Cold slammed into Liora's lungs. One heartbeat she was standing before the altar, the next she was stumbling onto black stone slick with frost. The air here was heavier, darker and so thick with magic it tasted like metal on her tongue.
The shadows that had carried her faded into the ground, revealing a vast hall lit by columns of ghostly silver flame. The walls were carved from obsidian, etched with runes that pulsed faintly, as though the castle itself was alive and breathing.
She spun toward the man who had stolen her."What have you done?" Her voice cracked, but her hands curled into fists. "Where are we?"
He removed his gloves slowly, unhurried, as if she hadn't just demanded answers. "My realm," he said. "The Kingdom of Shadows."
"I didn't consent"
"You were never asked to." His tone was calm, almost bored, but his eyes, those impossible violet eyes pinned her in place. "The pact was sealed before you were born. Your life, your crown… your hand. All mine."
Liora's stomach churned. She'd heard the stories as a child, legends of a cursed prince who had vanished into darkness generations ago. But those were legends. He couldn't be.
Her thoughts scattered as a flicker of movement caught her eye. From the corner of the hall, something crawled into the silver light.
It was no man.
The creature's skin was stretched thin over jagged bones, its limbs too long, its face hidden behind a veil of shifting shadow. It stopped a few paces from the prince, bowing low, and when it spoke, its voice rasped like dry leaves.
"My lord," it said, "the bond has taken root. She is… tethered."
Liora's pulse spiked. "Tethered?"
The Shadow Prince's gaze slid to her again, and for the first time she thought she saw something, pain, maybe—behind the cold mask of his face.
"It means," he said, stepping closer, "that from this moment on… my life and yours are one."
Before she could speak, the silver flames flickered violently, and a deep horn sounded from somewhere beyond the walls. The prince's jaw tightened.
"They've found us."