Page 19 of Ties of Shadow

“These aren’t poisoned, Dayspring. Just eat.”

I was about to ask about the name when Jamison interrupted.“She really is a coward, my lord.”Jamison’s tinny voice scratched my nerves.“Look how pale she is. Her bravery, if she had any, no doubt left with the blood loss.”

“I’ve always been pale.” I clamped my lips shut. Why was I defending myself to a bat?

“Have you always been a coward? A blooming pansy?”The bat stretched a taut wing around himself.

I scowled at him as I stabbed my fork into the soft…eggplant? “I am not a flower.”

The food, to my chagrin, was delicious. I finished the plate before I realized how unladylike and quickly I’d eaten. Glancing up with flushed cheeks, I found the Shade merely watched me, a slight tug on the corner of his lips. Amusement? Contempt? It was hard to say.

“Th-thank you, my lord. I will help clean this up.” I stood quickly and reached for the plates. But as I did, my full stomach gurgled again.

“Is she dying now?”Jamison asked, with an ornery sort of glee.

The Shade’s lips split into a full grin. “Afraid not, my little chiroptera.”

“I’m fine. Sorry to make such a racket.” I straightened up, grabbing the plate again. “Just point me in the direction of the kitchens, and I’ll start washing.”

“The racoons will do it.” The Shade gestured toward the collection of the fuzzy, striped creatures in the corner. “They’re excellent at it.”

I picked up a glass, then glancing at a fork, snatched it up too. “But—”

“Dayspring…” His voice rumbled, a storm threatening lightning, and I startled. I set the plates down with a clatter.

I reached for a napkin, pulling it between my fingers as I searched the room. “I could…dust something?” But the room was spotless. My eyes roved over the table, landing on the rolls. “Or bake. Or…”

“You will do no such thing.”

“But then, what will I do here?” A thousand terrible things rushed into my mind. The Shade was evil and killed people and…

“Rest.”

My mouth popped open. His gaze seized the very breath in my chest, and his voice dropped to a tone that reverberated deep in my belly. “Rest, Dayspring. Jamison will take you back to your room.”

The bat sneered in a distinct look of contempt.“As the lord commands.”He flapped unevenly past my head. “Come, you waifish thing. Let’s not get you lost in the caverns. The blind worms are hungry these days.”He flew into the corridor, and I heard him mutter.“On second thought…”

I scurried to catch up with him, my hand tracing along the wall for something solid and steady. I turned at the last moment to look back at my captor. The Shade rubbed his chest with a furrowed brow. At a battish screech, I turned and stumbled through the threshold after Jamison.

My breaths came faster from the exertion but freer now that I was away from the Shade. And his eyes. And the potent power he exuded throughout the room. The bat took a few turns, then enteredthe room where I had started this escapade. My room? I sighed and collapsed onto the bed.

The bat took his position on the lamp beside me. His eyes narrowed.“You really are a fragile thing.”

As fatigue swept through my confused state, I had to agree. But I’d worked hard all these years. “Only some days. You’ll see. I’m very helpful. And I’m nice.”

“Ew. Don’t be nice.”

Sleep dragged at my eyelids as I stared at his tiny fuzzy face. “What a funny thing to say.”

“Nice is not nice. Nice is lies.”

I frowned at the absurdity and wondered why his lips didn’t move. And then I fell asleep.

Chapter eleven

Bathtime

My eyes peeked open to the darkened room before me. The bat hung from a lamp, and the manor held its breath in baited silence. Jamison had wrapped himself fully in his stretched wings, and he didn’t stir as I sat up. My body felt rejuvenated, and no dizziness assaulted me as I stood. I cracked open the far doors of the room, pleased to find the toilet. Beyond another doorway, a drip, drip of water drew me closer. A massive room, even larger than the castle’s drawing rooms, was filled with steam. I could hardly see the walls on the other side. The room was lined with a walkway that circled a massive belowground basin of roiling water. The smell was thick with a pungent earthy odor and a slight hint of eggs—a hot spring. Glancing around quickly, I snicked the door shut, disrobed in a frenzy, and slid into the hot water.

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