I remembered.

Sitting on the cold stone floor, staring out at the storm now raging outside, the wind whistling as it swirled through the tower room, I remembered what Sibyl told me after the First Trial. After I’d saved Aidon: You know, my dear, we didn’t always have these Trials. Early in our history, the Korai knew a power that allowed them to find their own mates. But things changed for a reason. It was after Helena disappeared. She had found her own mate. But the male was too weak to control her magic. And without anyone to challenge him before the bond was truly cemented . . . death followed. Death and darkness.

Helena. Helena had run away. The Ostara’s book told of it—how she had fled so the Dorians could not challenge her true mate for her power. It was how she kept them from using her, though both Sibyl and the book had said that story ended in tragedy.

But my story could be different. If I was mated, my power already tied to another male, Varian could not take it unless he found him and defeated him before the bond was strong. And perhaps . . . perhaps it would buy me enough time to come up with a better plan.

But Aidon . . . Oh, gods, his eyes—those swirling, molten silver eyes—filled my mind and my heart shattered. But he was gone. He was safe. And as Elysa had said, I was alone.

There was no one to save me but myself.

But all I knew of the ritual was the little that Sibyl had told me and what I’d learned from a few passages in the book. There were two parts: the Delving, and the Casting.

I shut my eyes, searching my memory for anything that might possibly help.

A heavy thud rocked the door.

My eyes shot open and I whirled towards the heavy, locked slab of iron, but it remained firmly closed. I listened, not daring to breathe. Were those raised voices on the other side? It was impossible to tell through iron, and over the hammering of my pulse in my ears.

I turned towards the balcony. The storm had slackened ever so slightly, just enough for my God-Blooded sight to spy the horizon—to see the nearly imperceptible lightening from a deep black to a bruised blue.

Dawn was coming and I was out of time.

I closed my eyes and blindly, I delved deeper into my power than I’d ever delved before.