THE ASHEN COURT

ANIKA VALERION

The moment the gown slipped from my shoulders and was handed to one of the maids, I felt it.

A spike tore through the incomplete bond; pain, unease, and a sudden, full-blown fury that was not my own.

I stepped down from the platform so quickly one of the maids stumbled back.

“I need to go.”

Their protests fell on deaf ears.

I ran.

My chambers first. Empty. The black silk sheets lay perfectly undisturbed. No trace of his scent beyond what still lingered from when we had left together.

Next, the plain shaft of a room they had assigned him.

He wasn’t there either....