MARICK POV
I felt the moment she almost died.
Not the way normal people feel loss.
Not grief. Not fear.
It was sharper than that. More intimate. Like a hook buried somewhere behind my ribs suddenly yanked tight.
The talisman on my neck burned hot, almost painfully.
And I knew.
Amaranta.
My Amaranta.
Something had happened.
I had been in the middle of a ritual when the sensation struck, standing barefoot in the circle I carved into the floorboards of the apartment we once shared, ash and salt scattered under candlelight, the air thick with smoke and old magic.
The spirits I kept bottled along the walls had begun to rattle at the same time, glass trembling against wood, their whispers rising into a shrill chorus that clawed against the inside of my skull.
She was close to the thr
