The searing light that had exploded behind my eyelids finally surrendered to the gloomy, heavy silence of the mansion. When I woke, I was in Varg's massive bedroom—a place that reeked of power and absolute dominion in every corner. After the freezing forests, this room felt less like a sanctuary and more like a golden cage.
The roots of my hair were still damp; they must have washed me. The intense scent of soap radiating from my skin wasn't enough to drown out that disgusting taste of rust and stale perfume in my nose. It felt as if I had swallowed liters of that strange fragrance.
As I tried to sit up, the mark on my neck throbbed as if a red-hot spear were being driven into it. I touched the wound with the back of my hand; Varg's teeth marks were still there. But now, that seal wasn't just a mark of love; it was a conduit. Thousands of whispers were flowing through that channel.
