Page 72 of Ties of Shadow

Galers fell as the worm’s tail slammed them to the side; yet the arrows kept missing its eyes, and the Shade fought on in the center of the hill. His shadows only reached treetop height, a fraction of his full power. They laced above him, shielding him and throwing what they could at the worm.

He glanced up to see me standing on the balcony before facing the worm again.“Aelia,” the Shade panted. “I think it’s time for you to run. I can’t stop him. You’ve got to go. Run to the coast.”

He sounded so hopeless, alarm burst through me. “You have to come with me. I’m not going alone. We’ll evacuate the village and start over.”

“Of course not. You have Koll. You have a future. I have to keep you safe.”His voice was exhausted but firm.

Mine wavered. “I need you alive. I need you with me.”

Another blast from the worm shoved the ball of shadows he had whipped around him deep into the cracked balcony, creating a round basin. As the shadows faded, the Shade’s head was low, and he rested on one knee, his hand raised above him.

“Koll, he’s going to die. How do I save him?”

The older man looked me over carefully. “Are you saving him because you are compelled by guilt or responsibility? By your need to help? Or are you saving him because youwanthim? A whole bond would strengthen his magic and give him a fighting chance, but don’t do that just because you want to help. Very few people have looked at him and wanted him for himself. Don’t save him just to disregard him like the others. Go to him because you care for him. Bond with him because you love him—and only for that reason.”

I had lived my whole life for other people, helping, serving, catering, fawning. I served my queen. I served my father. I bowed my headand curtsied and kept silent. I chose every outfit for someone else’s approval. I said yes to things I didn’t want and had never learned to say no. Now that I had found myself, I knew what I would do. I chose this. For me. My necklace sparked with a pulse of light.

Without another word, I bolted down the wall-less stairwell that wrapped outside the castle wall to the courtyard. The ground looked perilously far on the unsteady stones. King Regent Harold cried out but didn’t stop me with his galers. Bodies of creatures lined the patio, rocks and boulders littered the way, and I stumbled countless times, but I couldn’t slow down. I had to reach the Shade before the worm killed him. So I could tell him how I really felt. So I could complete what he had started.

He saw me sprinting across the rubble of the courtyard.

“Stop her!”the Shade cried to our minds.

“Aelia, no!” my father cried. He picked up his rate of shooting, trying to distract the worm as I worked my way to the center of the crumbled balcony. The Shade turned, and fury burned across his face. His shadows reached for me.

“Pull me to you!”I cried.

“I told you to run.”

I gestured at my body. “AndI listened! I’m running!”

“Blasted woman.”A whip of his handbrought the shadows around me. With a tug, they flew me to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck as the shadows writhed around us, guarding us, shielding us. A dense circle of darkness wrapped around us. A boom from above shoved us downward, the worm, presumably, beating us down. The shadows seemed to strengthen as the Shade gritted his teeth.

“Dayspring, you foolish creature.” The worm slammed into us again. The Shade winced; pain from that hit to his waning magic cutthrough me now that we were touching. “You have to get out of here. I can’t hold it back much longer. My magic—”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had bonded with me?”

His eyes flew wide, and as his focus faltered, a rock landed beside his feet. “Seriously? Now?” He glared toward the castle. “My uncle is a dead man.”

“Sure, yell at him and Jamison too. But why didn’t youtellme?”

“Because I wanted you to be free to choose, free to leave, free to—” He raked a hand through his hair. “Free to love. If I told you, I knew you would return the bond because of some predetermined nonsense about being nice and helpful. You’d choose it for my sake. I wanted you to choose me because it’s whatyouwanted. We should have had so much time”—his breath hissed through his teeth—“but we’re here now, and I can’t beat this creature, nor woo it.” Of course, he’d tried to befriend it. “I’m going to let you go so you can be truly free, even free from this half-bond.” A half-bond that would break at his death.

“Would you choose it again?” I stroked a finger down his cheek, the tip of my finger following the lines of his lips.

“I would choose you and die here a thousand times to be with you for even a moment. Your brief stay has brought more light to my black heart than I ever thought possible. Why do you think I call you Dayspring? You are the sun, and I am a winter wasteland desperate for life.” He paused. “You are not my prisoner or my servant or some passing amusement, which is why you need to go, Aelia. Let me save you! The world needs your light.”

Hope glittered in my chest. “What’s your name?”

“What? Shea.”

I blinked twice. “That’s it? You’ll just tell it to me?”

“You neverdirectlyasked.” He chuckled. “It wasn’t much of a leap to my nickname, was it?” He smiled, that glorious half-hitched grin.

I giggled. It was an impossible, defiant giggle—despite the whirlwind of death and shadows around us. “Shea, I choose you—for me. Selfishly, greedily, demandingly. Because I love you. I say my most enthusiastic, heartfelt yes—to all of you.”

He gaped and pulled back slightly to argue. “Aelia—”

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