The wives had followed me out of the crypt.

Eight of us now walked into the Hollowbone night, the moon trembling behind the clouds as if she feared what she’d unleashed.

Our bare feet left no prints in the frost. Our breath steamed in the cold air, not from the temperature but from heat that could not die.

Kael stood at my side, but his hand never touched me. His eyes, though… they never left my body. Or theirs.

We reached the ridge where the Hollowbone Valley stretched wide below my ...