Alina Starkov/The DarklingI knew he was a practiced liar. He...

Alina Starkov/The Darkling

I knew he was a practiced liar. He could fake any emotion, play on any human failing. But I couldn’t deny what I’d felt in Novyi Zem or the truth of what the Darkling had shown me: my own sadness, my own longing, reflected back to me in his bleak gray eyes.