Page 76 of A Heart of Ice and Shadow

The Dökk fae had manipulated her magicks for their own gains and, she’d thought, to their destruction. She’d been wrong. “One of them lives in the Hall of Reflections. Trapped within a mirror.” Those silver eyes and that laugh were vivid in her memory now.

The three sisters looked at each other, and Gwen sensed them linger on Eris.

“We will watch,” Sága told her. “As we always do.”

“You need not fear,” Nor added.

“He’s nothing to worry about,” Eris chimed.

A wave of anxiousness struck her, and Gwen looked back over the Sea. The urge to return home was heavy on her heart. She’d been away so long. She closed her eyes. The call of the Sea was loud, but his was thunderous. Gwen didn’t know what would come of this choice, but she knew she wanted it, that she wanted him.

“I do love him,” she said.

Eris squealed with glee, bouncing on her toes in those high platform boots.

“You won’t remember,” Nor told her. “That you were here. Nor will you remember what you are.”

“But you will always be a Star,” Sága added. “Your magicks will remain bound inside you.”

Gwen nodded. She understood. Even as an immortal, she couldn’t use the full breadth of her powers and remain in physical form. It was why her mortal body had broken apart so easily. If she had released much more magick, her flesh would have dissipated into nothing but dust.

“You are sure this is what you wish?” Sága asked.

Gwen was sad to leave, but her heart swelled knowing she could return. What future lie ahead, Gwen assumed not even Sága could predict. She was anxious but ready. “Yes,” she told them. “I am sure.”

“Be well, Daughter of Destiny,” Nor told her.

“Be happy, Wielder of Shadows,” Sága added.

“Go get ’em, Cupcake,” Eris finished with a wink and a devilish smile.

Gwen let out a shallow, stuttered breath. She didn’t know why or how any of this had happened, but she was grateful that it had. “Thank you.”

All three of the sisters nodded.

With one final glance back at the Sea, Gwen began to mutter the spell that would bring her back to him. Her love.

Gwen’s eyes shot open. She gasped in a breath of cold air. The first thing she noticed was the heavy snowfall. The second, a pair of frost-blue eyes.

Sirus stared down into her face with a look of utter bewilderment. It was strange, she thought. She’d never seen him wear an expression that looked so—human.

A scream tore through the silence. It was only after Sirus’s face fell that Gwen realized it had come from her.

She was so overcome with pain, it felt almost distant. Like she was floating in her body more than living in it. Her back arched under the strain. She couldn’t control it.

Sirus’s look of shock shifted. “What have I done,” he breathed. There was no relief in his eyes—only torment.

Gwen was confused by his response and distracted by the pain. Why did she hurt so much? What had happened? Was she hurt?

She had to be, she figured. Maybe she was dying? But she didn’t feel like she was dying. She felt like she was changing.

The black fire of the priestess’s magick seeped into her consciousness, not burning away everything that had been before, but settling at the edges. Charring the rim of all that she was. It was a strange feeling.

Gwen looked into Sirus’s face. She wanted to tell him to not be afraid. That it was okay, that she was okay, but she couldn’t. As her body was burned by magick and rebuilt in shadow, all Gwen could do was focus on him.

Another scream tore through the dawn. The snow began to fall heavier.

Exhaustion took hold as the fire began to subside.

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