Natalia’s POV
The sound of the battle echoed through the palace walls. Shouts. The clashing of metal. Howls. Screams.
Andrei was out there somewhere, fighting, possibly even dead. I hadn’t been able to accomplish our goal, and I hadn’t been able to warn him about the Winter King’s army. He was right; when I tried to reach for the bond we shared so I could mindlink him, all I felt was a muffled cloud of fog in my mind. As if it were surrounding everything, shrouding the connection we shared until it was too distant to even sense.
There must have been some kind of magic in the walls. Rubies, perhaps. Something to keep the Winter King’s prisoners—and perhaps even his followers—from communicating with one another.
Control of information. One of the most common cult tactics.
I pressed my h
