And once she’d done it, she intended to kill Tristan and Sabine and murder all the trolls along with them. There would be no one left to stop her, to punish her. Quite the opposite, the Regent would probably reward her beyond my wildest dreams for ridding the Isle of the trolls.

“The world owes me this,” she said, and then her face softened. “It will be over swiftly, Cécile. I promise you that.”

“Is that what you said to Genevieve when you chased her down in the woods?” I said, my voice shaking. “Was that the comfort you gave her when you stole any chance of her seeing her family again? Of raising her children? Of living her own life?” My body tensed with fury. “You’re every bit as bad as Lamia was. Worse, because you’ve done it over and over to your own blood!”

“Shut up!” She snarled the words and then dissolved into a fit of activity, fetching four small silver bowls, one filled with rocks, one with water, one with lamp oil that she lit with a taper, and one that held nothing at all. Taking out a tiny knife, she sliced across her forearm, allowing blood to flow into each of the basins, and then did the same to me, the pain sharp and fierce.

I watched in horror as droplets floated on top of the water like oil, danced weightless on the air, turned the flames a pure crimson, and sat on the rocks as round and solid as little red marbles. She placed the bowls in a circle around us, and magic surged like waves through the room, tearing at my hair. I tried to struggle, but the strength of her magic kept me frozen in place, my jaw locked shut so I couldn’t even scream for help.

Grasping my arm so that our blood ran together, Anushka met my gaze. “The tie that binds our souls to our bodies is a tenuous thing, dearest,” she whispered. “And once it is broken, there is nothing to hold your soul in this world. It will be gone in an instant, disappearing to a place where no more harm can come to you.” She extracted an oleander blossom from a velvet bag, and without hesitation, held it over the candle flame. The petals singed and burned, smoke floating up on the air. “Goodbye, Cécile,” she said, and blew it into my face.

My heart beat like a drum, and then it stumbled. And stopped. Pain bloomed through my chest, and I fell backwards to the ground, the sound of Tristan’s screams filling my ears. Then there was nothing. No sight, no sound, no smell. All my senses were gone, leaving me with nothing but… awareness. I was dead. I knew that much – knew that Anushka had killed me and was waiting for my soul to abandon my body so that she might infiltrate with her own. But she’d been wrong to believe that nothing bound my soul to this world, because though I had no senses, I could still feel the ties that bound me to him. And they were not ready to break.