Page 65 of The Shadowbound King

Clenching my jaw, I kept moving. More screams lifted on either side of the path. Glowing eyes winked in the darkness. A snarling, hunched creature staggered from the trees ahead. Gray rags hung on its emaciated form. Long, stringy white hair clung to its scalp, which was covered with moss and clumps of dirt. It swayed in the middle of the path, its back to me.

My father vanished. Rane was a steady presence at my side. Mirella’s breathing over my shoulder was even, her footsteps lighter and more rapid than those of the men behind her. In any other circumstances, her human blood was a weakness. In the Edelfen, it was a shield. She was unlikely to see much beyond shadow and decay.

The creature in the path turned slowly as we approached. Sunken eyes peered from a skeletal face. “Andrin?”

The image of a beautiful woman flickered over it. Tall and silver-haired, she regarded me with a stunned expression.

“Andrin?” she repeated. Her lovely face crumpled. “Oh gods…” She swung this way and that, as if looking for somewhere to escape. “I never wanted you to see me like this!”

The flickering image vanished, leaving her hunched and corpselike once more. Because shewasa corpse, her body buried deep in the Edelfen the day after I was born.

Blood poured from her mouth. She gagged on it, coughing and sputtering as she lurched toward me. “My son,” she gasped, extending dirt-caked fingers. “My only son.”

Sweat trickled down my back. I looked past her, letting my vision go unfocused. When she was steps from crashing into me, she stopped abruptly. Her body formed into hundreds of rats. Squealing sharply, they writhed over each other in a sickening tower before collapsing.

I continued forward. Rats scurried past me and darted between my legs, screeching as they melted into the forest. Thick shadows rolled across the path a dozen steps ahead of me.

Gritting my teeth, I flung out my hands. Heat flowed down my arms, forming bars of light that burst from my fingertips like the rays of the sun. The light sliced through the shadows, which recoiled. Screams and eerie chattering sounds rose from the inky clouds as they retreated into the trees on either side of the path. A few wisps broke away from the larger clouds. Shivering in the air, they streaked toward me.

Rane lunged forward. The shadows paused, hovering above the path as if they couldn’t decide where to go.

“Come,” he said, dark power ringing in the command. The shadows raced toward him like pets summoned by their master. He swallowed them, not slowing as he took the lead.

“You waste your energy,” I said, walking faster. “I could have handled that.”

He slowed enough for me to catch up—and likely to ensure Mirella wasn’t forced to run to keep pace with us. “Undoubtedly,” he murmured without looking at me. After a beat, he spoke in a lower voice. “Don’t give it anything to twist around us.”

I didn’t answer, and I didn’t argue. Because he was right. The Edelfen longed for discord. The shadows fed on fear and disharmony. They burrowed deep into the minds of the living, unearthing terrors and secrets. Hidden worries and deep-seated doubts. The forest was generous with its torment, displaying nightmares unique to each soul foolish enough to venture within it. Outside the Edelfen, facing fears was a way to overcome them. But that strategy was worthless among the trees. In the Edelfen, confronting fears didn’t vanquish them. On the contrary, it gave them teeth.

We pressed onward, and the next few hours brought more of the same. Visions of dead loved ones. The pleas and accusations of nobles I’d buried in the long years that followed the loss of the Kree. The children were the most difficult to ignore. Dragging their broken bodies across the leaves, they reached for my legs and the hem of my jacket, pleading for help. For someone to save them.

But I’d already failed them once. Looking meant failing them again, so I kept my eyes on the path, and I tuned out the sobs and screams.

Mirella’s footsteps continued at my back. Every once in a while, I risked turning enough to meet Kassender’s gaze. The Shadow Eater and his men fanned out behind Mirella like the tip of an arrow, their eyes gleaming in the gloom. Mirella was pale but steady on her feet. As our eyes met, the scent of her arousal floated at the edges of my memory.

I ignored that, too.

At long last, the blue haze of the Covenant shimmered ahead. The shadows thinned, and the trees gave way to the flat, barren ground that separated Autumn from Eftar’s mountains.

The rays of the setting sun struggled through the Edelfen’s gloom, revealing the hazy snowcaps of the peaks beyond the magical boundary. The trees on the other side of the shimmering veil were hazy blobs. A cluster of tents sat just past the treeline, pennants stirring in a slight breeze. Several horses were hobbled to the side of the small encampment. A pair of knights stood outside the largest tent, which bore an elaborate, embroidered crest on its heavy canvas. A smaller tent displayed more modest insignia.

The knights’ gazes were watchful as they scanned the boundary. Neither appeared to spot us as we approached.

Stopping, I turned and signaled to Kassander. “Fall back with your men,” I said quietly. “Monitor the shadows, and don’t come unless I call for you.”

“Yes, sire,” Kassander said. He motioned to the other two Shadow Eaters, and they moved to obey.

“Kassander,” I said.

The Shadow Eater turned back.

“The shadows lie. Question everything, even if it comes from me.”

He nodded. When he and his men retreated to the trees, I looked at Mirella. She stared at the big tent on the other side of the Covenant, her face washed in its blue light.

“That’s your father’s crest,” I said.

She looked at me, her pulse pounding in her throat. “Yes.”

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