Eryk rests his bow against the trunk of a nearby tree. "Are you hurt?" he breathes, kneeling down in front of me, looking at a spot on my forehead. Reaching up to touch it, I wince, pulling back to see my fingertips covered in my blood. At this point, I can't tell if it's my blood or the girls. Looking over at the body, I see the arrow coming out of her dead body, and suddenly the world is spinning, the reality that I just watched someone die hitting me square in the stomach. 

The moment the door closes behind him, my gaze drifts to the keys lying on the floor which must have fallen from Eryk’s pocket. Leaning down, I grab them, tucking them into my own pocket.  "What are you doing?" Lei hisses.  "Quiet," I respond, my voice barely above a whisper. Lei’s gaze tracks me all the way to the window, which I slide open, a light spray of rain blowing in with the wind. "He's insane if he thinks I'm staying here. That man has something seriously wrong with him."Lei and

An overwhelming feeling encompasses me. A feeling of falling has my eyes squeezing shut tighter, my heart nearly stopping as a sense of tension wraps around me, pushing my limbs closer to my body as I fall through a tunnel of darkness. Not once do I feel Eryk’s grasp leave my body, his finger’s only tightening on me as terrifying silence builds in my ears. And then, the tension releases, and my feet are touching the hard ground. I stumble forward a step, but Eryk pulls me back up against him, stopping me from hurtling face first into the ground. Rubbing my eyes, I push off him, looking around. 

~AvenMy feet touch solid ground almost immediately after everything around me transformed into a vortex of darkness. I gasp, bright shining light assaulting my vision for a moment. When I am finally able to open my eyes, I realise I’m staring at the large expanse of an ocean, the dark blues in the distance framed by a sky of orange, sapphire and violet melting together as the sun sinks below. Yelping, I stumble back, my lowered gaze discovering I’m inches away from falling down a sprawling cliff and onto the pale sands below. A hand still grips me - Eryk - who stops me from tripping over my own feet. 

Stace delivered us, including Eryk and my family, to an estate he argues is my own. I don't believe it for a second, or at the very least, I don't accept it. The place is beautiful, even in the shadows that have settled with night. It's not nearly as big as Stace's, but it is larger than Eryk's, stretching out widely at the edge of a cliff. It's close to Stace's, which is by design, I imagine, but it doesn't matter. Even though he is my mate, I can't accept something as incredible as this. Stace lingers for only a few moments before he disappears, leaving us all to allocate our own rooms, everything already furnished, a dresser filled with clothes that I imagine I’ll fit, thanks to the magic dwelling in this place. I try to ignore it, but I can sense it in the air, controlled by Stace no d