Page 44 of Ties of Shadow

On the other side of the front rock garden, a man stood behind the arching black gate. I looked up from my miserable ruminations and locked eyes with the coal black eyes of the prince. His name slipped from my lips before I could stop it. “Prince Leon.”

He ducked his head. “Lady Aelia.”

My knees bent as if to curtsy, but I locked them with a test of my will. I would no longer bow a knee to the one who betrayed me.

The Shade glanced toward me, then stepped between me and the prince, blocking part of my view of him and the gate. “Leon, you’ve lost your entourage.”

I hadn’t noticed, but the princehadcome alone. I frowned. What was he playing at?

“I didn’t come to battle you.” He leaned around the Shade until he could see me again. “I came to talk with Aelia.”

The Shade crossed his arms, his shadows boiling across the ground beneath him, as agitated as he was. My chest tightened with anger, anger that I thought was his. “Then speak your piece and be gone.”

The wolves were tense and crouched at the ready on either side of me. The gray wolf to my right had her teeth bared in restrained violence. Bertha slunk along the fence line, staying away from thesunlight, triggered into bloodlust by the tension of the others. Her eyes sparkled with fury.

I drew myself up even with the Shade, my ankles buffeted by shadows as my tunic swirled around my legs. “Prince Leon?”

The prince dragged a hand down his face. “I came to apologize—”

The Shade snorted and spoke in my mind.“Too late.”

“—for everything and how it happened. I can’t imagine how frightening it had to be.”

“Most animals chased to death are frightened,”the Shade murmured.

“I didn’t mean for my men to hurt you.”

“Just for your hairbrained seer to.”The Shade stopped as I put my hand upon his elbow.

“I can’t focus with you muttering,”I thought to him.

“My lips are sealed.”

The prince continued, “It’s just…the prophecy seemed clear to us, I mean, to me. And you were the obvious cure.”

“So obvious.”

I smacked the Shade lightly. His chuckle rumbled between us.

“And so, I have to beg your forgiveness. My mother is worsening. My father is at his wits’ end. Your father…wanes…” His head lulled forward and hit the gate with a clunk. “We need you, Aelia.”

“Bet his mommy put him up to it,”Jamison interjected.

But my attention was pulled by that long-held desire of mine. They needed me. I closed my eyes, fighting against the torrent within me, the longstanding ache to be wanted, to be useful. Perhaps now they would see me for me. Perhaps now, finally, they saw the value of my contributions…

“No. Still no. They need to value your person, Dayspring. Your whole person. Magicless, in a dress, in pants. In the morning. Late at night.All of you.”I waited for him to finish the thought, I wanted to hear him say, “like I do.” But it never came. The Shade’s expression was a hard façade, only the shadows in his eyes betrayed any emotion at all. I shifted back toward Leon.

My childhood friend, the prince, looked worn down and haggard, his perfect hair mussed and frayed, and his jacket was missing a button. His leather shoes had lost their gleam as they trounced down the canyon to meet with me. Fool me once…

“What was the prophecy again, Prince Leon?” I asked quietly, tired of the games.

His brow furrowed. “The ruin of kingdoms from weak ones come. A sacrifice will make things right. Lest the deep reject the vile ones. Stars and sun turn black as pitch, the light must fight to cure that which has doomed us all to death and decay.”

I frowned. “That doesn’t even rhyme.”

A door clanked open behind us. “That’s because he forgot to say half of it.” Uncle Koll strode purposefully down the stairs, his cane clicking upon the stone. “Poor form, Leon. I expected better from the one who claims to lead the nation with light and hope. You should add some truth in there too before it bites you in the rear.” A wolf beside me chomped the air in response, and the prince jolted backward.

“It contains the important bits,” he snarled.

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