Page 260 of The Edge of Darkness

But that didn’t matter now. He was dead. We were one enemy less, and though it didn’t change the fact that he’d sent my brother to an early grave, it brought me the peace I needed.

There would be no funeral for the fae lord. No words spoken over his body, or ceremonies performed to see him into the afterlife. The Great Wood of Belthria did not hold the same flair as the woodlands in Anbrya. The colors were mundane, the foliage bland and limp. It was the opposite of what Killian was used to, a fitting place for him to rot—unknown and unnamed.

I pushed to a stand, but was instantly met with another vise around my neck. Though, this time, it wasn’t someone’s hands. It was a shadow—Skadi’s shadow.

The goddess stepped toward me, her outstretched hand commanding the power that closed the distance between us.

Her eyes slid to the forest floor as she stepped up to where Killian lay. “Such a pity. He was a promising little pawn, even if he did like to defy orders and take matters into his own hands.”

I panicked, scratching at my throat, grappling against her shadow’s hold as I gasped for air.

Once again, I tried to summon my power, but nothing came.

What was happening to me?

Something was wrong, I could feel it. The burning in my chest was deeper now, more pronounced, and . . . spreading. I couldn’t access my power, couldn’t port or summon a weapon, no matter how hard I tried.

“Shhh, shhh, shhh,” Skadi chided. “Soon all of this will be over.”

“Stop!” the queen’s voice rang out from across the clearing.

I turned my head as much as I could, and found Corinne stepping forward.

What was she doing?

She lifted her chin and steeled her voice as she said, “I am willing to make a bargain.”

I shook my head against my restraints. The last thing I wanted was for the queen to make a bargain with this goddess, but my voice died out in my throat as I tried to warn her.

Skadi looked moderately amused. “It’s a little late for bargains, don’t you think?”

The queen’s glassy-eyed glare became more menacing. “Let her go,” she commanded.

Skadi chuckled to herself. “Now, why would I do that?”

“Because I have what you want,” the queen answered, pushing past Weston and the other Dionach.

“There is nothing you have that I could possibly want.”

Corinne looked down, then she finally pulled forth what appeared to be a necklace from the pocket of her long, crimson robes. For a moment, she kept it cupped in her palm, admiring it, like it meant a great deal to her. When she unfolded her fingers, letting the black stone dangle freely in the air, I gasped.

It was Erebus’s amulet.

Skadi’s eyes went wide, and her hold around my neck faltered enough for me to claim much-needed full breaths.

“I will barter this.” Corinne held the amulet higher, and suddenly, I sensed . . . Niall. His essence was leaking off the necklace—faint, but there nonetheless.

But how? And how did the queen even have the amulet?

I drank in deep breaths of air, tension bracketing every muscle in my body as I tried to figure out what the hell was happening. Weston wasn’t protesting, and neither was the other Dionach. And Corinne appeared as calm as ever, like what she held wasn’t a world-altering object.

Did she not know what she held in her hand? That amulet—that power⁠—

“This is yours, is it not?” She shook the chain.

Skadi had gone eerily still. “Where did you get that?”

“From a friend. I know what this stone is; I was born a witch, after all.”