LOGINThe question hung between them. Winter didn't answer right away. Couldn't. Because the truthful answer would devastate her mother, would confirm everyone's fears about the bond's influence, would prove she was exactly as weak and confused as they thought. But the truthful answer was still: 'es. maybe. I don't know but I want the choice' "I want to talk to him," she said instead. "Just once. Ask him what he wants. What he intended. Because everyone here tells me he's a monster, but when I was there he also..." She struggled for words. "He let me see him. The real him, under the curse. And that person wasn't evil. Just broken." Levi absorbed this silently. Then: "Your grandmother broke him. With her curse." "I know." "Does that bother you?" "Yes." The admission felt like betrayal. "She had every right to her anger. To her revenge. But cursing an eighteen-year-old boy for his father's crimes... that's not justice. That's just more cruelty." "Most people here won't see it that way
Winter's hands clenched. "Sad. Confused. Angry sometimes. Guilty because I'm supposed to be grateful to be here but I just feel....." She stopped, the words damming up in her throat. "Feel what?" "Trapped!" The word burst out. "I went from Griselda's house to Ezekiel's citadel to here and nobody's asking what I want, where I want to be, everyone just keeps moving me around like I'm a piece in their game and I'm so tired of it!" Her voice cracked. "I'm tired of people deciding my life for me!" The shadows in the room shivered. Winter felt it more than saw it. A ripple through the darkness, like dropping a stone in still water. Levi went very still beside her. "Do that again" he breathed. "Do what? I didn't do anything!" "You did. You felt something real, something strong, and the shadows responded." His excitement was palpable. "Don't think about it. Just feel. What do you want right now, more than anything?" The answer came immediately, instinctively, from somewhere too deep a
She let him pull her to her feet, her damp soles cold against the stone floor. "Try what?" "Actually testing your magic instead of talking about your feelings. Feelings are complicated. Magic is straightforward." "I don't have magic." "Everyone with witch blood has magic. It just manifests differently." He led her deeper into the cave system, away from the main cavern. They passed through a narrow tunnel that opened into a smaller chamber she hadn't seen before. It was empty except for scorch marks on the walls and ceiling, black streaks that spoke of previous explosive experiments "This is the practice room," Levi explained. "Warded so nobody gets hurt if something goes wrong. Which it will, repeatedly, so don't feel bad about it." Winter's stomach twisted with anxiety. "I don't know what I'm doing." "Nobody does at first." He positioned himself across from her, maybe ten feet away. "Most magic falls into categories. Elemental—fire, water, earth, air. Healing. Transformation. D
Three days of questions Winter couldn't answer. Three days of Sophia hovering, eyes bright with desperate hope every time Winter entered a room. three days of witches introducing themselves with names she'd forget immediately, their faces blurring together into a mass of cautious curiosity and poorly hidden suspicion Three days of feeling Ezekiel through the bond like a distant storm on the horizon. Rage that came in waves, then went cold and empty in a way that scared her more than the anger. Winter sat on a flat rock near the underground spring, her bare feet dangling in water so cold it made her bones ache. Alice had told her the spring ran deep, fed by snowmelt from mountains she couldn't even see from down here. The cold helped. Made her focus on something physical instead of the mess inside her head. "You're doing it again." She didn't turn. Knew Levi's voice by now, the way he always sounded vaguely amused even when discussing serious things. He'd been assigned as her tea
Sophia reached for Winter again, but Winter stood abruptly, putting distance between them. "You sent money?" Winter's laugh was sharp. "Where did it go? Because I wore rags and ate scraps and slept in the cold. Whatever you sent, she kept for herself." "I should have checked on you," Sophia whispered. "I should have risked it." "Yes. You should have." Winter wrapped her arms around herself. "But you didn't. You stayed hidden, kept yourself safe, and left me to her." "I was terrified Theron would find us both." "He found me anyway!" Winter's voice echoed off the stone. "I'm bonded to his son! I ended up in the Crescent Citadel regardless! So what did your hiding accomplish except making me suffer alone?" Sophia had no answer for that. She sat on the rock, crying silently, and Winter stood with her back turned, shaking with anger and grief and confusion. The silence stretched. The pool stayed mirror-still. Finally, Sophia spoke, her voice hoarse. "His son. Ezekiel." She s
Sophia's relief was palpable. She led Winter away from the main cavern, down a side tunnel that sloped gently upward. The lichen here grew thicker, providing enough light to navigate by. The tunnel opened into a smaller chamber, this one clearly natural. No signs of habitation, just raw stone and a small pool of water in the center, perfectly still, reflecting the glowing lichen like a mirror to some other world. "I come here when I need to think," Sophia said quietly. She sat down on a flat rock near the pool's edge, patting the space beside her. Winter sat, leaving a careful gap between them. The water's surface was so still it looked solid, like dark glass. "Where do you want me to start?" Sophia asked. "The massacre." Winter's voice was steadier than she felt. "Tell me what actually happened." Sophia's hands twisted together in her lap, knuckles white. She was quiet for so long that Winter thought maybe she wouldn't answer. Then she took a breath, and began. "It started wi
The word hung in the bloody air, a brand seared onto the sudden, ringing silence. ‘Mine’ It wasn’t a promise. It wasn’t a term of endearment. It was a statement of fact, as absolute and final as the death surrounding them. He had declared ownership, and the proof was cooling on Winter’s skin and
He didn’t take her back through the main door. He carried her to the wall beside the great hearth, to the secret passage he had used before. The stone swung inward, and he stepped into absolute darkness. The air here was old and cold, smelling of deep earth and dust. He didn’t slow down, navigatin
Winter stared at him, her mind failing to comprehend. “What?” His gaze dropped pointedly to her blood soaked dress. “The dress. Take it off. It’s..ruined.” He said the last word with a kind of finality, as if passing judgment. The command, so blunt and intimate, sent a fresh wave of panic through
“Spirits,” he breathed, running a hand through his hair. He walked over, his gaze dropping to the discarded dress. “He, uhh....he cleaned you up?” Winter nodded numbly. “And gave you his shirt.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement of profound disbelief. “Okay. This is.. new territory.” He lo







