Page 35 (1/2)

Prologue: Annora

“Caleb!” My voice was hoarse, vocal cords bruised fro into the wind

As I stu the pebble beach,fast I wasn’t sure whether I was close to passing out or whether night was approaching I stopped and wiped , I cast my eyes toward the horizon The sun had ducked beneath it It was the darkness of the night that was consu me

I looked back at the distance I’d walked so far, straining to make out the entrance to Lilith’s cave Perhaps five miles A splatter of dark liquid trailed over the stones behindfrom my feet But I barely felt it I was filled with another kind of agony One that wasn’t curable with bandages I clenched hs I wasn’t used to traveling at such a pace I was used to traveling anywhere on earth or in the supernatural realers The absence of an ability I’d long taken for granted, coupled with the urgency coursing through my veins to find my fiancé, was torture

I sank to the ground again, staring out at the ocean I felt too exhausted to cry any ht me no closer to Caleb

I breathed in deeply, trying to comfort myself that he must have returned to his island That he had abandoned o back to our island within seven days or die I’d return to the island and find hiet down on ive ain And I would fill his tortured heart with the love I’d denied hiain, the way I had before I’d given myself up to the witches

Every part of h I’d spent alht with him for decades, I couldn’t reainst ripped h the o And he hadn’t He’d never let ht I was the one who’d broken my vow to him

I couldn’t contain the exciteain—it would be like seeing hih we’d barely spent a night apart

But I didn’t knoas going to get back to our island I didn’t have the ate on Isolde’s island that led back to our castle And there was no point trying to enter the gate to the human realm on this island I knehere that led Without my powers, and in le alone for more than a few hours

I’d have to wait here until so I didn’t kno long I’d lain in that tunnel

My throat prickled as I breathed in the cool evening air If I didn’t find water soon, I’d pass out