Page 199 of Without a Trace
It was a witness.
And I was the storm it had been waiting for.
I hated her. Hated how calm she was. How fucking right she sounded.
“Why me?” I asked. “Why now?”
Brielle tilted her head. “Because you’re the heir. Because fate’s a bitch. And because some knots don’t unravel, no matter how hard you try to pull.”
I didn’t want fate.
I wanted answers that didn’t end with my body being some ancient anchor for ruin and fire.
“I want the rest,” I said. “I want to know how to untie the knot.”
She raised a brow. “Even the part where it kills you?”
I didn’t blink. “Especially that part.”
Brielle stared at me with that infuriating calm like she was the only one holding a map and I was still figuring out what language it was written in.
“You really want the truth?” she asked.
I crossed my arms. “I just said I did.”
She walked to the window and pulled back the curtain, moonlight spilling across the stone floor like silver blood.
“You’re not the first,” she said. “To carry the bond. To bind two souls.”
“There was another before you,” she said. “A woman. Centuries ago. She wore the same bracelet you do now.”
My stomach dropped.
“What bracelet?”
Brielle looked back at me like I was stupid. “The silver one on your wrist, Scarlett. The one you’ve had since you were a child. You think that was some sweet heirloom? It’s a relic. A marker. It’s what wakes the bond up when the time is right.”
I looked down, backing away.
“Her name was Elira,” Brielle went on. “She was the first vessel. She chose both of them. And it destroyed all three.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “That’s what happens?”
“Not always,” she said. “But usually. The Severance Knot isn’t made for happy endings. It’s made for power. And power always has a price.”
I hated how cold the air felt. Like the manor had heard everything. Like the stone was listening.
“And me?” I whispered. “What’s my price?”
Brielle sighed, her patience thinning. “God, do you ever actually listen?”
She turned back toward the window, her silhouette sharp against the silver light. “They’ve all been warning you in their own way—Trace with silence, Alden with sacrifice, Zeke withriddles. None of them want to say it out loud, but you already know.”
I didn’t answer.
She looked over her shoulder. “The price is you, Scarlett.”
Trace
