Page 33 of Morning's Light

Blood rushed from her head to her feet. The swell of dizziness had her toppling over onto the banister. Black lettering flashed across her face like little cuts. Symbols she didn’t recognize. When she looked up to the mirror, someone else was looking at back at her. Not the pale-faced woman with blue and green and amber eyes. Neither was it the empty black eyes of The One Who Walks in Darkness.

It was a woman with golden blond hair hanging in thick waves down to her waist. Heavy brows and a blistering smile. Behind her—behind Aisanna—there was a shadow. An abyss. Reaching out to both of them.

Aisanna was too scared to move. She stared at the woman in the mirror as a voice echoed in her head.

Come to me.

It took effort not to jump out of her skin. “Leave me alone!” she shouted.

Come. And know.

The words on her forehead glowed and shifted, a strange paralysis keeping her locked in place. Aisanna screamed at the top of her lungs—or tried to. Before she had a chance to draw breath, she heard the hissing sound of something hot being pressed into her skin, something slashed across her chest and down her arm. She felt the searing heat of the brand on her flesh, saw the outline traced through the thin fabric of her shirt. Saw the blood flowing out of her.

She sank to the floor in pain. Terrified of what she would find if she looked.

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