Chapter 35

Ursula stood by the window. In the distance, the sunlight glinted off of Asta’s spire. Despite the pearly rays of sunlight, dark thoughts clouded her mind.

Sitting on the onyx throne, she”d completely lost control, flooded by shadow magic. She”d seen horrifying glimpses of her past, little fragments that lacerated her with horror. And perhaps, she’d seen a glimpse of her future.

Unable to warm herself, she pulled a blanket around her shoulders.Something about her disjointed memories filled her with a deep chill.

Bael had said she”d probably blocked her own memories to forget the horrible things she’d done. And the closer she got to remembering her past, the more she feared he was right. Whenever she thought of the burning room—the red-haired woman, the words kill the king—guilt pressed on her ribs like a hundred rocks.

Somewhere, deep under the fog of her forgotten memories, lurked a wild animal.

And if she didn’t want to succumb to Bael’s blade, maybeit was time for her to unleash the beast. After all, if shecouldn”t even kill a moth, how could she drive a weapon into Bael?

The odds against her were hard enough without hesitation. If she faltered, she’d be dead. Jaw slackened, red hair stampedinto the dirt.The void had been trying to tell her something.

Throwing her cloak around her shoulders, she ran out the door into the sunlight. She hurried over the bridge into the atrium, where the lion’s mosaic seemed to leer at her from the floor. She pulled the lever in the wall. After a moment, the lift clanked down in the middle of the room. She stepped inside the iron lift, trying to clear her mind. The elevator creaked upward past the manor’s empty floors.

On the roof, the lunar wind nipped at her through the wool of her cloak, and she stepped out onto the marble. Shielding the sun from her eyes, she whistled for Sotz. It took only a few moments for his shadow to pass overhead, and he glided to a landing on the roof’s edge.

Carefully, she climbed onto his back, gripping his fur. She squeezed her thighs, sending him soaring over the roof’s edge. The wind whipped over her skin, pure and clean. As she leaned into Sotz, she asked, “Want to hunt?”

Immediately, Sotz swooped toward Asta, beating his wings harder. As they soared for the writhing cloud of moths, the sound of beating wings filled the air.A deep humming that vibrated her very core.

When they reached the cloud, the moths parted, fluttering around them, just out of reach. In the cocoon of moths, the sunlight dimmed, like they were walking in a deep forest.

Just as Sotzarced around the spire, an enormous moth shot in front of them—gray wings with faint purple spots. Sotz dove for it, and Ursula gripped tighter. Time to unleash the beast.

As Sotz neared, the moth folded its wings and dove. Sotz pursued, his wings pumping. Like a meteorite, they hurtled for the lunar floor, wind racing over her skin. Her pulse raced, a dark thrill rippling through her.

The moth burst out of the cloud, fleeing for his life. Ursula pressed herself tight against Sotz’s back. The moth twisted and spun, but inch by inch, they gained on it. The ground neared, and Ursula started to direct Sotz out of the dive, but the moth was only a few feet from his nose. With a final burst of speed, he hammered his wings, snatching it from the air. Only a few hundred feet above the ground, she tugged Sotz’s fur to pull him up again before they smashed into the lunar floor.

Sotz chewed happily on the moth as they carved a slow circle around the base of the spire. Now, she could feel the night magic emanating from the tower. It washed over her skin in waves, but it didn’t seem to chill her as it had before. Her heart raced with the thrill of the hunt, her body energized.

After she caught her breath, they climbed back into the cloud. Sotz beat his wings, taking her higher and higher, above Asta’s spire. He raced upward, until they nearly reached the edge of the magical dome.

The moths thinned, and the crater spread out before them—a great caldera, full of Nyxobas’s brethren. And beyond, more craters, ancient lava fields. A great expanse of barren land.

Ursula shivered. Suddenly Sotz tensed. A flicker of movement above caught her eye. Her gaze landed on the great white bat. The Gray Ghost’s steed.

“Can you follow it?” Ursula asked.

Sotz beat his wings, rising higher behind the albino bat. The creature flew with powerful beats of its wings and they raced to keep up with it. It moved swift as the night wind, its downy fur stark against the dark sky. They winged upward, skimming the edge of the dome.

But when the bat reached the shimmer of shadow magic, it simply passing into the shadow beyond.

Ursula swallowed hard. How can it fly in a vacuum, with no air?

Ursula directed Sotz right up to the edge, until the magic shimmered only inches from the tips of his outstretched wings.

She peered into the darkness beyond. The bat was gone.