Page 7 of Crown of Wrath

It’s just like stepping into the void when I’d shadow walked.

I can feel every ridge of every surface now. It’s the strangest change since becoming full-blooded High Fae. The wooden cup in my fingers has two small notches which would have been imperceptible to a Wyrdling along the bottom rim. My fingernails slide over them, the unnatural sharp spots irritating me as I absentmindedly grind down the wood with a soft scraping sound.

Stormhaven is our first stop, but then we’re going to Draenyth. I should be nervous about going there. I should be terrified since the most powerful beings in that city want to kill me.

I’m not. I’ve been fighting something no one believes is defeatable for months, and we’ve shown that eventually we could beat it. The Immortals that had terrified me for my entire life are nothing compared to that.

My thoughts overwhelm me until I smell Cole walk into the tent. Except it’s not just Cole’s spiced amber scent. No, overshadowing it is the unmistakable scent of salt and cedar. The memories that I associate with that scent are some of the strongest memories I have. When I turn to him, a shock runs through me. It’s not Cole. It’s the Shade. The same worn black linen cloak, his hood down, with shadows covering his face. A constant swirling darkness around his feet makes him look like he blends in with the ground, never completely in this world or the next.

When he speaks, it’s the soft growl of water over river rocks. The first sound that plagued my dreams… my fantasies.

I swallow hard. I fell in love with Cole, but I fell in lust with the Shade first. “My Queen,” he says deferentially.

I can’t respond. I can’t do or say anything as a memory replays in my mind.

His nails run over my neck, my vision covered in shadows, and his shadows press between my legs. I’m desperate for him. “See the effigy move,” he whispers in my ear, and the shadows between my legs become more solid, more insistent.

My body throbs in response, the drumbeat in my core beating so loudly that I wonder if anything in the clearing isn’t covered in shadows. “Make it move, or I’ll stop.” His nails trace my bare skin as more shadows run over my body, teasing my breasts and making me wish I could live in his touch. My mind can’t seem to focus on anything except that touch.

Then the pressure between my legs fades slightly. “No! Please don’t stop!” I visualize the effigy and feel it moving. I feel it as if it’s a part of me instead of just an image in my mind.

“That’s it,” he whispers in my ear, and the shadows become almost solid…

I shake my head, doing my best to come back to the present. That memory felt so real, and when I look at the shadows that cover the Shade’s face, I shiver. For the first time in a week, I feel the flicker of a drumbeat beginning in my core. It’s a dark and heady sensation that wakes up parts of me I hadn’t believed could come alive again. I’d asked for this. I’d commanded him to put on the cloak again.

I hadn’t expected my body to react this way.

The barest trickle of darkness pools on the table. Desire. I haven’t felt genuine desire in so long. I’ve been able to manufacture it, but this time it’s natural. Just seeing the cloaked figure, my body knows whatshouldhappen now. He should be stripping me bare and controlling my actions, pushing me and my need for him.

That was what every experience with the Shade was before I’d learned who wore the cloak. Now, even though I know hisidentity, it’s hard for me to think of them as the same person. The way the Shade had acted was always so different from Cole. The Shade… he wanted me to be free. Cole wanted me to train and be serious. The Shade was temptation personified from the beginning.

I turn my hand over and glance down at the smoky mark that still moves on my wrist. The little tally mark is the last debt I owe him. I’d expected Cole to come back wearing the cloak, and then he’d shadow walk us to Stormhaven. Now, I’m in no hurry. I feel… different, and I want to follow this feeling. I like it.

“Sit down,” I say. A command, not a request. Saying nothing, the Shade sits down at the table across from me. I stare into the shadows under his hood, and my Earth powers begin to piece together his face, more difficult than normal because the shadows protect him.

I stop myself. I don’t want toknowwhat his smile or frown looks like. “Don’t take off your hood in front of me,” I say. “I…” I don’t finish that thought. I don’t need to. The command alone will be enough to make sure he doesn’t ruin the feelings that course their way through me.

“When we get to Stormhaven, I want you to continue to wear the cloak.” I rush to come up with a plausible excuse for the command. I don’t know why I feel the need to explain myself, but when I stare into those shadows, I feel smaller. Vulnerability overtakes me. “I may wear the Painted Crown, but humans don’t understand what that means. They can’t feel our powers, and they have no comprehension of the difference between the two of us and Darian and Lee. To them, we’re all just Fae. But they know the Shade. That cloak is going to terrify them more than anyone else.”

The Shade nods to me, not speaking. For several moments, I just stare at him, and he doesn’t flinch. I stand up, the Shade’s unwavering calmness getting to me. I can’t help butfeel unnerved, just like when the power imbalance was reversed. Dealing with the Shade always makes me less confident, and that hasn’t changed since I received the Painted Crown.

He makes me feel like a stupid Wyrdling all over again. Even though I know it’s Cole under the hood, I can’t keep from feeling nervous.

“Then let’s go. No need to put it off any longer. I’m sure that Lee and Darian are tired of waiting for us.”

“As you command,” he says, and a shiver runs up my spine. That voice that haunted my dreams for so long affects me in ways that I never imagined. He stands up and glides toward me. Every move is as smooth as a boat on a waveless lake.

Then he takes my hand in his. Shadows wrap around his skin and create a barrier between us, just as they always did before. There’s no hiding the darkness that trails from my fingertips now. I look into the blackness under his hood, and he stares back at me. Then I nod to him, and we’re falling through the world.

Chapter 5

Humans and Immortals will forever distrust each other. Vyran claims that it is not only Nyth where this imbalance of power has created strife. Magic affects creatures strangely, and those touched by it are forever different in often unexpected ways. Those without magic will fear the power they do not possess. And they will find ways to protect themselves from it.

~Erevan Morvyn, A History of Magic and Dragons

Maeve

I spent almost a month in Draenyth, and I thought I understood what castles were like. The Keep of Flames was made of red marble flecked with gold. It was made with dragon magic, and that is a stark difference that I hadn’t considered.

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