Page 46 of What Whispers in the Dark (Promises of the Marked)

T hat memory still clung to her like ash. The flashes of scorching heat, a clouded face in pain, sonic hissing and deafening sounds of ruination, then … nothing. Nothing but the blank void that was his face—where it should have been.

Not even a name to cry out for, to cherish on her lips, to carry in her heart besides that terrible ache in her chest. The one that felt like some sort of curse she would never be freed from.

But that damned fucking memory that lingered … repeating over and over and fucking over when she least expected it to surface again …

When it came, she couldn’t avoid it.

So, Jade put that hurt and pain and anger into the only thing that ever chased it away.

Violence. Terrible, scathing, venomous violence.

This bonus chapter is nestled inside Chapter Forty-eight, where Garrik and Alora dawn to Erissa’s bedchamber to finish Aiden and Alora’s previous search for Blood before they were nearly caught.

Thalon and Aiden stayed behind in the garden, and Jade, having been training with Deimon, needed something else to distract her—to ease the torment constricting her heart and mind.

Though she doesn’t believe she wants it—even deserves it—Jade realizes she will never be alone again. And somehow… that means more than she expected.