It had been three days since Calix was captured, and I could feel the weight of every moment as if it were pressing down on me. Through Andrus’s memories, I watched, helpless, as his first visitor entered the cell. It wasn’t Travis—no, it was someone more dangerous in a way I hadn’t expected. Lourdes. The witch. The one who had once been Andrus’s lover.
I knew her well now. Better than I had known her as Maria, after seeing flashes of her from Andrus’s memories and even her own. The tangled mess of betrayal, hurt, and revenge. She had been a powerful force in his life—one that left scars deeper than any blade could. As soon as she appeared outside Calix’s cell, I felt the tension rise, a suffocating thickness in the air that wasn’t just because of the confinement. Calix could sense it too
