Brenya fell silent, but the slightest smile creased her cheek. It was gone before Grace was even sure she’d seen it.

“Was I?” she asked.

“When you came to me, there was no ring.”

“You opened up those other memories. I thought maybe you’d open more, or that you’d know something.”

“Why does it matter?”

Grace had hoped the older woman wouldn’t ask that question. “You know why.”

“So you fall for the first man to enter our borders?”

“He’s… nice.”

“Flowers are nice. A warm bowl of stew is nice. Torr is dangerous. That is why I summoned him.”

“He would never hurt me.”

“All men hurt women. It is their nature.”

“You don’t know him.”

“And you do, child? How?”

Grace had no answers. “I don’t know. I just… He makes me…”

“Tingle?”

“Yes. Exactly.” Grace beamed, pleased that Brenya understood.

“Ignore it.”

“That’s not the kind of thing a girl ignores.”

“Tingling comes right before sorrow. That man lost the woman he loved. Such pain is bound to leave its mark. You do not want to be the thing he uses to erase it.”

“You really do hate men, don’t you? The girls all say it’s true, but I never believed it before now.”

“I do not waste anything as powerful as hate on men. They are not worthy.”

“So you’re not going to help me figure out if I’m married, then, are you?” asked Grace.

“You are not. But you should not let that make you stupid, child. Guard your heart.”

Grace laid her hand on Brenya’s arm. “I’m sorry he hurt you so much.”

The waves in the older woman’s eyes frothed with anger. “There are no words for what he did, child. I wished it had been only hurt he caused.”

Grace didn’t dare ask. She didn’t want that kind of thing in her head.

Brenya’s tone was calm again, as if nothing had angered her. “Go fetch Victoria for me. She and I must speak. She was a naughty child last night and must be punished.”

•   •   •

Tori hated Brenya’s hut. It was dark and cluttered, reminding her of dank caves filled with the bones of dead friends.

“What do you want?” she asked as she entered.

“Respect is a good place to start. After you have found that, I think we should discuss what you did last night.”

“Torr told on me, didn’t he?”

“He did not need to. I know you. I am part of you now.”

Tori hated the reminder, hated that the old woman had been in her head, rooting around for what she thought should be there: flowers and candy and fuzzy puppies. Those were the things that real girls thought about—girls who grew up in houses, with parents and television and food.

Tori had been raised by demons who kept her locked in tiny, cramped spaces with no light. Her entertainment was watching her captors fight to the death over who would hurt her next. She was fed the blood of monsters. And worse.

Brenya thought she could somehow change all that—that she could reach into Tori’s mind and scoop out all the bad stuff. It wasn’t until the older woman started stomping around inside Tori’s skull that she realized the truth: bad stuff was all there was.

“You are more than your past, child,” said Brenya.

Tori stalked forward, her hand on the grip of her blade. Anger seethed in her veins, burning her from the inside out. Her head pounded with the need to kill. “You have no right to invade my privacy like that. Get the fuck out of my head!”

“You are overwrought. Settle.” Power pulsed from Brenya’s order, forcing Tori to collapse where she stood.

The packed-dirt floor was cold, hard. She could smell the soil, feel the grit of it clinging to her skin. Very little light streamed in through the single window, covered with a layer of heavy leather. None of that light reached Tori, and she felt herself collapsing inward as terror crushed her.

She hugged herself and rocked, unable to hear anything beyond the demon blood pounding in her ears and her own pitiful wails of anguish.

She wouldn’t go back to living like that again. She would dig her own heart out of her chest before she’d let those demons touch her again.

A warm, dry finger pressed into the center of her forehead. She flinched, striking out in reflex.

Brenya let out a sharp rush of air but didn’t even rock from Tori’s blow to her gut.

“You will calm yourself, Victoria.” It was a command, as powerful as the ocean and as bright as the moon.

Tori’s heart started to slow. Her breathing evened out. With no energy left to fuel her panic, that began to fade, leaving her dizzy and nauseated.

“That is better. Now, let us go outside under the suns and discuss what you did to Torr and why you are sorry.”

“I’m not,” snapped Tori. The heat of her words lost a little force in her breathlessness.

Brenya offered her hand to help Tori to her feet. Her face was stoic, but her stormy eyes gave away just how angry she was. “Perhaps you are not sorry for your actions yet. But before we are done, you will be.”

Chapter 14

Torr tried to keep his eyes on the path, but with Grace leading the way, the temptation presented by her sweetly curved ass was too much for him to resist.

She dressed like all of the other women here, in a sleeveless leather tunic that fell to mid-thigh. A long slit ran down the back, adding both ventilation and an enticing glimpse of smooth skin and supple spine. Strips of some kind of animal hide held thick leather soles on her feet and wound around her calves, protecting her from low brush and brambles. She was bare from knee to thigh, making him wonder just how much she had on under that tunic. He hadn’t seen any underwear hanging up to dry in the village, and the idea that she might be naked under her clothes made him break out in a hot sweat.

She started up a hill, leading him to the crystals Brenya had ordered them to find. With each long stride, the hem of her tunic inched up a tiny bit more. He held his breath, wondering if the next step might finally make his heart explode in anticipation.

Grace stopped at the top of the hill and looked back down at him. “Am I going too fast for you?”