Page 107 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
‘Do they hurt?’ Drue asked.
‘No. But they make me walk funny. But I only realised thatafterI escaped and tried to find you.’
She almost laughed at that, recalling how Talemir’s balance had been thrown off between forms. ‘How did you escape?’
Gus’ brow furrowed, and he scratched his head. ‘I heard you in there, but I wasn’t… awake yet. But then the room went black. And it wasn’t the same dark as when those things are near. It was warmer. I thought I should follow it. Dratos helped me.’
‘Dratos helped?’ Drue exchanged a look with Adrienne.One thing at a time,she reminded herself. ‘Did you fly?’
‘Fly?’ Gus blinked at her as though she were the town fool. ‘How can I fly when I can barely walk?’
Drue had no answer for that. Instead, she asked: ‘Gus, are there others like you down there? Others who, say… might have wings, or claws, or shadows, but are still… Well, themselves? You said Dratos helped?’
Gus nodded enthusiastically. ‘There are loads!’ he exclaimed. ‘Well, some are dead. And some are… bad now. But there are others like me! And yeah, Dratos is still there! He said he’s ready to slay some fucking wraiths —’
‘Angus!’
‘Well, he is.’
‘He’s conscious? He’s in fighting form?’
‘Uh-huh.’
Drue couldn’t process the information fast enough, but when she looked up to Adrienne, her friend was beaming.
Despite the ache still pulling at her chest, Drue felt her own exhausted face split into a wide grin.
‘There’s hope yet…’
26
Talemir
Talemir Starling had lost all hope.
Shadows coiled around him, a sickness he would never be rid of, a plague that evil had wrought upon the midrealms.
Far to the east, he sat on the edge of a cliff, looking out to the black waves, the towering wall of mist that was the Veil and the peak of the Scarlet Tower among the clouds. Perhaps that was where he belonged, along with all the other monsters of humanity.
His shadows jerked in response.
He’d become the very thing he hated. He’d embraced the night so completely that he’dshadow-walked. That knowledge, thatinstincthad been lying in wait within, standing by to be unleashed. And though he’d used it to get those he cared about to safety, it still left a bitter taste on his tongue. He was a monster. He knew the darkness so intimately it had allowed him to bend time and space and distance to his will.
And now everyone, including Wilder, knew it.
His curse was no longer a secret. His wraith-self could no longer be hidden.
Talemir heaved a trembling breath and knocked back more of the bitter tonic Farissa had prepared for him. There was little point, and it made his stomach lurch terribly, but he did it anyway – for what purpose beyond punishment, he couldn’t say.
All he could hear was Drue. All he could feel was the kiss of her blade against his heart.
He’d done the right thing, leaving her, of that he was certain. She was better off without him. Perhaps before he’d become a monster, they could have been something, but now all he would bring her was pain and grief and suffering.
Like the poor souls in the wraiths’ lair. Doomed for darkness.
The only comfort he took from his leaving was that he’d never have to hear her words fraught with agony caused by him ever again. Until his final breath he would remember the ranger forged with fury and strength, beautiful and chaotic, even if she wished him dead. It was with images of Drue swimming in his vision that Talemir at last let darkness claim him. It dragged him under, recognising itself in him.
A sharp kickto his side woke him.
