Page 1 of In Darkness Forged

PROLOGUE

“It hurts, Tal.”

Lani’s pained whimper seemed to pierce directly to his soul.

“I know, and I’m so sorry.” Talyn’s arms tightened reflexively around his sister’s sweating, shivering form. Her silver skin was pale, and her white hair hung in damp tendrils around her face—testament to the agony she’d endured over the past few hours.

This was only her third time to shift fully to her wolf, and each time the pain seemed to grow worse. Each time she seemed more frightened, more disoriented than the last.

They needed help. Needed someone who understood what was happening to her body, and that person could not be him.

Nor could it be anyone else in the far southern reaches of the Eastwatch. Everyone they’d known for the past twelve years was of the day—elves of Sion Dairach—while he and Lani… They had always been of the night.

Even though he would never have the hunting form of his night elf kin, the night called to Tal like a song only his soul could hear. It was music, safety, beauty, and home, in ways that his Dairen grandmother had never been able to understand.

“I don’t know what to do,” Lani whispered, her body still trembling with the aftermath of the shift. “I can’t stop it from coming, but when I’m the wolf, I can’t remember where I am, and everything is too loud.”

She was crying now, and his beautiful sister never cried. She was brave and curious and full of joy, and Tal could not bear to see her in pain.

“We will find someone who can help you, I swear it,” he told her, smoothing her damp hair away from her forehead. “I will take you back. Beg if I have to.”

Even the thought of it was like a knife between his ribs, but for Lani, he would do anything. They were all each other had left, now that Grandmother was gone.

“Tal, you know we can’t do that,” Lani protested, her blue eyes flaring wide with alarm. “They won’t listen to a wilding. They might kill us before we can tell them what we need.”

“They can try,” Tal said, smiling a little for Lani’s benefit. “They won’t win.”

Lani’s eyes rolled dramatically. “Yes, the best way to find help is definitely to start a war.” She smacked his chest with a hand that seemed at least marginally steadier than it had a moment before.

“Father never said they kill wildings, just that they don’t trust them,” Tal reminded her.

Lani’s lips turned down, and her gaze dropped to her hands. “If that’s true, and if they might be willing to help, would you ever think about…” She seemed to hesitate, as if unsure of his reaction. “Would it be so bad if we just asked them to accept us? Made a real effort to fit in with Father’s kin?” She bit her lip and held her breath as she looked up at him, and Tal’s heart clenched painfully.

His baby sister was not made for exile. She needed people—thrived when she was surrounded by love. Their family had been enough, until their parents were killed in a wyvern ambush, and then it had only been him and Lani.

Grandmother had loved them too, for all that she was fully of the day, but she was gone now. There was nothing left for them in Sion Dairach but misunderstanding and mistrust.

“I don’t know,” Tal said, unwilling to share with her the bitterness he still harbored towards the night elves of Dunmaren. For treating his half-elf mother as if she might be a spy, for the hostility that had driven his parents to live as wildings, and for not caring when he and Lani were orphaned… He wasn’t certain he could forgive them enough to live among them, submitting to the same traditions that had doomed his parents. And he was doubly reluctant to bear the weight of their derision towards anyone who lacked the ability to shift.

For Lani, though?

For her, he would do that much and more.

“We can only try,” he said, tightening his arms around his sister in one last hug before setting her on her feet. “There’s nothing here for us now, anyway. If you’re ready, I’ll prepare our travel kit. Say your goodbyes tonight, and we’ll set out at sunset tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Tal!” Lani flung her arms around his neck. “You’re the very best of brothers.”

And he would do anything in the world for her to keep on believing that. Even return to his father’s homeland, where he would be forced to accept that he would never truly belong anywhere, never be able to fully trust anyone to have his back.

Anyone but Lani. His sister was the light of his world, and he would give his life to ensure that she would always have a place to shine.

CHAPTER1

Aislin sat back on her heels and gave a single satisfied nod as she looked around the newly cleaned attic.

The patina of dirt had been scoured from the floor, and the cobwebs swept from the rafters. She’d even searched the darkest corners and ruthlessly eliminated the small army of spiders that typically lurked there, a service for which the innkeeper was particularly thankful. For such a large man, he could produce a surprisingly high-pitched scream when surprised with a spiderweb across the face.

For most of the year, the inn’s attic was silent and dark, filled with little more than dust and whatever articles were too valuable to discard but had no immediate purpose. But every summer, a trickle of visiting nobles would arrive to pay their respects to Lord Dreichel, each bringing their own entourage and frequently needing space to house their guards.

---