Page 108 of Every Shade of Shadow

I swallow again before another thought arises. “Wait, how do you know what Sabrina fantasizes about?”

He shakes his head slowly. “Ah, my little lamb. You have so much to learn.”

Has he been inside her head too? Is no one safe from his fucking meddling?

No consent. No permission. He just barges on in and makes himself at home. That is the most disturbing element of this whole thing. I still don’t know what to make about him mentally stalking me all these years, and why? That never got clarified.

The thought of him inside Sabrina’s head, stroking himself off over her fantasies…it reignites the jealously I’ve worked so hard to suppress since our games started.

“You’re not curious?” he remarks, the excitement vaporizing from his stare and his voice alike.

“No,” I confirm his suspicion. “Sabrina can fantasize about fucking mermen for all I care. I’m not going to judge her.”

He frowns, curling his fingers into a fist before stretching them out again. “This is not about judgement, Ana. You need to know what her darkest fantasy is so you can better understand the power it has on her. You need to know her levers. This is where Shadowcraft comes in.”

“How?” I stammer, losing patience.

His smile lifts ever so slightly. “Tonight, you’ll share consciousness with her as she indulges in this fantasy. That’s the power of Shadowcraft, my pet—the power you need to grasp before fully comprehending its potential.”

“You’re not serious, are you?”

“Deadly, I’m afraid.”

I tense again. I don’t even know what this means, only that I want to keep Sabrina out of it.

The Professor steps closer. “Your friend wishes to be taken against her will. She dreams of being incapacitated, fucked brutally by strangers until they tear apart every hole she has. That is what she dreams of at night, my pet. That is what she masturbates to, working two fingers inside herself.”

I shake my head. “No, no, that’s not right. Sabrina wouldn’t think like that.”

Another step closer until his scent envelops me. “She can only come when they finish her off—a screwdriver in her throat, strangulation… I’m afraid that’s where her fantasies lose their cohesion.”

“No.” I practically shout it.

“Yes!” Darkwood cries back, anger sending his voice an octave lower.

I swallow my next words, hanging my head meekly but still unable to reconcile what he’s telling me.

It’s only a fantasy, I tell myself. She would never want that for real…would she?

Darkwood extends his hand and I’m slammed into the wall by forces unseen, the thump forcing air from my lungs in a punctuated gasp. I glance left and notice the picture frames from the dresser are missing.

I rise up the wall until my feet hover several inches off the ground. The Professor approaches me with slow, steady footsteps. He stabs a finger into the boney plane between my breasts.

“I will prove this to you, my pet, and you’re going to be punished for doubting me,” he threatens, removing his finger. I drop to the floor. “You’re going to share consciousness with your whore friend while she’s fucked against her will. You’re going to share everything. Creaturae umbra et vespera.”

Slivers of fear slice through me at the sound of that incantation. I don’t know the exact spell, but it’s sure as fuck not for making cupcakes. These creatures, shadow creatures, are corporeal. I’ve found myself under their cold grip, at their mercy, and now Darkwood wants to summon more?

I sense their presence in the room, the shadows within me stirring with excitement. Threads of inky blackness slide across the floor behind Darkwood. More creep through the cracks in the wall and dance through the air before merging into irregular shapes. They grow in size, multiply, and move away from him, heading for the edge of the room.

I stare at what he has summoned wondering what the hell I’m going to witness tonight. Shadows hover and eye me with hunger, darting across the room. They shift closer, almost humanoid now.

One of those shadows nudges my shoulder, sending waves of cold energy pulsing through my system. I gasp as my body is jerked upwards. Chest jutting out, my eyes snap shut as a wisp of blackness creeps into my ear. I feel the icy grip of that shadow in my head, my mind drifting away from Lumina.

No, but I can’t stop the disconnect.

I rise, lifting.

I see the castle from above and the endless forest beyond, the world blurring, Darkwood’s words echoing in my thoughts.

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