Page 43 of Ties of Shadow

At once, a dozen voices ricocheted in my mind.“Ahead, Master.” “They come.” “So many.” “Bigger than us!” “They smell of carrion.” “Run, Master.”

“I believe it is time to race, Dayspring. An excellent call. Last one to the kitchen has to steal Uncle Koll’s favorite ladle.” The Shade gripped my hand and pulled me behind him. But the shadow vision was wavering, and my legs were tired under our packs. Even the Shade seemed unsteady and was limping more than usual.

A single screech echoed down the cavern behind us. My nerves zipped up my spine at the sound. A dozen screeches. Then more. I turned to look, but the way was still dark except for the hundreds of blinking red lights that glowed in the darkness. Blinking pairs of lights.

My voice wavered. “Shade?”

“I know.” His voice was too tight.

“What are they?”

Jamison fluttered before us. “Ground rats.”

“Rats?” I imagined the mice I’d shooed out of the kitchen a time or two. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

The Shade’s hand spasmed in mine. “It is much worse than you could imagine.”

My legs slipped out as we climbed a boulder, and I slid backward, slipping out of his grasp for a blinding moment. By the time he took my hand again, wrinkled dog-sized rats filled the cavern around me. Their red eyes squinted behind enormous noses and broken whiskers. Their bodies were covered in lichen, hairs protruding randomly through thick, scaly armor, dusted with pebbles and mold on top.

Bertha prowled forward, her maw dripping saliva, clearly enticed by the horrible beasties.

“I should have grabbed the attack potions,” I whispered.

“Caves are no place for toxic fumes. We’ll handle this.” He grabbed my hand and placed it on his back, under the shirt. I squeaked and was about to pull away, but he held my wrist firm. “I don’t want you to be blind, Dayspring. But I need my hands, and you need to see.”

Hesitantly, I set my hand on his hot skin. A flutter of his thought—bad idea—fizzled quickly away as the muscles of his back rippled while he shifted into a fighting stance. Beside Bertha, the wolves stood ready, the badger and raccoons behind them.

With one movement, as if they had the same mind, the rats dashed forward. Several swept past the larger predators and came careening toward us. The shadows glowed like hot metal in my mind as the Shade whipped them around lifting, throwing, and ripping at the onslaught.Slowly he backed me down the path of the cavern toward home. Sweat beaded under my palm as the shadows wavered again.

Jamison landed on my collar, hanging onto my chest like a living necklace.“Fellows. Give them insight!”Half the bats dodged and ducked, pulling on ears or tails or whiskers. Their chirps competed with the screeching, and blips of information passed through my mind. They were reporting the rats’ positions and movements, suggesting the next targets to the Shade, and their constant communication provided another type of sight. He worked in coordination with their instructions while moving me farther away. They must be talking to the wolves too as their movements became precise and well-tuned, smoothly integrated with the Shade’s action.

After a final turn, the cave lightened. I spun and sprinted to the gate, pushing it open as I yelled, “Come on. It’s open!”

The mammals poured out with the Shade who—after Bertha had cleared the door and hid in the shadow of a tree—slammed the metal gate. A shadow locked it behind us. The huge rats rammed against the bars again and again. I shuddered at the sight, which was even more horrific with my normal vision than with the shadow vision.

The ground rat bodies were pale and translucent, blood vessels pulsed rapidly beneath their skin. Glowing eyes gleamed through their pale irises, scabbed over and thickly lined with bristle-like eyelashes. Paws the size of my hands had claws nearly as long. Their bodies were emaciated, and their tails jutted out like skeletal lightning bolts.

My breaths came quickly as I backed away, not fully trusting the bars of the gate to hold. I ducked under the branch of a tree, only to have my hand pressed upward by a cold, wet nose. Bertha began to purr again, clunkily. One of the bats returned from the manor carrying a potion that the Shade poured over the lock. Bertha winced at thescent. Despite her repulsive appearance, I began to pet her back. She was a slice of comfort compared to the rats within the cavern.

The Shade slowly turned, his pointed finger tapping the air as he counted his creatures. Once completed, he walked past me and Bertha with a wink, tucking his satchel close to his side as he strode toward the manor.

I wasn’t sure what I expected. For him to hold my hand, and ask me tenderly if I needed care? A rushed embrace and a blinding hot kiss? But none of those things happened. He just passed by, with a mere wink and itbotheredme.

I stomped toward the manor in his wake, feeling petulant. Why was I following him like I cared about him? Why did I even stay here? I could be halfway to the ocean now that I was recovered. A gray wolf beside me gave me a hard look and a rumbling growl.

“Sorry,” I muttered. Double-checking the barriers in my mind to prevent any additional leaking thoughts, I gave myself a good scolding. I needed to get my head on straight. He was just a man. One with shadows, a menagerie, a solarium, and a nice uncle, but still just a man. Someone I had used to escape, and who had saved my life, but did I really know him? Could I really trust him? He sounded so sincere as we cut the mossweed, but I knew he was keeping things from me. Furthermore, if I wasn’t planning on staying, why would I even want to know his secrets? Why was I suddenly thinking that bonding wouldn’t be as terrible as I’d once thought?

My mission was to help the queen, then get out of the mountains. I couldn’t imagine a life within a stone’s throw of my father and Leon. Not that life here was such a bad life. It just…it… Well, wasn’t it settling to nestle into the first safe place I found? Wasn’t it possible that the comfort I found here was just a trick of my mind, and one day I would look back and realize I’d gone from the frying pan into the smoky fire?

But the skin where his hand had held mine still tingled from the pressure of his touch. My fingers burned where they had spread across the fine planes of his back. He was as lithe as a mountain lion. I shook my head as I desperately tried to keep him in the frame he belonged: he was grumpy, as mercurial as a flashflood in spring. He was isolated and angry. My heartstrings argued back that he was just a wounded soul. But his wounds were not my responsibility. I didn’t want to be burdened by another broken man’s broken attention.

The Shade paused and turned around with a frown, but as I neared, the wolves who had been playing and tumbling threw up their hackles and spun toward the gate. “Intruder,”their minds said as one. Shadows burst from the Shade in waves as he moved supernaturally fast around the corner of the manor.

“He’s here,”Jamison spat out.“I told you he’d be back for her.”

Chapter nineteen

Decide

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