Chapter 3

Selene's POV

The heavy door to the abyss slams shut.

The world goes dark and dead silent, the cold pressing in from every side.

Freezing water climbs past my knees, and the chill crawls up through my blood like it means to freeze every organ in my body solid.

I lean against the frozen rock wall, feeling my life slip away, and my mouth curls into a small, relieved smile.

Enough.

I've paid off a hundred years of debt and then some.

From here on out, I, Selene, am done with House Rowland. Completely.

There's no sense of time in the Frozen Abyss.

All I know is my blood is moving slower and slower, and my tail has gone stiff under a layer of frost.

Right as my mind starts slipping under, a dull thud echoes from the door.

It cracks open, and a thin line of light spills in.

A cloying wave of perfume drifts in first. Lillian walks in wrapped in a thick fur coat, cradling a warm, glowing stone in her hands.

Her face is a little pale, but her eyes are bright with open, ugly satisfaction.

"Well, look at our high-and-mighty guardian goddess. Reduced to this."

Lillian walks up and kicks at my leg, frostbitten and dark with bruising.

I don't even have the strength to lift my eyes. I just look at her, flat.

"You must hate me so much right now." Lillian giggles. "But what good does hating me do? Garrett, Caleb, Preston, all of them are on my side."

She crouches down, drops her voice, and can't hide how pleased with herself she sounds. "Selene, I was never actually sick, you know."

"My heart's perfectly fine. All I did was take a little potion that mimics heart failure, cry a few tears, and those three idiots fell over themselves feeling sorry for me. They'd have given me anything I wanted."

"I just can't stand you. Why does some animal get all their attention? Why does your word get to decide anything for House Rowland? I'm the one born into this family. You're just the family's guard dog."

Lillian's voice climbs, her pretty face twisting with jealousy.

"But now it's mine. Your heart, your power, all of it. Go ahead and rot down here."

I feel nothing listening to her rant.

If anything, it's almost funny.

"A pathetic thing, living off a stolen heart." My voice comes out rough, but ice-cold. "You really think a goddess's heart is something you just get to keep?"

Lillian's face changes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I look at the spot on her chest where it beats, my eyes cold. "That heart is going to tear your veins apart, sooner or later. It'll rot you from the inside out."

"Liar!" Lillian shrieks and slams her foot into my wound. "You're just jealous! You vicious bitch, just die already!"

She keeps stomping on me, venting all her fear and rage.

I don't fight back. I let her heel grind into the wound.

Because I can already feel it.

With my heart gone, the covenant woven deep beneath the ducal lands is starting to come apart, thread by thread.

Lillian wears herself out, straightens her coat, breathing hard, and shoots me one last vicious look. "Keep running your mouth. Once I fully absorb your heart, I'll be the new goddess."

She turns and struts out, chin high, and locks the door behind her again.

Darkness swallows me whole.

Lying in the ice water, I hear it clearly. A sharp, clean crack.

The sound of the covenant breaking.

A hundred years of wards, woven with my own power over the ducal lands, shatter completely in that instant.

I close my eyes, feeling the last thread of power leave my body.

"Goodbye, House Rowland," I say. "For good this time."

Consciousness slips away from me entirely in that endless cold and dark.

The moment I go under, the sky over the ducal lands, clear a second ago, turns black with storm clouds. Blood-red lightning splits the heavens.

A chorus of bone-deep howls rises from the Darkwood at the edge of the territory, and the ground itself starts to shake.