1. Amber

I stareat the place where Morgan disappeared into flames, her warnings echoing in my mind.

Stay away from the Shadow Lord.

They will come for you now. Drawn to your magic like moths to a flame.

I’m going to find a way to help you. But I can’t stay here to do it.

And then, gone in a flash of fire.

There’s also the Shadow Lord. Because the hungry way he looked at me is burned into my mind. The smirk he gave me before leaving the gates of the Fairmont chills me to the bone—the promise that he’s not done with me yet.

He won’t be done with me until he’s dead. I feel it deep in my soul.

And the Shadow Lord isn’t my only problem. There’s Lucas, who’s determined to get me to join his clan of downtown vampires. And there’s Viktor, my trainer and Damien’s best friend, who turned on us by joining Lucas’s clan and leaving me to die in front of an oncoming train.

I can still feel the potion I drank swirling inside me, melding with my magic.

It’s part of me now.

At least, it’s part of me until Morgan figures out how to get it out of me.

She has to figure out how to get it out of me.

Otherwise, I’ll be a beacon for shadow souls forever.

I can’t live like that. I won’t live like that. I refuse.

Somehow pulling myself back into focus, I turn to Damien. He’s also staring at the place where Morgan disappeared, and his blue eyes are so far off that I have no idea what’s going on in his mind.

The bond between us is closed, so I don’t know what’s going on in his heart, either.

“You knew,” I say, jolting him back into focus.

“I knew what?” His voice is distant, as if he’s here with me, but not.

“You knew about Morgan’s ability. That she can see the future.”

“It wasn’t my secret to tell,” he says, although he’s still far off, looking at me like he doesn’t know me. “It was Morgan’s, and it’s a secret she keeps highly guarded. However, she did tell you, before she left. She trusted you with something that could get her killed. And now, she’s going out there—wherever ‘there’ is—to try to save your life.”

He gazes out the window, to where the Shadow Lord was lurking behind the gate, and I can almost see the storm of emotions crashing over him.

“You’re angry with me,” I say.

A statement—not a question.

His eyes lock onto mine, and they’re like ice. Cold, hard, and unforgiving.

“You drank the potion,” he finally says. “You didn’t think before you acted, and now, you’re going to be hunted more than you already were. You didn’t stop to think about the potential consequences of your actions, and you put yourself in unnecessary danger.”

His words are so sharp that they cut through my heart like a knife.

But I gather myself together and meet his gaze head-on, not willing to let him push me down.

“I had to,” I say, desperate for him to understand. “The vial was cracking. I couldn’t let it go to waste. Not after everything we went through to get it.”

The Labyrinth in the subway. Working together to complete every challenge the dark realm threw at us. And then, finally, defeating the Minotaur.

Afterward, I thought Damien and I were on the same team. The way he kissed me back in the Minotaur’s lair sure made it feel like it.

Now, he’s further away from me than ever.

“And you thought the best solution was to drink it?” He looks me up and down, as if he’s disgusted at the sight of me.

When he says it like that, it does sound a bit impulsive. Reckless. Na?ve.

And he probably has a right to think so. After all, he’s a centuries old immortal vampire who’s been ruling a kingdom for longer than I can possibly understand. And I’m… what, exactly? A human girl who was chosen by a goddess? Technically, a witch chosen to be star touched by a goddess. Although, I didn’t grow up knowing my heritage, so sometimes, I don’t feel like either a witch or a star touched.

I wasn’t prepared for any of this. I’m doing my best, but after drinking that potion and learning I’ll be a shadow soul beacon because of it…

I can’t help but feel like I made a giant mistake.

Glancing around the lobby of the Fairmont, I see there’s only the concierge at the front desk, and the guards at each side of the front doors. They saw and heard everything, but their eyes are averted from us, in a clear sign of respect for their king.

“Morgan’s going to figure out a solution.” I return my focus to Damien, somehow sounding much calmer than I feel. “She knows it’s possible to fix this. She can see the future.”

“Her visions are far from perfect,” he says. “She tries, and she means well, and her ability does help the clan. But she’s not infallible, or invincible. And you should keep in mind that neither are you.”

“I know that,” I snap, my anger rising. “I was well aware of that after Viktor decided I was an emotional weakness for you and threw me in front of an oncoming train.”

He flinches, as if I slapped him on the face when I said Viktor’s name.

I take a sharp, almost painful breath at the sight of the grief stricken across his flawless features.

Then, the hardness in his eyes turns to something more vulnerable—more human.

“Viktor…” he says, barely able to speak his friend’s name. “Will pay for what he did. His betrayal is a reminder of how dangerous our world is. Of how quickly alliances can change. And now that you drank that potion, you made yourself a bigger target. You put yourself in even more danger.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice,” he says. “And you chose to drink that potion without thinking of the consequences.”

I take a breath to speak, but say nothing.

After all, he’s not wrong.

“Morgan will fix this,” I say, not just for his sake, but also for mine.

He looks me up and down with grief in his eyes, as if I’m already halfway dead.

I nearly step forward to reach for him. To show him that even though the potion is swirling inside me, I’m still here.

But I don’t do it. I don’t have to see the future to know that isn’t what he wants right now. That he resents me for what I did.

“We need to rest.” He turns away from me, walks to the elevators, and presses the call button. “It’s late. Sleep in tomorrow to regain your strength. You’ll report to training in the afternoon, as always.”

“Really?” I ask. “After everything that happened, you want to train like usual tomorrow?”

“Do you have anything more important on your schedule?”

I press my lips together, because he’s right. I don’t exactly have a bustling social life here at the Fairmont, or in the city in general.

Eventually, the elevator dings, and we step inside, the space feeling smaller than ever.

As the doors close, I catch a glimpse of his profile. Strong and resolved, but also touched with a hint of something else.

Regret, or concern.

Or both.

There’s no getting through to him right now. No point in even trying. So, we ride up in silence, lost in our own worlds of thoughts and fears.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, the elevator stops at my floor and the doors open.

I glance over at him again, but he doesn’t even look at me.

His silence slices at my heart like shards of glass. Maybe even more than his angry words.

I search my mind for something to say, but what is there? Another apology? A sad attempt to offer my condolences for what Viktor did to him—to us?

No. Words can’t do justice for what happened. I know that just as well as he.

So, I don’t try.

What’s the point?

When I step out of the elevator, he says nothing. And when the doors close, he’s still staring straight ahead, as if his soul has left his body and only a shell remains.

Strangely, I feel empty, too. Alone. Abandoned.

With nowhere else to go, I hurry back to my room and collapse into my bed, not bothering to change out of my dirty clothes.

Right now, I need to sleep. I need to recharge.

And, when I’m drifting off, one final thought flashes through my mind. A realization.

Because my magic tends to show itself when I’m upset. To have a mind of its own.

But despite how angry and heated I was at what Damien said to me, I didn’t feel a single trace of it.