Page 32 of Ash and Feather

He laughed.

I clenched my teeth. “I don’t find any of it funny.”

“No? Still essentially a short-sighted mortal, then, even with all you’ve been given. How disappointing.”

“And you are still a traitorous time-waster who talks in riddles and circles.How disappointing.”

His smile crept slowly across his face, beautiful but deadly, like an early frost in spring choking out any chance of life. “I am no traitor, girl,” he snarled. “For me to have betrayed you, I would have had to swear allegiance to you, first. I did no such thing.”

“True enough,” I snarled back. “My mistake for assuming you were decent, like the rest of the Shade Court turned out to be.”

“Mydecentfellow court members forgot themselves in the chaos you brought into this realm. I alone remembered that we are meant to answer to a higher power—in the matter of you as in the matters of all things. And it was mewho first suggested to my higher power that you might find a place here in His court. I helped devise the trial Malaphar ultimately offered you, and I set that final trial into motion.”

I started to object, but a memory dropped suddenly into my head, snapping my mouth shut as it landed.

Everything that had happened in the Tower of Ascension was a blur…but when I focused, I remembered the powerful, quiet voice of the Shade God speaking over my battered body.

You were dying on the shore of the mortal lake known as Irithyl. I had my servant—you know him as Zachar, I believe—stall your soul’s passing long enough to transport it here…

The Death God had clearly been following orders from a higher power then, as he claimed. So was he telling the truth about other things? Had he been helping to arrange my destiny according to his upper-god’s wishes the whole time?

Could I trust him?

I didn’t know. But I was too tired, and too frustrated from my day of failing at magic, to think about how I might have gotten my opinion about him wrong, too.

His smile brightened as he watched me, as though he could hear my warring thoughts and was delighting in my confusion.

“If you are telling the truth,” I said, smoothing some of the edge from my voice, “then I suppose you have my thanks. But unless you are going to help me with my current trouble, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave me alone. I didn’t mean to come here, anyway, as I told you.”

Our gazes remained tensely locked until I worked up the nerve to turn my back on him. I wasn’t sure this was a wise move, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to evenattemptto transfer myself back to my own territory so long as I was near Zachar and the heavy, depressing air that hovered around him.

So I trudged through the dark on foot, putting space between us, vainly trying to rub the chills from my arms as I went.

Though my breath steamed in the air, I wasn’t as cold as I’d once been in this dominion—my internal Fire magic was useful even if I couldn’t control it very well; I simply ran hotter these days. And though the Death magic was draining me, I still felt strong enough to walk all the way back to Mai and Valas, if necessary.

And luckily, Zachar didn’t seem to be following.

I started to chance a glance over my shoulder—just to make sure—when he called out to me.

“You might find it beneficial to let some parts of yourself properly die off.”

Against my better judgment, I slowed to a stop. “I’m perfectly content with keeping all my parts intact, thank you.” I’d spoken under my breath; I didn’t know if he’d even heard me.

He didn’t answer for a long moment.

The air grew warmer, almost balmy, and I thought maybe I’d finally vexed or insulted him enough that he’d given up on me and left.

But then he was very suddenlythere, a shadow slowly taking on the form of a man right in front me.

He wasted no time continuing his speech; as soon as his mouth took shape—before it even had the company of those cold twilight eyes of his—he said, “Have you ever noticed the way people get shy around the subject of death? And around me?They forget thatrebirthalso lies under my rule. And that there can be no rebirth without death.”

That last part struck me as strange—wrong. “I thought Valas was the Marr associated with rebirth?”

“The threads of magic within the Marr often intertwine, particularly within their given court. We all carry different shades of a magic that pertains to such—and you could wield your own power of renewal too, if you decide to. But death must come first.” His eyes finished forming and blinked several times. “I wonder…could you wield that, too?”

I couldn’t think of a response to this.

He didn’t seem to really want one.

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