Page 28 of Moonmarked

His voice was brittle, paper-thin, but it cracked through the silence like thunder. His gaze locked onto me and didn’t waver for a second. I shook my head, my body betraying me for a moment when I tried to speak and couldn’t. But the werewolf was still growling as she slowly went a little closer to the temple, though not close enough to even touch the stone.

“You came back,” he whispered again and again,another three times. Impossible to convince myself that I’d heard wrong.

“I…I think you’ve made a mistake,” I finally choked out with barely any voice, then chided myself in my head.

What the hell was I doing, being so terrified of a man chained to a piece of rock? I could do better than this, damn it!

“No mistake,” he said, a tremor in his voice now. His face crumpled like he was suddenly seeing the sun rising right in front of his face. “You came back, My Queen. I’ve been waiting so long…”

The man suddenly flinched, and his entire body convulsed like he was holding back a scream.

My heart jumped.

“Are you okay?” I asked despite myself, but my feet were glued to the ground and I couldn’t get closer if I tried, not until I knew for a fact that this man wouldn’t hurt me.

A thought occurred to me as he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, and those silver blue glyphs that seemed to be glowing from his very bones burned brighter.

What if this was a trap? What if those sorcerers had seen that I hadn’t died, and they’d set this trap for me here?

The werewolf growled louder.

The man spoke again.

“They said you died, My Queen. They said he killed you. But your frostfire is still here. We feel it. It still sings.”

I moved back a bit instinctively, and the werewolf stepped in front of me.No, no, no, no,the voices in my head said—noto everything. All of this. Those words and the way he was looking at me—and are those tears in his eyes?!

My God, what the hell was this place?

“Look, mister, I just wanted to help you with thosechains. Do you need help or not?” I forced myself to say, getting angrier by the second, but…

“They took everything after you fell. The mirror is gone, My Queen. But the vengeance lives. I see it now—itlives.” And then he let out this sound that could have been laughter, but it sounded like nails being dragged against glass instead.

My hands moved to my ears and I stepped farther away, and the werewolf moved back, too.

“Yeah, we’re getting out of here. Good luck with those chains,” I said because I was not about to get anywhere close to this guy again.

He didn’t seem to mind, though.

“Find it,” he suddenly snapped, those wide eyes on me—and he looked terrified now, not happy. Terrified. “Find the mirror.Find it.”

It wasn’t just a demand—it was an order.

I shook my head, my blood near a fucking boiling point by now. “I amnotwho you think I am, mister! You have the wrong person. I’m?—”

“Find the mirror, find it!” This he shouted, and the werewolf growled. “Find it…” His voice trailed off and he froze, like suddenly he turned to stone, those wide unblinking eyes on me. “Before he does.”

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps.

“Wha—”

The man coughed hard. Blood speckled the altar, as dark as the blood that had dried on his arms.

He closed his eyes and his head fell to the side against the rock, and he was suddenly in theexact sameposition he had been when we first saw him. The exact same.

I don’t know why that freaked me out so much—maybe because for a brief moment there I considered that I’d onlymade the whole thing up? Maybe because I thought I’d somehow imagined a dead man opening his eyes and speaking to me, calling mequeen,talking about mirrors and frostfire—that’s not even a word, you scary fucking prick!

Either way, I turned around and I ran back between the trees, into the forest with my heart in my throat, and the werewolf followed.

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