“I, Wylfrael of stone sky and Sionnach, have brought my bride to the gates of Heofonraed,” I shouted. “I have come to face the council and to request a vote of membership.”

I held Torrance tightly, keeping my gaze fixed on the gates. For a long moment, nothing happened, and I wondered if Maerwynne had been wrong, if the council wouldn’t even open their gates for this.

But then, just when I was considering shouting again, the gates parted, swinging inwards without a sound. Torrance breathed out unsteadily at the sight of Heofonraed’s great hall – a huge, towering structure of dark red material that looked more like opaque crystal than the stone of the gates.

Not wanting to dawdle, lest the gates slam shut in our faces, we passed through them. Much like the gates, the large red doors of Heofonraed’s hall opened soundlessly and without anyone around seeming to have done it. Inside, the walls encased us in red, the floor the same white stone as outside.

But there was nothing else. No one in the space.

“Will you not come and greet us?” I called. “I will stand before the council for the vote!”

Silence.

“What’s going on?” Torrance asked, unease clear in her lovely voice.

“I do not know,” I answered honestly. “I expected the council would have met us here. The gates and doors can only be opened from the inside, so I know they are here.” Members of the council could leave Heofonraed temporarily, to take care of any business or to visit their mates on another world. But there were always at least two members at Heofonraed at all times.

“Wylfrael.”

Torrance jumped, slamming a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming at the sound. My name boomed in the space. My jaw worked, my eyes tracking everywhere, searching for the source.

“You have come before the council seeking membership. To do so, you must pass our trial.”

“Trial?” I snapped, spinning in the space, drawing my sword. “What trial?”

Joining the council required winning a majority vote among the members. That was it. There had never been any trial.

Things have changed since I’ve been gone.

The voice said nothing more. Instead, I heard something else. A terrible roar that shook Heofonraed’s walls.

“What is that?” Torrance whispered, her eyes huge behind her mask, her face pale.

“I don’t know,” I said again, “but I do not like it.”

The roar sounded again, terrible and agonized, and I realized with a sick lurch that it was coming closer. Coming closer to Torrance.

This must be the trial, I realized. Facing and killing whatever is making that noise.

Fear tightened my grip on my blade. Not fear for me, but for my bride.

“Stay here,” I hissed at her through clenched teeth.

“Wylfrael, wait, wait!” she cried. But I did not turn, and I did not answer. I had a monster to kill.

I sprinted through Heofonraed’s halls, turning red corner after red corner, running towards the roars. The creature was making its way to me as well, the labyrinthian distance between us collapsing as we barrelled towards each other. Finally, as I skidded around a corner, it came into view.

It was huge, and ugly, a roiling, round black body with numerous legs spilling out from its sides. Easily twice as tall as I was and much wider than my wingspan, it fixed me with a single dull eye and opened its monstrous maw, howling.

I was in the air in an instant, slashing and hacking with my blade. I quickly realized I could not use any of my power in this trial. The shining stone walls of the palace did not respond to my focus, and neither did the body of the beast I fought with.

I would have to rely solely on my physical body, my blade, and my fighting skills to defeat this thing. I flew over it, stabbing along its hunched spine. The thing writhed and shrieked in rage, but it did not slow down. It had no wings, but it climbed the walls with ease, taking away my advantage of height.

As we fought, I lost all sense of time and space. I lunged and stabbed and slashed, while the monster howled and battered me. We rolled and flew and crawled through the halls. As we rampaged, dread unfurled heavy wings inside me. The monster was not responding to my attacks as I’d thought it would, and without my power to subdue it, I began to worry that it could not be killed.

That dread turned to fear when I realized we’d ended up back in the main hall. The place where I’d left Torrance.

NO, I screamed inside my own head, fighting harder, driving my sword deeper, over and over again, though this putrid thing did not even bleed. But Torrance was here somewhere, Sionnach save me, I could smell her. New strength infused my limbs, my primal need to protect Torrance overriding all else. For the first time, I began to drive the beast back. It retreated, its many legs skittering, until I’d backed it against the wall. My arms moved faster than they ever had. I felt like I was chasing something, something important, and that if I only moved fast enough, buried my sword deep enough, I’d find it.

Triumph and rage swirling inside me, I plunged my sword forward, right through the creature, pinning it to the wall. Instantly, it stopped moving.

Cursed stars, all I could smell was Torrance, along with something else, something bitter and familiar.

“Torrance!” I bellowed, twisting, keeping my arms in place while I looked for her. But she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere.

The starburn hit me one treacherous moment too late. Too late to have warned me. Too late to have helped me sense what I was doing, what I’d done.

Fever slamming through my body, I snapped my gaze back to the monster only to find it gone. A mere illusion, a collection of shadows dispersed into dust. And the one I’d pinned to the wall with my blade...

Was Torrance.

I screamed so loudly I thought I’d smash my own ribs with the force. Totally obliterate myself. There she was, my perfect one, my snow-and-honey-eyed girl, my beloved little bride, my mate, my mate, my mate, unblinking and unmoving, slumped over my blade.

Words smashed against each other in my reeling brain. Words like no, no, no and whispering echoes of Rúnwebbe’s prophecy.

Fated bride of Wylfrael. Starburning, but afraid,

And when she dies it will be by her husband’s hand and blade.

I’d tried to outrun it. Tried to hide from it. Tried not to seek out my fate.

But fate had found me anyway.

Found me, and left me ruined.

Not knowing what else to do, I scooped my beloved, so limp, so cursedly limp, Sionnach save me, into my arms. I wanted to pull out the sword but knew it would do no good. She’d only bleed out faster that way.

I could feel her heartbeat, slow and weak against me as I ran out the doors and the gates.

And I could feel it stop as I launched madly into the air.

The council could not, would not help me. That was as clear as summer Sionnachan sky. They’d orchestrated this for some reason – set up this illusion so that I’d kill my own mate and therefore kill myself. It was only the fact I hadn’t starburned or given Torrance my knot yet that I was still alive.

I starburned now, though. A harrowing heat searing through my limbs, making my wings quake as I pulsed them in ragged strokes, bringing us ever higher. The cruelty of the timing made me want to die. I should have. Back in Heofonraed’s halls. I should have disappeared for what I’d done. Should have gone with her into the dark.

“Torrance, Torrance, I love you. Love you. Please, please, please don’t go.”

I begged her as I flew, knowing she’d already gone but not able to accept that I merely held a body now and not my beloved.

There’s still time, I told myself, fierce with desperation, latching onto one last mad, unlikely hope. There was only one god I knew who could beat back the shadows of death without the council’s power. Vowing that I’d make him help me even if it killed me, I channelled all my remaining strength into opening a sky door. I flung myself through it, clutching Torrance as I hurled back into the sky of the Shadowlands.