Page 99 of Ashen Souls

I sucked in a breath, my fingers hovering inches from the surface. It felt like a furnace opening beneath my skin, a rush of recognition that woke the mark on my flesh.

Harper noticed the flinch. “Aveline?”

“I…” I swallowed hard, forcing my hand to stay steady. “It’s fine. Just… give me a second.”

The sensation flared once more, like a dying ember catching the wind, then settled into a steady, radiating heat.

I looked up at the owner. “May I?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

Carefully, I reached into the box and lifted the ring.

The second my skin made contact with it, the ground dissolved beneath my boots.

Light fractured behind my eyes.

There was no pain. No sound. Just the overwhelming taste of ash in the back of my throat.

A torrent of fragments tore through my mind. The shop dissolved. Harper’s voice vanished. Even my own heartbeat was swallowed by the sudden silence.

I wasn’t standing in Blackmere anymore.

I was looking through someone else's eyes.

26

♫ OHKAYA—THE ETHER

One second I was holding the ring, and the next, the antique shop blinked out of existence.

At first, only outlines remained. No edges, no source of light. Just a blinding rush of sensations. The ground seemed to dissolve into the air. I was completely submerged, a hostage to someone else's senses.

Then, color and weight slammed back into focus.

The mountain air, sharp with pine and a chill that didn’t belong to Blackmere, stung my lungs. The hush was broken only by the rustle of branches and the soft lap of water against a shore. And even through the disorientation, I felt him. Deep beneath my skin, an invisible needle-thin tension anchored me to his presence before the glare could even fade.

Daeren.

He didn’t look like the creature who haunted my nights. The tattered wings were missing. He stood bathed in the stark, silver light of a full moon. The wild shadows that usually bled from him were subdued—quieted beneath the elegant cut of dark ceremonial clothing. Without the nightmare surrounding him, he looked almost… human.

But it was his eyes that threw me completely.

They lacked the predatory fire that usually threatened to consume everything in the room. They were clear and lucid. There was a piercing intelligence in them, an eerie, displaced familiarity.

When they met mine, they weren’t hungry.

They were tender.

I had never seen him like this, not even for a second. Not even when he’d touched me with a gentleness that defied his own brutal nature.

He was looking at someone with absolute, ruinous devotion.

He was looking at me.

And yet…

No.