Page 37 of Shackled to the World
The darkness thinned for a second, then began to move and thicken. The cloud of particles condensed, sucked inward as it began to settle into the shape of a person.
A familiar person.
“Sadie.” Annora kept her voice flat, struggling to hold back the rage that urged her to close the distance between them and rip the woman’s throat out.
“Ah, he told you about me.” Her midnight black hair was pulled back, which only seemed to accentuate her otherworldly beauty. The glow of the afterworld was only a shimmer in her eyes before fading to pure malice. “Funny, you weren’t important enough to even mention.”
Annora snorted, rolling her eyes at the stupidity. “Of course not. Why the hell would he share anything with someone we can’t trust?”
The smugness melted away, hatred twisting her face into a snarl. “So cute. You actually believe you mean something to him, a tiny human.”
Done with the games, Annora dropped her arms and marched toward the barrier, stopping an inch away from it. “Tell me, since you were his friend, how long did you look for him in the banished lands before you gave up?”
Shock made Sadie blanch. She shook her head, opening her mouth to respond, but snapped it shut without speaking, her eyes dropping.
The horrible truth dawned, and Annora couldn’t speak for a moment under the crushing weight in her chest. “Dear gods, you left him there to rot, didn’t you? You didn’t even have the decency to search for him.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sadie strode closer to the barrier, pointing an accusing finger at her. “No one who walks the banished lands ever returns.”
“Except he did. He found his way back after you abandoned him.” Annora grew up around people like this woman, claiming to be friends, then abandoning her when she needed them most. “What do you really want? Why are you here?”
“You think you’re someone special? That he’ll stay with you? Forget it.” Sadie stared down her nose at her, derision twisting her lips. “He’s heir to the controlling seat on the council. Do you actually think he would give that up for you?”
Annora had already figured out that Edgar was someone important.
She would never have guessed that he was her father’s right-hand man.
Though she was relieved the girl wasn’t in love with Edgar, at least not in the traditional sense, Sadie wanted him to take his rightful place and wouldn’t stop until she got him back. “Edgar gave all that up years ago when he left. He would never return to that world.”
Laughter burst out of Sadie, genuine amusement dancing in her eyes. “Oh, that’s great. You don’t even know his real name, do you?” Her grin widened when she looked down at her. “Alcott will return with me eventually. We’ve been betrothed since birth. It’s our destiny to rule the council together.”
A giant fist grabbed her insides and twisted.
Betrothed.
Annora stared up at the woman’s smug face and put every ounce of her conviction into her voice. “Edgar is my mate. If you think I’m going to just hand him over to you without a fight, you have another think coming.”
She took vicious pleasure at seeing Sadie’s shock at the wordmate.
“You lie.” But the woman’s voice trembled, the sour scent of her fear tinging the air.
Annora instantly went on alert. “I don’t lie.”
But it was like Sadie didn’t hear her. “Phantoms don’t mate. We’re not allowed to for good reason. He would never allowed himself to fall into that trap.”
“Trap?” Though Annora was ridiculously relieved to know the two phantoms weren’t married already, her fear of losing him now that they were just working out their differences was a living beast threatening to devour her. “What do you mean?”
Sadie gawked at her incredulously, then tipped her head back and cursed up a storm. “Fuck! I can’t believe the asshole allowed himself to be mated. What the hell was he thinking?!”
Annora could only gape at the outburst.
Sadie whirled toward her and held up her hand beseechingly, then jerked back when the wards set off a shower of sparks against her fingertips. “You have to release him from your claim.”
Annoyance and incredulity went through Annora. “You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s not a damned fish to be tossed back. He’d been lost to the afterworld for years—decades—while you left him there to rot. Where was this concern and friendship then?”
“I thought he was dead!” The girl whirled away, gripping the back of her neck as she cursed under her breath, dark particles floating around Sadie in her agitation. “You’re holding him here just as much as if you shackled him. If you don’t think he would return at the first opportunity, you’re a fool.”
As much as Annora didn’t want to admit it, Sadie was someone important to Edgar…and incredibly dangerous. Annora could fight against fists and weapons, but how did she fight the past?
