Page 63 of What Is Dark Within Me

Bonnie gave a tight smile and drummed her fingers against the table. “Nothing any of us would ever ask of you.”

Six Dark Saints, instead of seven, Aleja remembered.

After a visit with her grandmother, she went to search for Liam, only to find that most of the deer trails had become overgrown during her brief absence. She spied a note stuck to a tree with an arrow near the spot where she’d killed a Remnant that read:

Firebird,

The deer have migrated back to the highlands, and I with them, but I’ll try to visit soon. I found a cave system where a few Remnants seem to lurk.

We might be due for a hunt.

Remember to breathe.

—L

* * *

“Where have you been?”she asked Nicolas when she spotted his black wings in one of the sculpture galleries late that afternoon.

“I was consulting one of the Dark Saints about how best to proceed with your education.”

“I thought you couldn’t trust anyone here,” she said, looking for a surface she could lean on and realizing it didn’t seem wise to rest her weight upon the sculpture of a bathing nymph.

Nicolas sighed and looked at his black nails. “It’s complicated. Roland may have allies. As it is, it’d be my preference if you don’t speak of what we know to anyone. I also think it’d be wise if you stayed close to the palace grounds. As a Dark Saint, Roland will have access to the Hiding Place. No more late-night excursions into the woods.”

“Wait, youknewI was sneaking out?”

“The bond,” he explained with a wince. “I could feel it when your magic flared, but I figured you were training and didn’t want to intrude. The palace and its grounds are usually safe. That’s not what worries me.”

“I—fuck. I met a hunter out there. He helped me find Remnants to train on. He said my return had drawn them,” she said, with a wave of guilt so fierce it felt like it could knock her off balance. She hadn’t intended to betray Liam’s secret.

“If he was telling the truth, we have bigger issues. The Dark Saints and I wiped out every Astraelis in the Hiding Place so thoroughly that not even Remnants should remain. Either the Astraelis have broken the truce and let them slip into our realm purposefully, or…”

“What, Nicolas? You said no more secrets.”

“This hunter. What did he look like?”

“Mid-twenties, maybe, but he said he’d been here long enough to have fought in the war. Dark blond hair. Hazel eyes. Attractive,” she said.

“Attractive?”

“Come on, Knowing One.”

The smile didn’t reach Nicolas’s eyes. “If you couldn’t see the Remnants properly, then you’d never know it if an Otherlander was using glamours to conceal their appearance from you. That hunter could have been anyone. He could have beenanything.”

“I’m sorry,” Aleja said, racking her mind. “I didn’t—I didn’t tell him anything.”

“Don’t apologize,” Nicolas said. “You had little reason to trust me at that point, and you were alone in a new realm. Perhaps we can use this to our advantage. Do you think he would meet with you again?”

Shove aside your guilt, said the voice in Aleja’s head.If Liam is who he says he is, then he has nothing to fear.

“Yes. I think so.”

“Good. We’ll try it. Hunting Remnants is fun, but let’s get you properly trained. Taddeas is waiting.”

“Who?” she said, knowing she’d heard the name before.

“One of the three Dark Saints remaining here. Taddeas recently took your place as High General. He’s an excellent strategist, and though he’s been here less than a decade, he’s more adept with Otherlander magic than I am. This way.”

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