Page 18 of Shattered & Returned

A dream.I tried to convince myself. That’s all it was. Just my mind replaying today’s horrors.

Yet the wailing echoes lingered in my skull, clinging like cobwebs.

I threw off the covers. The tower’s walls pressed in around me, suddenly suffocating. Nineteen years of sleeping under open skies had left me unprepared for this stone prison. My skin prickled with the need to escape, to feel wind rather than stagnant, candle-scented air.

The closet yielded only gowns, all of them my size, each more elaborate than the last. High-necked silk in cream or mauve with charcoal-gray taffeta trimmed in silver thread. No jeans. No t-shirts. Just another cage, this one of corsets and frills.

I grabbed the simplest one I could find: a cream gown with a modest bustle and long, fitted sleeves. The hem brushed my ankles, exactly the length I would’ve chosen.Tooexactly. As if someone had measured not just my body but my preferences, then deliberately ignored them in favor of this archaic nightmare.

A folded note fluttered from the bodice. I snatched it up, my fingers crushing the parchment before I forced them to relax.

Welcome to House Ravencrux. Dress accordingly.

No signature. None needed.

I pocketed my inhaler and the iron key, its teeth biting into my palm as I slipped into the corridor.

First the black hallway, then the winding stairs.

At last, I emerged.

I glanced back the way I’d come, but athread,invisible and insistent, tugged me forward. For a heartbeat, I paused. Then I followed my instinct, slipping into the dark like it had been waiting for me.

Like I belonged to it.

The fading sun painted the forest’s edge in gold as I quickened my pace. Orren had said the wards reached this far, not that it mattered. I’d never feared the so-called cursed forest near my cabin. Plants had always welcomed me.

A gust whipped my hair across my face, pressing the gown against my skin as I climbed the ancient steps worn by centuries of forgotten footfalls. Twilight filtered through the canopy, turning the mist into ghostly veils winding between the trees.

The air grew sharper and colder with each step, carrying the musk of wet soil and something older, something that didn’t belong to this realm.

Beautiful, yes, but wrong. No birds called. No animals scrambled. No leaves rustled. Only silence, thick as wool.

A chill, tingling feeling sprouted between my shoulder blades. My eye started twitching, a sense of danger washing over me. Something watched me from the shadows. Not just watched. Hunted.

I wasn’t fool enough to stay and find out what.

I spun toward the tower just as the earth yawned open beneath me. My scream tore through the stillness as I fell, only to be snatched from midair.

My face collided with a chest that smelled of burning sandalwood and powerful male. The scent struck me like a remembered dream, familiar and enchanting. When I looked up, I found myself staring into the eyes of the devil himself.

Chapter

Eight

Bloom

Obsidian Wilds

Not the actual devil, though that golden-eyed boy’s description wasn’t far off. This was the same man who’d bitten me and watched me drown in my dream, whose gaze had pinned me across the crowded courtyard. Now his arms held me tight against a hard chest that smelled of forbidden things.

Shadows clung to him like faithful hounds. His bare torso glistened in the fading light, every muscle carved with unnatural perfection. I gaped at his broad shoulders and cut chest. I’d seen few naked men, but instinct screamed this sculpted body wasn’t merely mortal but a lethal weapon wrapped in velvet skin.

Heat flooded my veins as his nostrils flared, drinking in my scent. He carried me effortlessly from the crater’s edge, hisgrip firm and careful, as if I might dissolve into mist. His dark hair fell in disheveled waves. Those winter-green eyes burned brighter, tracking my face with predatory focus.

“Uh, thank you.” My voice emerged embarrassingly breathless. “For catching me.”

His lips curved, not in a smile but in a claiming. “I’ll always catch you, little flower.” The vow slithered down my spine, too intimate for a stranger.

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