Chapter 2

Selene's POV

"Smart move." Garrett grits his teeth, raises the dagger, and drives it straight into my chest.

Pain crashes through my whole body. Blood pours out, splattering across the silver armor he's so proud of, and he flinches at the heat of it.

He rips out a heart, silver light glowing, still pulsing with power.

The power inside me drains away like a dam breaking. My vision blurs. My body goes slack and collapses into the blood pooling beneath me. My wolf ears and tail droop, drained of strength.

"Got it! Go, save Lillian!" Preston's eyes light up.

Caleb doesn't even look at me. He just turns and runs.

Garrett holds my heart in his hands and glances down at me. "Selene, you'd better behave and stay put. Once Lillian's better, we'll come check on you."

With that, the three of them storm out of the basement without a backward glance and slam the heavy iron door shut.

I lie on the cold stone, feeling the massive hole where my heart used to be.

"The goddess's heart fell. The covenant ended." I whisper it to myself. "House Rowland, I did everything I could. So be it."

Without my heart, I'm weaker than I've ever been. The hole in my chest has stopped bleeding, but the emptiness where my soul used to sit makes every breath feel like swallowing broken glass.

I curl up in the corner of the altar, my silver hair matted with dried blood.

I don't know how much time passes before the iron door gets kicked open again.

Garrett, Caleb, and Preston storm in, faces twisted with fury.

"Selene! What did you do to that heart?!" Garrett grabs a fistful of my hair and hauls me up off the ground.

"Lillian's not getting better, she's coughing up blood now!" Preston's eyes are murderous. "Did you put some kind of curse on it?"

How could a mortal body ever hold the power of a goddess's heart? That heart, wild with divine energy, is poison running through Lillian's veins.

But I just stare back at them, cold, like I'm watching three fools who've lost their minds.

"Say something! You bitch!" Caleb snaps at my silence and throws up his hand.

A bolt of purple lightning bursts from his palm and slams into my back.

My skin splits open, and the smell of burnt flesh fills the air. I grit my teeth and swallow the scream.

"You think staying quiet is going to save you?" Garrett throws me to the ground and pulls a mithril whip from his belt.

Even as a goddess, mithril can hurt me, and in this state, it's worse.

The whip cracks across my body, drawing blood with every strike.

"Break the curse, now! Or I swear I'll whip you to death!"

Garrett keeps going, one lash after another, each one peeling my skin raw. I'm too exhausted to stand, and blood-red tears start running down my face.

Here we go again. They won't believe a word I say, only whatever Lillian tells them. One tear from her and I become guilty of everything.

"Why are you even talking to her?" Preston steps forward and plants his boot on the still-open wound in my chest.

The pain nearly knocks me out cold.

"Throw her in the Frozen Abyss," Preston snarls. "Let's see how tough she talks after that."

The Frozen Abyss is the dungeon House Rowland uses to punish its worst traitors. No light down there, only ice a thousand years old, cold enough to freeze a soul. In the state I'm in, going in there is basically one foot in the grave.

Garrett hesitates. "But she doesn't even have a heart anymore. If we throw her in there and she dies..."

"Then that's on her!" Caleb cuts him off, cold. "She's the one who hurt Lil... Lillian! If she just breaks the curse, she can walk right back out!"

Garrett doesn't argue. He bends down, locks mithril chains around my wrists and ankles, and drags me off the altar.

I don't have the strength to fight back, and I don't want to.

Nothing kills the fight in you like a heart that's already given up.

The second they throw me into the Frozen Abyss, the wind hits me like blades of ice, slicing straight across my face.

"Break the curse yourself, and we'll believe you won't hurt Lillian again." Garrett stands above me on the stone ledge, watching me with nothing in his eyes. "Whenever you're ready to see reason, come find us and beg to be let out."