I’d been surrounded by nothing but the thickened darkness around me.
For more time than I cared to remember, the chirping sounds of night insects filled the air and, occasionally, the slight rustle of the wind.
Unlike I’d hoped, even this silence didn’t bring me solace.
I had been slumped at the base of the cedar tree since Pierce left, fiddling with the locket around my neck while fighting a deep urge to stare at the pictures inside.
If anything, that would only worsen the heaviness filling my chest—a burden made worse by tonight’s festival.
Things didn’t have to get this complicated; a bloody act with Vina was all I had to maintain if I needed to reclaim my family’s title.
I cared little about that position otherwise, and whoever this sudden competition was could have it and ch
