"Let him go!"
Aliena's voice shattered the silence.
The creature wearing Sebastian's face tilted its head, studying her with unsettling amusement.
"Let him go?" it repeated. "Little queen, I am the reason he exists. How can I release what has always belonged to me?"
"Because I said so."
For a moment, the creature simply stared at her.
Then it laughed.
The sound shook the chamber, sending cracks racing across the remaining pillars.
"Oh, I remember that temper."
Aliena's heart hammered, but she refused to step back. Sebastian's body stood before her, yet the thing looking through his eyes was a stranger. Its smile was wrong. Its expression was wrong.
Even the way it held his head made her skin crawl.
"Sebastian," she whispered.
The creature's smile faded.
"He's not listening."
"I wasn't talking to you."
Something flickered in those mismatched eyes.
Annoyance.
Then, beneath the blackness, Aliena saw it.
A tiny flash of gold.
Sebastian.
He was still in there.
