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Otherwise known as Abner’s Edge.

My stomach dropped. Erik had brought me to the place where Saxon had created the first Hollows.

How was I supposed to escape an island?

At the sound of approaching footsteps, I lurched down the corridor, my breaths sawing past my lips. I was leaving a trail of blood, but I couldn’t afford to care. Not when the chances of me getting away were diminishing by the second.

As I neared a turning, different footsteps sounded, heading straight toward me. Without the option of retreat, I tightened my grip around the knife. A figure rounded the corner, and I plunged the blade low.

A guard staggered back against the wall, blanching with shock. I yanked the knife out of his abdomen and left him in a heap on the stones.

I didn’t know where my steps were taking me. Water surrounded me on all sides, and even if I made it out of this tower, where would I go? Even unshackled, I was trapped.

Only now, if Erik caught me, he would keep me unconscious until we reached Daradon.

A shout sounded far behind me; the guards must have discovered their comrade’s body. They would descend upon me soon.

I followed a stream of wind out to where a stretch of low battlements overlooked the rushing river. My gait became lopsided, the salt air biting at my wounds.

A dark truth was creeping over me now, eroding my resolve. That there was no escaping this. No escaping him.

Tears stung my eyes and dried fast in the wind.

“Alissa!” The sound of my name struck me like an arrow. Erik would already be running toward me.

I stopped. A dull calm settled over me as I looked down into the tumbling waters.

I hadn’t been able to see my future as Erik’s prisoner. Maybe there had been a reason. Wind battered me; hair lashed at my face. Yet my power grew small and still inside me.

“Alissa, please!” Erik’s voice was closer now, raw with desperation. Please, he’d said. It was the first time I’d heard him beg. I couldn’t find it in me to be satisfied as I set my knees down on the battlements.

I didn’t know if I would survive this fall.

But I knew I would not survive another prison.

So, with one last lungful of air, I clenched the knife handle and threw myself off the stones.

Erik’s specter caught my arm. I heard the sickening pop before I felt it. And then my body swung and smashed against the wall.

I shrieked, my legs beating empty air. The water-spray flurried around me like the embers of a fire. Then the river grew farther away.

Because his power was pulling me up.

With a wild cry, I raised the knife and slashed the air above my arm. The blade met resistance, sinking deep into his power.

The rope of his specter snapped.

And I plunged into the water.

40

The force rattled my teeth.

Water flooded my nose and ears. Then I was tumbling, battered in every direction as my clothes tangled around me. I tried to reorient myself, but the pressure sat too heavy on my chest, my lungs spasming for air.

Hitting the water hadn’t killed me, and yet I could feel my life coursing away, my blood spilling into the river that would become my deathbed.

No.