Casteel shifted me so my head rested more fully against his chest. “Rest,” he urged in a soft voice. “I’ve got you. You can rest.”

It didn’t seem right for me to do so when no one else could, but I couldn’t fight the lure. It wasn’t the deepest of sleep. Things I wanted to forget followed me. I found myself back in the crypts, chained to the wall. Bile crept up my throat as I turned my head to the side.

Oh, gods.

I came face to face with one of the corpses, its empty eye sockets tunnels of nothingness as it shuddered.

Dust sifted through the air as its jaw loosened, and a raspy, dry voice came out of the lipless mouth. “You’re just like us.” Teeth fell from its jaws, crumbling apart as they did. “You will end up just like us.”

I pressed back as far as I could go, feeling the bindings tighten on my wrists and my legs. “This isn’t real—”

“You’re just like us,” another echoed as its head jerked toward me. “You’ll end up just like us.”

“No. No.” I struggled against the bindings, feeling the bones cut through my skin. “I’m not a monster. I’m not.”

“You’re not,” a soft voice intruded, coming from everywhere and nowhere as the corpses along the wall continued shuddering and moving, their bones rubbing and grinding together. The voice sounded like… Delano? “You are meyaah Liessa. Wake up.”

The thing beside me’s mouth fell open in a scream that started silently but turned into a long, keening howl—-

“Wake up. Poppy. You can wake up. I’ve got you.” Casteel. His arm was tight around me as he gathered me as close as he could to his chest while Setti’s powerful muscles moved under us. “You’re safe. No one is going to hurt you.” His mouth pressed against my temple, warm and comforting. “Never again.”

Heart thumping erratically, I dragged in deep breaths. Had I screamed? I blinked rapidly as I struggled to free my hands from where they were tucked between Casteel’s arms and the blanket. I managed to pull one free and hastily wipe at my cool cheeks as my eyes adjusted to the faint traces of pale sunlight and the dark, almost-black leaves above us. Swallowing hard, I glanced to where Naill rode, facing straight ahead, and then before us. The white wolven ran beside the fawn-colored one, turning his head to look back at us, his ears perked. For a brief second, our gazes connected, and I felt his concern. The buzz in my chest hummed as a singular pathway opened along the connection to the wolven’s emotions, a clearer cord that fed something other than feeling. A springy, featherlight sense that had nothing to do with relief. It was almost like a brand—an imprint of Delano, of who he was at his core—unique only to him.

The wolven broke eye contact as he loped over a boulder, moving ahead of Kieran. I let out a ragged breath.