DESDEMONA

I spent the entire night staring at the ceiling.

Every time I closed my eyes, I heard his voice again.

If she is alive, I will kill her myself.

The words had followed me into my room, into my dreams, and even into the silence between my thoughts. I had tried to convince myself that I had misunderstood him. Perhaps the person he had been speaking to had been discussing someone else. Perhaps I had heard the wrong name, the wrong conversation, the wrong meaning.

But I knew what I had heard.

And worse than that, I knew the expression on Alaric's face when he had said it.

It...