SCARLETT
I woke to silence.
Not the silence of peace, but the suffocating kind the kind that presses on your lungs, makes your heartbeat sound like thunder in your own skull.
The ground beneath me wasn’t stone. It wasn’t earth. It was nothing. Black glass stretched in every direction, rippling with my reflection. Above, no stars, no moon just endless darkness.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
His voice slid across the realm, curling around my throat like a leash.
I turned sharply, my chest heaving. And there he was.
Lucien.
He stood barefoot on the glasslike surface, shadows clinging to his body as if the dark itself adored him. His black eyes gleamed with amusement, but his smile gods, his smile was hunger made flesh.
“Where am I?” I demanded, though my voice trembled.
He moved closer, e
