Page 78 of A Kingdom of Monsters

“Why not, love?”

“They speak the old tongue there. I won’t understand a single word spoken, you will have to translate for me.”

Scion frowned, but reached out to squeeze my hand under the table. “That will be no problem, rebel. I wasn’t planning to leave you alone anyway.”

I nodded, though I hardly felt better. Scion might be planning to stay with me, but lately, nothing had gone according to plan.

The closest I’dever been to the winter island of Nevermore was when we sailed along the coast on the way to Underneath. Therefore, I had to be guided through the shadows.

If I was honest, I didn’t think I’d be able to shadow walk that far anyway. It was a long distance, even for Scion, so it was agreed that Ambrose would take me and Scion would travel on his own. Having already proved he could shadow walk with three additional people in tow, I was sure Ambrose would have no trouble.

We collected the few things we’d brought with us–namely the book, the jewel, and the pocket full of gold that I’d stolen from the vault. Scion found some of Cross’s clothes, so he and Ambrose could finally change out of their torn and bloody former-finery. Ambrose unearthed a sword from one of the many store rooms, and packed a few days worth of food into a bag.

And we were off.

Scion left first, walking directly into thin air and disappearing leaving not a single shadow behind.

Ambrose grabbed my arm. “Are you ready?”

I nodded, and let him tug me forward into the darkness.

For a moment we spun. The dark air pressed in on me from all sides, and I felt like I was being stretched and squeezed at the same time. Then, seemingly far too quickly, I tumbled out into the weak sunshine.

The first thing I noticed was the cold.

The chill wind whipped at my face, causing goosebumps to form on my skin. I inhaled deeply, taking in the salty scent of the ocean mixed with the earthy smell of pine trees, and opened my eyes.

I was kneeling on the ground on some kind of desolate beach, surrounded by jagged rockets, broken shells, and clumps of black seaweed. To my right, the dark ocean stretched out endlessly, disappearing on the bright horizon. To my left, there was a hill of dunes and scraggly bare trees, and behind that a wall of tall pine trees so dark I couldn’t make out a thing between the branches.

I located Ambrose. He hadn’t stumbled, and stood to my right facing the ocean, holding his hair back from his face with both hands as the wind whipped at it.

I stood as well, and turned around, staring back down the beach behind me. The sand seemed to go on forever, and there wasn’t a single building or being in sight.

“Where are we?” I asked.

And where was Scion?

Ambrose turned around to face me, a half-guilty, half-annoyed look crossing his face. His brows furrowed and for a moment he didn’t answer me. He brought his hand up to his face, shielding his eyes from the sun reflecting off the water.

He dropped his hands back to his sides. “Well, thisisNevermore.”

An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. “Right…”

“…Unfortunately I have no idea where on the island we are. It’s been a long time since I traveled here. I might have miscalculated.”

I bit back a sigh. I really couldn’t complain—shadow walking wasn’t an exact art, and many factors affected where one could travel. For example, you could only move between places you had traveled to before, and had to have some general understanding of the distance between two points. Those with more magical ability could travel longer distances, while the average Fae could only shadow walk a few miles at a time.

“It can’t be that far to the city,” I said, trying to remain hopeful.

Ambrose’s eyebrows pulled even lower over his dark eyes. “Actually, it can. Nevermore is huge. Much larger than it looks on most maps, and a lot of it is mountains which are nearly impassable, even for me. Still, I’m less concerned about the distance as the time. It gets dark extremely early here and we don’t want to be wandering around overnight.”

“Why not?”

“Mostly because I’m not sure how much cold you can withstand before your human half succumbs to hypothermia, but thereare also a great deal of monstrous creatures roaming the island. Species that don’t live on the mainland.”

“Like what?” I asked

As if on cue, a piercing cry filled the air. It sounded like a mix between an eagle and a banshee, and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I spun around, looking up at the sky and my heart leapt into my throat.

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