Chapter 26

"But you loved her. You loved her."

I took a step back as Philippe began to rub maddeningly at the graze on his forehead. A thin trickle of blood ran down into his brow, like a dark smudge bruising his eye. "Apparently it wasn't enough. It's never enough," he sobbed, his face a molten mask of pain. "You don't mean that. I know you don't."

His eyes flashed with rage. "You don't know anything about me!" he shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. "You don't know what it's like to have him up here." He jabbed a finger at his temple, twisting it as if he could bore into his own skull. "To always have him here, inside. Even now I can feel him, in my head, under my skin. Vánagandr calls to us, he calls to us all and we have to do his bidding, we have to obey."