I only realized I’d fallen out of my chair when I felt the cold hardwood floor against my cheek. Around me, the voices of my men were muffled; frenzied hands were tugging at my shoulders, trying to pull me back up, trying to support me, but my legs were pure jelly.
Nothing existed except that unnatural torment.
A dishuman scream—a mangled, raw howl—ripped through the kitchen, clawing at the walls. It took me several seconds to realize that wretched sound was tearing out of my own throat.
Only in that moment of pure agony did I understand what was happening. Something had been ripped from my soul with the violence of an amputation. It felt as though an invisible hand had reached inside my chest to tear out my heart.
But it wasn't my heart I was missing. It was something infinitely more
