Page 58 of The Shadowbound King

“I wasn’t going to ask,” I said.

He slanted me a skeptical look. Then he grabbed my elbow and hurried me down another set of stairs. “Come on. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find someone sober enough to help us.”

A moment later, we stood side by side in the Great Hall’s broad doorway. Leaves drifted from the ceiling, some alightingupon deserted tables and overturned chairs before disappearing. The stench of sour wine hung in the air. Someone had made an effort to clear the food, but a few bones and globs of sauce remained. A riding crop lay abandoned on a table. Puddles of wine and other liquids I wasn’t going to think too hard about soaked the flagstones.

“He’s not here,” Rane said, holding a hand on the back of his neck as he surveyed the empty hall. “And everyone is too fucking drunk to help me search.”

“I’m not,” I offered. When he turned to me, I drew a deep breath. “I could help you look for Andrin. But we’ll cover more ground if we split up.”

He frowned, and I braced for him to accuse me of trying to escape. “You would do that?” he asked instead.

“Isn’t that why you brought me with you?”

“I… No. I was trying to be—” He clamped his mouth shut.

“What?”

“Forget it.”

My interest grew. What was he trying to be?

Rushing footsteps made us both turn. Ginhad skidded around the corner, his pale face a mask of alarm. Barefoot and wearing nothing but a pair of trousers, he sprinted to Rane.

“My lord!” he gasped, bending as he struggled to catch his breath. “You have to come quickly. It’s the king.”

Rane seized Ginhad’s shoulder. “What happened? Where is he?”

“Stable,” Ginhad panted, pointing. “He’s been in the Edelfen.”

Rane took off without another word, his hair flying behind him. As I grabbed my skirts and followed, my mind raced with possibilities of what we might find when we reached the stable. Was Andrin hurt? Or could I expect the same dark, ominous energy I’d seen the day he and Rane returned from the forest?Morning sunlight seemed to mock me as I reached the path leading to the stable.

I rushed down it, my feet flying over the stones. When I raced past the paddock seconds later, Rane was throwing open the stable’s doors. A horse’s whinny drifted from the rear of the building.

Rane disappeared inside. He reemerged as I staggered to a stop, my breath coming in labored gasps.

“Andrin isn’t here,” he said, scanning the stable’s courtyard. “He’s?—”

A high-pitched, whistling scream cut him off. The hair on my nape lifted as I swung toward the noise. An elk charged into the courtyard in a thunder of hooves. Shadows rolled off its back. More shadows slithered around its legs, as if it galloped in a cloud. Its eyes were black as pitch.

Rane shoved me behind him. He turned his head, his mouth a hard slash in his face. “Whatever happens, you do everything I say, you hear me?”

“Yes,” I croaked, my heart trying to pound from my chest. The elk thundered toward us. I cringed between Rane and the stable door as I prepared to be crushed.

The elk shifted into Andrin, who hit the ground at a run with his teeth bared and his eyes glossy black.

Rane surged forward, and the men clashed in a whirl of limbs and shouts.

“Andrin!” Rane shouted, grabbing at the king. Rane’s head snapped back, blood flying from his face.

A strangled scream escaped me. I hadn’t even seen Andrin swing.

Rane recovered, then managed to land a blow that knocked Andrin back a step. With a bellow, Rane lowered his body and charged at Andrin, tackling him around the waist and trying to take him down.

Andrin tossed him away like a rag doll. Rane hit the ground on his side but sprang back up as Andrin strode toward him. Shadows flowed off the king like smoke. His red hair streamed around his shoulders, and his eyes gleamed like ink.

Rane spread his arms as if in invitation. “Come on!” he yelled.

A malevolent smile curved Andrin’s lips. The ground trembled as he stalked toward Rane. “Do you hunger, Shadow Eater?”

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