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CHAPTER 1: BEN

I hadn’t wanted to watch Corrine leave with River I reone before stepping back in

My eyes fell on the empty mattress The sheets where River had lain were still molded with her fore of the bed The deathly silence of the jinn’s atriuripped my stomach

I didn’t re so alone in my life as I did in that moment Even when I had first left The Shade, limmer of hope that I would solve my problems and be able to return

Now it felt like I’d been flung into a void A void where no matter how le one could reach me

I breathed in River’s scent still lingered in the room

River

She’ll return to her faet on with her life And hopefully, she won’t be stupid enough to wait for me

The only semblance of a plan I had was to delay the oracle’s prediction To delay my “inevitable” end

After all the oracle had revealed, I should’ve been terrified ButI just felt numb

I realized that since I left Hortencia’s cave, I’d stopped thinking of a life past the next few days, perhaps the next week If I tried to think further ahead, I would go insane I just had to take my life one day at a time—or better still, one hour at a ti for blood

My bedroo away at me, I entered the en suite bathroo the sides of the sink, I raised my head and stared at my face in the lass What are you? I stared deeper into h I expected to see the shadowy creature behind the, my eyes alent dark, sometimes pitch black Perhaps that was hih me

A chill ran down my spine I tore my eyes away fro my face ater

As I straightened up, I felt a twinge in er I recalled the last time I drank blood—it’d been at the jinn’s lunch, when Aisha had tricked River into eating human bone Since River had thrown up all over the floor, and I’d had to take her away, I hadn’t drunk much then

I was beginning to feel the consequences of that now