Page 113 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
She clutched him tighter. ‘Talemir,’ she murmured into his ear. ‘You need to accept what you are if you want to live. It might be the strongest part of you, but it’s not the only part —’
Breath catching in her throat, Drue looked down, finding tendrils of shadow rippling from Talemir’s skin.
As light as a whisper at first, and then intensifying, blooming like flowers around her, thrumming with power.
‘Drue…’ Adrienne warned from nearby.
‘It’s alright,’ she said, cradling the Warsword in her arms. ‘You’re alright.’
Darkness poured from Talemir, from his talon-tipped fingers, from his chest in pinpoints where the reaper had pierced his heart.
But Drue was not afraid. Not of the Warsword, not of the wraith, and not of the darkness as it swept in around her, a billowing black mist.
The shadows fluttered against her skin, as soft as a sigh before a kiss.
They danced along her bones, hummed gently in her chest and toyed with her hair, playful and tender, graceful and warm.
And when the ribbons of darkness abated, a winged Warsword knelt before her.
28
Talemir
Talemir Starling had cut down more enemies than he could count. He had faced nightmares incarnate and become the darkness itself, and yet when it came to facing Drue after what he’d done… His heart stuttered.
Talemir Starling’s heartstuttered.
Drue’s beautiful face hardened.
And Talemir, despite all that had occurred between them just now, braced himself for a different battle.
Drue folded her arms over her chest, a vision of anger, regardless of the tears that streaked her cheeks. ‘So you came back.’
Talemir winced at the sharpness of her words, but couldn’t blame her for them.
He had left.
He had left her to face the horrors of the world alone.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, still on his knees.
By now, the entirety of the Naarvian forces had emerged from their tents and were staring. Staring at the wings that were folded in at his back, staring at a winged Warsword kneeling before a ranger. They gathered around at a safe distance, murmuring between themselves, but seeming to understand that this was Drue’s fight.
‘I made a mistake,’ he said.
‘Several,’ Drue bit back.
‘Several,’ he agreed. He wanted to reach out and touch her, to wrap her in his arms and reassure her he would never do something like that again. But those were actions, and his actions had burned her. Now, he realised, it was time for words.
‘Why?’ Drue demanded. ‘Why have you come back?’
‘Because there’s no one else I want fighting at my side, whose home I’d wish to defend. If you’re going into the depths of darkness, I’m going with you.’
‘You did that, and you left. When things got hard, youleft. Why should I believe you now? Why —’
‘Because I’m in love with you.’ The words flowed from him easily, the most natural response in the world, the starkest truth he could offer her.
Drue blinked, and Talemir heard her breath catch. ‘What…?’
