HONOR
"Yes."
The garden filled with black smoke. Coughing, he waved away the pungent fumes that reeked of dark magic. Giselda's hand slipped from his. When the cloud dissipated, he was facing not Giselda, but another woman. The years had not been kind to her. Her body was thin and bony. Her blonde hair was streaked with gray, and her face was a mask of bitterness, the lines mapping every disappointment. But it was her eyes that shocked him the most. The green orbs were filled with hatred.
"You've given me your heart," she said in a gravelly voice.
The evil glee infused in those words sent Honor's stomach plummeting to his toes.
"What have you done to Giselda?"
"She doesn't exist, you silly fool. Twenty-five years! A long time to get revenge. Gave me time to plan, to plot. To cast the right spells. I lost everything, you know. All because of your mother. She took the mage who was once mine."
Honor felt horror claw at his belly and crowd his throat. "You hate my parents?"
