Asha is our savior, she would say. She will send our salvation.

When? I asked. After we are all dead?

Insolent child, the goddess gave you life!

My mother gave me life, I said. She died for me too.

When Killian did not answer, I met his gaze. I knew what he would say before the words left his mouth, and yet I could not protect myself from the pain, the heartache, of knowing she would never choose me.

“Nadia loves you,” he said. “But she loves her goddess more.”

I might have flinched had it not been for a bell signaling, sharp and frantic, so loud it echoed in my bones.

“What is that?” Killian asked, and though I had never heard the sound before, my heart raced with it, frenzied and panicked.

“Something horrible,” I said, a sudden lump forming in the back of my throat.

Three

Isolde

I gathered my skirts in hand and raced through the garden. Killian followed, and once we had topped the stairs, the ringing had ceased, replaced by dreadful, deafening screams.

A crowd had gathered in the courtyard. I pushed my way through to the front in time to see Miha and Isac leading a small party of soldiers into Cel Ceredi on their horses where giant, black dogs chased, mauled, and mangled my people in the streets of the village.

These creatures were aufhockers, drawn to life and driven to end it. When Nadia could no longer scare me with stories of witches, she had used aufhockers to try and keep me from sneaking out of the walls of High City at night.

“You know they look for girls like you,” she would say. “Troublemakers who disobey the rules, and when you are alone in the woods, they will hop upon your back and tear your throat!”

“How can they tear out my throat when they are on my back?” I’d asked.

“Do not ask questions, insolent child!” she would say, and though we laughed, I knew there was truth to some of what she said. Aufhockers would rip out your throat, but they did not care if you were trouble or not—anyone with blood was prey.

Adrian would have never left me if he had thought they were going to attack. He had likely believed as I had—that monsters did not venture within the bounds of Revekka—and though I knew differently now, I certainly never expected a pack of twelve or more hounds to approach a city during the day. Not even the fires raging at the gates had kept them at bay.

“What is this madness?” Killian whispered.

It was more than madness. It was chaos, and it would soon be complete carnage if we did not help.

“You will stay here,” Killian said, drawing his blade.

I glared. “How many times, Killian—”