CHAPTER 14: ECHOES OF THE PAST
PART I: THE SANCTUARY OF SHADOWS
The air in the lower corridors of the Quartz Palace had grown heavy, thick with a cold humidity that seeped beneath the skin. Escorted by Anastasia and Olga, Elowen felt as though she were descending toward her own funeral. Thalys’s kiss still burned on her lips, a fiery imprint in a world of ice, but that sensation of warmth was violently countered by the icy guilt crushing her lungs. Mia and Béa were captives. Because of her. Because of what she represented.
They reached an imposing wrought-iron door, concealed behind a tapestry depicting the ancient constellations of the North. Anastasia placed her hand on a quartz stone embedded in the wall. A bluish glow pulsed through the veins of the rock, and the mechanism activated
