EDMUND PATRICK AND DREW PICK UP the girl’s limp body and carry her outside while the rest of the congregation files out of the chapel. Mrs. Langdon looks adoringly up at her husband as they walk down the aisle. Tears glisten in Catherine’s eyes as she obediently follows them. Outside, the October air is crisp and fresh, the ground still damp from last night’s downpour. Women lift their bustle skirts to prevent their hems from getting muddy as they gossip to their friends about tonight’s dance and what they plan to wear, the conversation polite and forced. In the center of the town square is a large wooden cross, more than eight feet high. During the Misery—a yearlong conflict between the Darklings, Lupines and people of Amber Hills that resulted in hundreds of deaths—any citizens caught associating with a Darkling would be tied to the cross, on the Guild’s orders. They’d be left up there for days. Many would die from exposure or starvation.
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