Page 101 of Where Shadows Bloom

I chased after them, my feet thankfully still nimble despite the sacrifice I’d made.

The farther I ran, the more I could see before me. The beam of moonlight ahead disguised a tall white spire on ahill. A castle of sorts, as high as Le Château was wide. It looked like a knife, piercing the blackness of night above.

The Shadows led me to the castle, which was just as dark and filled with Shadows as the rest of this meager excuse of a world. The other monsters turned their faceless heads toward me but did not move, did not lunge, did not try to kill me. Even so, with each Shadow I saw, I remembered my training. I remembered Carlos. I remembered how close to dying I had been.

If not for Ofelia.

“Take me to her,” I whispered, praying, not to any gods but to these monsters below. I prayed that she would not be harmed. That in the hour since I’d seen her in the mirror, she looked the same, that her heart still beat.

I would rescue her. This would all be over soon.

The darkness of the castle faded as I climbed a winding staircase. Brilliant white moonlight streamed in from a great gap in the castle walls, like it’d been blown away by cannon fire. Something in the sky caught my eye—large, puffy clouds, floating in the air, where I was certain there’d been none before. They shone brightly, even where they did not rest in moonlight. Like clusters of stars.

“Lope!”

My heart seemed to leap out of my chest. I whipped toward the sound, the dearest sound in the world. At the top of this great white set of stairs stood my love, resplendent inthe moonlight that crowned her auburn hair with silver. Her tears sparkled like crystals. Her smile shone down upon me, and I would have rested there forever, if not for the ache in my chest begging me to go to her.

“Ofelia.”

It was only a whisper, only an exhausted, exhilarated little murmur of delight. Part of me couldn’t believe she was really here. Or that she’d want me.

But now she was racing down the stairs toward me.

I bounded toward her, letting Shadows slip past, parting around us.

We met on the landing of the stairs, and she threw her arms around me and—

And I kissed her.

I kissed her.

I kissed her.

My head spun. I pulled back and looked into her eyes, at the fondness there. After everything, fool that I was, I was still breathless at the thought that she cared for me, too.

Then Ofelia’s hands cupped my face, drawing me closer still.

In a moment to breathe, she whispered, “Don’t let go,” and so I didn’t.

Her lips brushed my scar. Her fingers tucked a long, errant curl behind my ear, and her lips met mine again, sweeter and more fervent than any poem I could try to write.

Give me a thousand more moments like this. Give me a thousand words to try to piece together the wonder of having her in my arms, feeling her heart crash against mine, her fingers clutching my waist.

“What’s this?” said a strange, groaning voice.

Every bit of my soldier’s instincts flooded into me, and in a flash, I stepped in front of Ofelia and reached for the sword at my hip. My hand grasped at empty air, and my heart dropped at the reminder.

Standing at the top of the stairs was the Shadow King, just as I had seen him in the library. But what I thought before were horns were actually the golden spikes of a thin crown. And here, face-to-face, his eyes blazed like two white flames. He was flanked at either side by Eglantine’s mother and Mirabelle de Bouchillon. More prisoners of this Shadow King.

“Lope de la Rosa,” he said, drawling my name, as if he savored every syllable. “My favorite poet. Welcome to my kingdom.”

He, who had created the Shadows. Who had bargained with Léo. Who acceptedlivesas payment. I imagined plunging my sword into his chest and escaping with Ofelia, with everyone. Fighting had always been my solution before. But now I was powerless. Except for my words. Except for my poetry.

“Release Ofelia,” I demanded. “Release everyone!”

I blinked, and the monster now stood an inch away fromus, its neck craned so that the void of its face was close to mine. It had the same hoarse, shuddering breath as the Shadows. Ofelia yelped and clung to me.

“What did you do, Ofelia, when you greeted this girl? Your mouths touched.”

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