathed. “Is it supposed to look like this?”

“I didn’t see Eleanor’s mark until it had reached her collarbones…” He considered clinically. He stared at the mark for a long second, evaluating, before daring to make glancing eye contact. “But yes, it looked the same.”

Eleanor.So it had been his sister who he watched fall victim to the Brand.

But did he say… “Collarbones?” I asked. “You mean itgrows?”

He nodded. “They branded her at midday—we defeated the Shades and thought we were safe. By the time we settled for the night, it had expanded to her neck and shoulders.”

I breathed, processing that. “And that’s when the Brand claimed her soul?”

“No, the Brand took her in the middle of the night…” He paused, unwilling to continue.

“Tell me. I need to know what to expect.”

He sighed. “That night, I woke to her scream. It was like another being controlled her body, jerking and twisting awkwardly. In the Underworld, I saw her soul contained, trapped in a jar. Then she was gone. She ran away, racing with the speed of the possessed.”

The Brand seemed to relish in my discomfort. It threatened me. “Darkness is inevitable.” The words resonating in my mind, I shivered.

“I tried to follow,” Zayne added. “I chased after her, but she moved too fast and… I lost track of her, somewhere north of Issa Neu.”

Issa Neu?“You were on the Isle of Shadow? You traveled into Gloom? Why?”

He didn’t answer. “The point is, since then, I’ve found a cure.”

“Thisashflower?” I asked. I had never heard of it before he mentioned it.

He nodded, opened a satchel tied to his waist, and showed me his prize. The petals were tiny, forming five-pointed stars small enough to sit on my fingertip. Their vibrant red coloring was reminiscent of flowing lava. “I asked Teyr for a way to save Eleanor, and he gave me this.”

That surprised me. Reaching Teyr’s volcano was a perilous pilgrimage, one that killed more than it saved. It was a journey made in desperation, but those who returned were gifted Teyr’s vitality. “He gave you a cure for the Brand?”