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CHAPTER 32

Iris

The world swayed around me, everything muted, as if I were walking on the sea floor in stormy weather. The voices called to me again, voices that were impossible to ignore. They reached deep down inside, taking control of every part of me. I was helpless against it.

Icy coldness soaked through the T-shirt I was wearing. My bare legs, my feet, numb and throbbing.

I’d been walking for a long time. It was dark, the forest around me quiet, eerie. And all the while, they called out to me, their voices desperate and mournful.

Something moved to my right.

A large, cloaked figure stood among the shadows in the distance, a long staff of twisted branches in his hand. His face was covered with a hood, and he didn’t come closer, but I knew he was watching me, and the coldness that flowed from him turned my bones to ice.

Then he was gone.

I’d seen him before, hadn’t I? In my vision at Shadow Falls.

The trees ahead parted, and I rushed through, terrified he was coming after me, then they closed behind me, the branches twisting together and sealing me in.

A cottage.

It was made of stone, and light shone from inside through the small windows while smoke drifted lazily from its chimney. The scents of rich stew, of the herbs that grew in abundance in the gardens, surrounded it.

The voices stopped.

I was all alone and frozen to the bone. I tried to walk to the door, to the little house that looked warm and inviting, but I couldn’t get any closer. I tried to run to it, but still, I couldn’t reach it.

The voices started again, louder, more urgent, until they were screaming at me.

Come inside!

Now, Iris!

I sobbed. That feeling of being torn in two that I’d felt in the cave came over me again with force.

I changed my mind. No, I didn’t want to go into that cottage. I wanted to get away from it. I needed to get away from it.

“No. Please…let me go.”

Someone moved inside, walking past the window.

The door handle turned, the door started to open—

Draven

I ran through the forest at full speed, chasing Iris’s scent. I’d woken and found her gone from our bed. Her scent grew stronger as I went deeper into the woods.

I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but she had to have left as soon as I’d gone to sleep. Her scent was several hours old. I was in my human form so I could call for her, but so far, there was no sign of her.

Doubt tried to creep forward, and I gritted my teeth and shoved it down. Whatever this was, Iris would explain—after I shook the fuck out of her for coming here on her own. She hadn’t even brought Nia with her, for fuck’s sake.

If anything had happened to her—

Iris screamed in the distance. “No!”

Fear spiked through me and I ran faster.

Moonlight filtered through the trees, making the forest dark and shadowy, dappled light trying to break through. I recognized it. We’d been here before.