Severine!"


    I can''t—"


    Trust me, he said, and then his hand clamped down over my wrist.


    Trust me, he said, and then it was lightning that filled my body. Electricity shot through me, a new and sharper type of pain, cutting jagged lines back and forth across my senses as it arced from my wrist to my limbs, to my heart, to my lungs. The mark on my wrist became a burning star, a constellation of agony, a white-hot supernova that exploded out over me.


    Trust me, he said, and then the blackness came and ate me alive.


    like Brendan could. Heat tried to rise to my cheeks as I thought about the last time Brendan had used his shadow magic, but I fought it back down. Instead, I focused on fiddling with the loose edge of the bandage around my wrist. Certain details I definitely did not need to offer up to Juhan. "What''s the plan, then?"