(Daciana POV)
Otsana’s warning stayed in my chest long after she left, beating beside the mate mark like a second frightened heart.
If Ashina learned how to command the wounded bond, she would not need chains to drag Bardolph or me into her hands.
The thought made my skin crawl because I had spent so much strength trying to become free from Bardolph’s mistake.
Now the moon itself had left a thread between us, not soft enough to comfort me, but strong enough to be used against us.
Conri dismissed the servants from the lower hall, but his eyes never left my shoulder where Bardolph’s old mark still pulsed faintly.
Tala wanted me to rest, Rieka wanted me to eat, and Otsana wanted to bind the mark with silver herbs before midnight.
I wanted all of them to stop looking at me like I was a
