Freya’s lips parted, but her voice betrayed her. The words caught in her throat, fragile and broken before they could even take shape. Her breath hitched, uneven, like her lungs had forgotten how to work.

She knew.

She knew she couldn’t go back to the human world. That door was closed to her now, forever. No matter how much she had once clung to it, no matter how fiercely she had tried to convince herself that her freedom lived there, it was gone. If she dared to return, she would only ...