Page 21 of Crown of Wrath

I look down at my hands, and for a second I’m surprised that shadows aren’t pouring from my fingertips. While we were in Draenyth, I’d almost thought that I would be able to use them again.

I was wrong.

Maybe the Shade is right, and I don’t have any desire in me anymore. Maybe I’m too at peace. Maybe I’m too broken after everything. I know that’s what the Shade thinks.

My footsteps echo off the smooth limestone walls. They look like they’re from Draenyth, smooth walls made of liquid limestone, every type of gray imaginable. It’s as if someone had sucked the color out of a rainbow and turned it to stone.

My fingertips trace those stones, and my mind goes back to the Shade. I can’t seem to stop thinking about him. I instinctively locate him. He’s waiting in my room. For some reason, even with how tired he is, he shadow walked to wait for me.

I frown. Being all alone would be so wonderful. I want to sit in a room by myself and let my mind wander, with no one expecting anything of me. Then there’d be no need for conversation or decisions. Why can’t I have just one quiet evening?

I grit my teeth and continue to walk through the hallways. My mind can’t wander now. My focus is on the Shade.

Why does he keep pushing at me? Is it going to be like when we were in Draenyth together? Alone. A shiver runs through me, and I’m not sure whether it’s anger or desire flowing through my body.

My feet move faster, their steady drumbeat against the limestone is an ever quickening beat. I want to shadow walk tomy room, but I can’t. Not anymore. Instead, I have to climb the stairs like a human.

Power of any sort is a double-edged blade. The wielder will always be cut just as her enemy is, but she has the opportunity to embrace the blade’s edge. There is no warrior that has not been wounded. Every action has a cost.

Another memory of words from Vesta. Words from that book of hers. Even though I’m trying to focus on the Shade, I can’t stop the memories that have flooded my mind for the past three days. Touching Casimir must have triggered something in me.

Or is it something different?

My head throbs, and I have to lean against the wall for a moment as a bout of dizziness hits me. That’s not normal. I’m Immortal. I shouldn’t have these moments of weakness.

Maybe I should talk to the Shade? Or someone? I don’t know. What would happen if I had a dizzy spell in the middle of a battle?

I need to do something, and now that Casimir is safe in his new prison cell, I think it might be the perfect time.

“What are you doing in my chambers?” I ask before the door is completely open.

King Aric gave all of us a set of chambers while we’re here. While we all said that we didn’t need a place to stay, he insisted. Probably smart of him. Keep your enemies close and all of that.

“Waiting for you, my Queen.” His voice sends a shiver through me when he talks like that. When he’s subservient and also so damned sure of himself.

“But what are you waiting for?”

The door is open all the way when I realize that there are shadows everywhere. Immediately, they embrace me, pulling me toward him. Slowly. Softly. Insistent, yet not forceful.

Every touch of those wisp-like tendrils of darkness pulls at something deeper inside me, something I’ve locked away.

“We were interrupted while in Draenyth, but now we won’t be.” He stares at me from under that hood, and I resist the shadows. Several of them move over my neck, the tips becoming razor sharp as he reminds me of what it felt like to have his nails on my skin.

I can’t help but remember the way I’d nearly let him pull me in with seduction. Just like he’d done the first time I’d met him. Except that this time, I know his tricks, and I know how much I enjoy him using them on me.

“That’s not the way the game is played,” I say. “You don’t come and seduce me. You…”

His shadows cling to me tighter, pressing against all the most sensitive parts of my body. “Offer you something that no one else can?” he whispers, his voice carrying in a way that no one else’s does.

“And what would that be?” I whisper back, not really believing that he has something I want.

The scent of revulsion shadows fills the air, and I look down to find the stone armor that I’ve been wearing is gone. I’m completely naked again, a dress of midnight fitting tight against me, and a gasp escapes my lips. His shadows sent my armor to the void, and he replaced them with this dress. “What are you doing?” I demand.

“I’m going to take you to the void, Maeve Arden,” he says. “I’m going to stay there until I can’t stand it any longer.”

I blink. “What?”

He nods to me. “A bargain. I know how much you’ve wished you could spend time in the void, and it will be exhausting for me. That means that there will be a price.”

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