Chapter 1
While I’m kneading dough, I feel an intense surge of heat bloom on my chest.
Gasping, I reach up instantly to unclasp my necklace, then drop it like it’s alive on the flour-coated counter. I stare at the pearl pendant attached to the gold chain—the pearl that’s now burning hot.
Something is wrong with Analla.
Infused with magic and bonded to my sister, the pendant tells me what words cannot. When it’s warm, that means she’s dealing with nuisances, survivable troubles.
When it’s hot—
My throat tightens and my pulse roars in my ears as realization sinks in. If it’s hot, that means she’s in actual danger.
I was already worried because she hadn’t come home last night—or the previous two nights, for that matter. She never stays at work for that long, not without letting me know first.
So, yes, it is possible that she’s in danger. And if she is, there’s only one place she could be: Seferin’s keep.
Living just along the outskirts of Meriva Empire, Seferin is the most corrupt sorcerer in the entire kingdom.
I immediately wipe the sticky dough from my fingers, shove the necklace into one of my trouser pockets, and grab my satchel. I don’t tell the other baker where I’m going, despite her calling after me as I storm out of the bakery.
I don’t even stop to think.
I just leave.
…
By the time I reach the edge of the forest, the sun is starting to sink behind the tree line, and a cold sense of dread crawls up my spine with every step. Words Analla has said before repeat in my head.
Never come to his keep.
Warnings be damned. I need to know if she’s okay. What if this is a false alarm? What if the pendant’s magic is fading, like I was warned it might?
A possibility, yes, but I need to be sure.
The hike takes nearly an hour. My feet ache and my lungs burn, but I don’t slow down until I see the familiar shape of Seferin’s keep, three stories of black brick crowned by a dome roof rising between the treetops.
The Shadow Nest.
He uses this place as a private, exclusive club, one that’s by invite only. It’s the sorcerer’s coverup for corruption, his last shred of mortality. His way of leading people to believe he’s merely one of us…just with a darker side.
I’ve only been here once when I assisted Analla with carrying supplies. It was her first week of work as a nightmaiden. I saw things that day that made my skin crawl, things I still can’t put into words. She made me swear to never return…yet here I am.
I crouch behind a tree and scan the area ahead. With sunlight still lingering in the sky, the sorcerer guards that usually patrol the grounds have lowered their defenses. After all, it’s night that belongs to the monsters.
After checking that my surroundings are clear, I dash across the open field and slip around the side of the building. A partially open door reveals a kitchen beyond. I give the door a nudge with the tip of my boot and step inside.
Around a corner, a cook bends over the hearth with his back to me. I take that as my opportunity to sneak through the kitchen and slip into a hallway, but I wind up crashing into someone else.
Shit.
She’s tall and abnormally slender, wearing a one-piece leather garment that clings to every sharp angle of her body.
She grabs hold of my arm before I can escape and yanks me toward her. “Who are you?” she demands. “I’ve never seen you before.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just looking for my sister,” I say, voice trembling. “She works here. I just want to check on her.”
The woman’s eyes narrow, and the tension in her features softens as she studies my face.
“Your sister?” she repeats.
I nod, swallowing past the thick lump in my throat. Is she going to drag me to Seferin? Kill me herself?
“Analla…” I start.
“Analla?” Recognition sweeps over her face, and her grip slackens.
My eyes expand. “Yes!” I whisper, nodding eagerly. “Do you know her?”
She releases me at once, her gaze darting down the hall. “You need to leave.”
I freeze, even though everything in me tells me to do as she says. “Where is she?”
“Look, I am telling you now that you need to leave. If someone else finds out you’re her sister, they’ll lock you up like they’ve done to her.”
Lock me up?
My stomach tightens into knots as she starts to turn away. “Hey—wait!” I plead. “If she’s here somewhere, can you just take me to her? I don’t care what happens. I need to see her. Please.”
The woman halts and lowers her head, letting out a long exhale. She then looks down both ways of the lengthy hallway before approaching me again.
“Fine,” she grumbles. “I’ll show you to it, but you need to keep quiet.”
I nod and follow her lead. She takes rapid steps through the hallway before turning a corner and approaching a red door, gesturing to it.
“She’s down there, in the dungeon.” The woman clenches her jaw briefly, stepping away. “You’re on your own from here.”
My mouth becomes drier. The woman looks frightened as she backs away.
“Thank you,” I tell her, grabbing the doorknob.
“You’re lucky I liked Analla.” With that, she scurries away.
I face the door and twist the knob, opening it slowly. Darkness yawns below, broken only by floating red orbs that shine on a slick staircase. Another lump forms in my throat. I try swallowing past it as I take the first step down.
I’m consumed by darkness when I finally reach the bottom of the stairs but find only a sliver of relief when I turn the corner and see another row of floating lanterns.
I pick up my pace. The air grows colder with every step, heavier, thick with rot and damp stone.
I gag as a horrid smell hits me.
Oh gods. I should turn back. I don’t even know what I’m walking into. And that woman could be lying. I might be stumbling my way into a trap.
