Page 23 of Ties of Shadow

Green eyes flicked to mine, ran down my person, and then gazed out the window. “I enjoy a great many things.”

I crossed my arms, ignoring the shiver his gaze had caused, and considered everything I knew of him. Like fighting Prince Leon? Like drowning our world in shadow? Like poisoning our queen? Like—

The Shade scoffed. “Like gardening, Dayspring.”

At a sudden right turn, I almost had to shut my eyes from the bright light of an enormous solarium. The walls soared above me as unrefined glass covered every surface. The light drifted down through three levels of a room rivaling the castle ballroom’s floorspace. The air was heavy and humid, and mist sprayed into the room at intervals. Colorful birds flitted about the trees, and an armored groundhog with plates in rows waddled past a spiky plant and scratched about the loamy soil on the edge of a hard rock path.

“Armadillo,” the Shade supplied. “And those are parrots.” He indicated the flying rainbows above us.

“Hmm,” I grunted intelligently. “Why does that armadillo look different than the one in the dining room?”

“That was a pangolin.”

My brain was buzzing in wonder. I meandered down the narrow path, skirting through the purple ferns and large solar hastas, beyond the arching trees and dripping long leaves of the mother willow.

Another turn led to tables holding thick, healthy herbs such as white thieves and purple dranger, pericott, rainboss mushroom, and…there was so much. The Shade followed at a distance, judging his work with a hard eye. He dispensed a dead flower here and trimmed a failing leaf there, but I was entranced by the living world around me. We climbed the steps, his shadows drifting behind him, to a level with countless flowers of all types, blooms I had no names for. I touched a petal here and there. We turned a corner, and he indicated the sign that warned of poisonous plants. I withdrew my hand. Then, at the top of the next level, my heart stuttered. I recognized that vanilla scent. The room was full of racerbristles.

Racerbristles.

There were easily a hundred bushes in this very space. My fingertips ached, and I touched one, then another. My heart rate raced, and my breathing came in pants. All the wasted hours and days, all the storms I’d endured and burns I had suffered searching for this infernal plant. And they were right here! I whirled upon the Shade who was studying me, shadows in his eyes.

“Racerbristles,” I spat. “So many racerbristles.” Gesturing to one side, my pitch rose, despite any attempt to maintain control. “Sir, this many could save the queen!”

The Shade huffed. “Racerbristles alone would not compl—”

The coal in my chest ignited. “They would help her heal. They would restore her!”

He shook his head. “Racerbristle is not the cure the queen needs.”

I pointed a finger at him. “Yourshadows—” He took a step toward me, and the room darkened as bursts of shadow flew from him andcurled around us. Death and danger and power stopped my very breath. He towered above me, the shadows closing in like a whirling cocoon.

His green eyes flashed as he raised a brow. “What of them?”

I panted, but this time, I felt fear. I was a fool. A hopeless, feckless fool. “Th-they are lovely.” Another surge thickened them and plunged us into blackness. The only remaining light came from the necklace at my chest, which glowed with yellow warmth. I clung to it.

“Liar. What of them?” He stepped into my space, and I backed up a step. The table pressed into my back. A single shadow reached from his side to caress my cheek. My hand trembled at my utter helplessness. His shadow ducked lower and raised my chin, forcing my gaze to meet his. “Speak the truth, Dayspring.”

The words were whispered, treasonous, and harsh. “Your—the shadows are killing her.”

“Finally, a truth you believe.” He withdrew his shadows by degrees. “But belief, Dayspring, even if fervently held, is not the same as the truth.”

Outrage twisted my stomach. Of course, it was the truth. I had seen the queen’s frail body. I had mixed a thousand potions for her. I had been burned by the acid rain from the shadow storms as I trod the sick earth looking for the herbs she needed to live.

“The truth is you killed those three soldiers! You’ve killed before, so why not the queen of your enemies?” I gasped at my own words. His sharp glare froze me to my core, and I shuddered. Stupid, stupid girl. “I’m sorry.” I curtsied and waited for the death I had once escaped.

The Shade turned his back to me as the shadows at his feet churned like angry clouds. “Those men deserved it.”

The shadows dissipated, and the room stirred, silent but not suffocating. A bird chirped at the top of a tree, silhouetted by the white,sunlit window. It was trapped just as I was. Quietly, I asked, “Sir, why did you bring me here?”

The muscles in his jaw feathered as the shadows coiled and twisted around him. He extended one hand to the plants around us. “Keep them alive.”

The Shade paced from the room. The shadows swept behind him, falling and rolling down the steps. I was alone. And somehow, I was emptier for it.

Chapter thirteen

The Solarium

“Keep them alive?” I murmured. “With all of these, he could keep the queen alive.” I paced with heavy steps to grab an apron and the shears that hung beside it. “He could send a fraction of these to her and still have too many plants.” Selfish, jealous monster. I tried not to take out my blossoming frustration on the plants around me and focused on my new job. At least I wasn’t idle. At least it wasn’t dark.

---