Oath of Betrayal (The Broken Bonds: Slavic Fantasy #1)

I couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was the wind rattling the windows or the fact that nothing made sense. My argument with Orm kept replaying in my head. What did he want from me? What did both of them want? What did I want from them? My feelings towards Orm and Ari were beyond complicated.

To make matters worse, I’d encountered my university nemesis and found out that the reason I was at the fortress in the first place had become obsolete. Ihrain was an ambitious idiot who’d made my life hell after I’d rejected his offer to get together, but if he was right … Gods, if he was right, we were doomed.

That fear tore away the last vestiges of sleep, and I jolted up, fully awake. It was then that I noticed it, a shift in the aether’s flow that I couldn’t identify. I felt malicious intent in the air, and then I heard it—a quiet but unmistakable whimper. At first, I thought it was just the wind or my ears playing tricks on me, but it came again and again. Finally, I grabbed a lantern and went to investigate.

The sound was coming from Alaric’s bedroom. He and Orm were on the same floor as me, Alaric’s room in the far corner of the long hallway. I hesitated at his door, but when I heard the sound again, followed by words filled with such heart-wrenching emotion, I frantically banged on it.