But what if Analla is down here?
That tiny whisper of a question keeps me going.
Heart pounding, I continue, passing several cells occupied with prisoners who are hardly clinging to life. Other cells are empty but have piles of ash and bones. I gulp when it dawns on me that the ashes are that of the dead.
My anxiety heightens as I pass cell after cell, until I finally see a familiar body lying on the floor in one of them.
“Analla,” I whisper.
Her eyes snap open.
Orvena’s sake.
She looks awful, her face hollowed, brown skin ashen, and the coils in her hair matted to her head.
She sits up quickly, but not without a wince. “Zaira,” she breathes. “What the shadows are you doing here?”
“You never came home and then I felt my pendant get hot.” I grip the cold bars, studying her again. “What happened to you? Why are you locked in here?”
Her eyes instantly water as she sinks her teeth into her chapped bottom lip. “It’s Seferin,” she utters feebly. “He placed a curse on me.”
I feel a sudden drop in my stomach. “W-what? Why would he do that?”
She sniffles as she points to a corner inside the cell. “Because I tried to take that.”
I look where she’s pointing and spot an indigo crystal. It seems so out of place here, just like she does.
“You tried to steal it from him?” I ask.
“I didn’t think he’d miss it. There were so many of them in his study, and I—I don’t know.
I thought I could sneak one out and sell it, get a bit more coin because we could use it, you know?
” She shakes her head and frowns. “He said I was one of his favorites. I didn’t think he’d do something like this to me. ”
“Analla.” I wheeze in disbelief, my eyes burning with unshed tears. “Why would you steal from Seferin of all people? You should’ve known better!”
“Shh! I know!” she whisper-hisses as she steps closer and reaches through the bars to grab my hand. Hers are dry and cold as they wrap around mine.
I look her all over in the sheer, black nightmaiden’s dress she’s wearing. “I told you not to work here. I told you to quit before you got hurt, Analla.”
“I know,” she murmurs. “But it’s too late to do anything about it so I need you to leave, okay? Get out of here and never come back.”
“No,” I snap. “I’m getting you out of here.” I pull away and study the cell door. There is no lock for a key, nothing to even pick at to at least attempt a breakout.
“The locks are controlled by his magic,” she mutters sullenly. “Only he can open the cells.”
I groan. Of fucking course.
“I’m not getting out of here, Z, and even if there were a possibility of breaking out, the curse will kill me regardless.
It doesn’t matter where I am.” Her head falls in defeat.
Or shame. Possibly both. “He said the curse will kill me within thirty days. He…he said it will be a slow and painful death—that I deserve it for betraying his trust.”
My tears finally fall as I choke on a sob. How can this be?
My sister, cursed.
I don’t even know what to say. How do I save her? I usually know what to do under pressure, but right now, my mind is blank.
Analla swipes at her tears, then reaches through the bars, gesturing for me to come closer. When I’m near enough, she cups my cheek in one hand while smoothing down some of my curly hair with her other. She puts on a brave smile even though her eyes are rimmed with tears.
“I know you’ll try to find a way to get me out of this, but there is nothing you can do,” she says. “This is my problem, and I’m facing the consequences.”
“No.” My voice trembles. “We always face them together.”
“Not this time, dearest.” She stands taller. “I want you to live your life and live it well, do you understand?”
“Analla, I’m not leaving here without you—”
“You have to!” she insists, squeezing my hand. “Leave and never come back. Ever. I mean it, Zaira. Please.”
A door slams in the distance, and we gasp when we hear keys jingling, followed by heavy footsteps.
“That’s the guard,” she whispers. “Go now. Get out of here!” She gently shoves me away from her cell.
I don’t want to leave.
I want to stay.
To bargain with Seferin.
To sacrifice myself if it means he’ll set my sister free. As long as we’re together, that’s all that matters, right?
As the footsteps grow nearer, I realize I can’t truly help her if we’re both stuck here. That, even if I do bargain with a mad sorcerer, we’ll never truly be free again.
“I’ll get you out of here,” I tell her. “I’ll get someone to break the curse before the month is over. I swear it.”
She only shakes her head with a sad smile. “I love you so much, Zaira. So, so much.”
I step forward one last time, grabbing her hand, clinging to it.
“Go,” she demands softly with thick tears flowing down her cheeks.
Throat clogged with emotion, I run in the opposite direction of the approaching footsteps and don’t stop until I’ve made it out of the keep and the dark forest is swallowing me whole.
I do all this while blinded by tears that don’t cease, while carrying an aching heart that feels heavier in my chest with every step. When I’ve made it a good distance away, I collapse against a tree and weep. It’s a long cry—hard, ugly, and desperate.
But eventually, my sadness morphs into something else.
Resolve.
Analla only has thirty days to live. That means I must do everything in my power to get that curse broken.
I’ll come up with a plan. I’ll seek help. I’ll do whatever must be done to save my sister because if I don’t, I’ll lose the only family I have left.
“Fuck that,” I grumble as I push away from the tree and march in the direction of my kingdom.
Seferin isn’t getting away with his evil this time.