Page 103 of Sanctuary of the Shadow
“Furie…”
A feeling of certain doom cascaded down her spine like a frigid waterfall. “What happened?”
Crouching beside him, she reached out slowly. He didn’t flinch this time, just remained hunched over with his head in his hands, gripping his hair with lethal claws. She was inches away from tracing her fingers along his shoulder, and when she finally made contact—
Her hand passed right through him.
With a gasp, she jerked back.
“No…”
This wasn’t happening. She had imagined it. She reached out again. Again, her hand went right through his dark shape. She could see the ghostly outline of her own hand inside his smoky form. “No!”
Raith was a wraith once more.
“Did she do this to you? Did Furie do this?”
“Harrow…” He gripped his hair tighter, moaning as if in great agony.
“It’s okay.” The words for her benefit as much as his. “We’ll figure this out together. Darya made you a body once, right? She can do it again. We’ll be fine.”
“Can’t…fight it.”
“Can’t fight what? Are you in pain? What’s wrong?”
“Vowed…not to fight it.”
“You vowed?” She swallowed a lump of dread and tears and panic. “Did Furie force you?”
Through the tight grip on his head, he nodded.
Oh sweet Goddess, this was bad. This was the worst-case scenario, in fact. Raith had evidently gone back to Furie, and she had made him a wraith again and made him vow to…
To what?
“What did she make you vow to do?” Harrow whispered.
But suddenly, she was pretty sure she knew.
Raith moaned again. “Vowed not to fight my vows. Already broke one. Can’t do it again.”
“What do you have to do, Raith? Tell me.”
Suddenly, his head snapped up. He went rigid with tension as his fire-ringed black eyes met hers. His fingers curled, claws sharpening to razor-sharp points before her very eyes.
“Kill you.”
“Oh, Raith…” Right now, he almost seemed to be in some kind of trance—likely a result of the compulsion of his vow—but after the deed was done and Harrow was dead, he would snap back to reality. He would realize what he had done.
Her sweet, gentle Raith would never recover.
But what could she do? The Water had told her to come here. She’d been so sure of everything, so sure it would all work out. How could she have been so misguided? Or maybe the Water wanted her to die at Raith’s hands? But what purpose would that serve?
She’d sworn to never doubt her instincts again, but this? It seemed she’d made a catastrophic error—one she had no clue how to extricate herself from.
Raith was going to try to kill her; she could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t going to be able to fight it as he’d done when she was a child.
This time, Furie would force him to finish what he’d started.
