ONE NIGHT, the storm rolled in without warning. One moment, the sky above the ground was pale gray, and the next, it cracked open with a deafening roar. Thunder boomed across the mountain like a war drum, shaking the walls of the mansion and the ground. Lightning split the horizon in jagged streaks of white, and then the rain came, hammering the roof, drowning the world outside in chaos.
Seris stood frozen by the window. She was draped with a blanket and hugging herself, tightening every thunderclap. She hated storms as far as she remembers. They reminded her too much of the nights when the Poison Witch came for her, the sound of chains, the smell of damp stone and blood in her dress.
“Cassian…”
She was about to turn around to go to Cassian, but she remembered that he wasn’t in the ma
