Page 99 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
He forced one foot in front of the other towards the lair, knowing that if he didn’t keep going, Drue would. But when he reached the corner of the entrance, he froze, wrangling with the urge to recoil, to sweep Drue up in his arms and run as far away from this gods-forsaken place as possible.
‘We need to leave,’ he stammered, blocking Drue’s view.
It was Wilder who pushed to the front, scowling. ‘What’s got into you?’ he hissed. ‘You never back down from a fight, sure as fuck not fromwraiths.’ He spat the last word with venom. ‘What are you not telling —’
Drue’s gasp of horror cut him off as she peered around him into the cave and saw what he’d been trying to shield her from.
His blood went cold as he too looked upon them.
It was not a swarm of monsters as expected.
There was organisation to this evil, planning and scheming and discipline.
And at the heart of it all was the thing that stalked Talemir’s nightmares, the thing that had pierced his heart and poisoned it with darkness.
A king of wraiths.
One of several.
‘Furies save us,’ Adrienne murmured, her mouth agape. ‘What the fuck are those things?’
Talemir took a shallow breath, his throat burning with the pungent stench of the cave. ‘Rheguld reapers,’ he said, not taking his eyes off the largest one, the centre of everything. Like the wraiths, it had perhaps once been human, but now, infected with shadow power, its elongated, leathery body towered above all else, perhaps reaching ten feet tall. Atop its head were a pair of curling horns that nearly brushed the stalactites on the ceiling, and the claws at its fingers leaked darkness.
‘The reapers are the leaders, the kings of all wraiths,’ he whispered to the others. ‘They’re smarter, stronger, bigger than their lessers. They can infect a person, reach into their chest and curse them with the same shadow magic.’
‘How do you know all of this?’ Wilder interrupted sharply. ‘Why —’
Talemir silenced him with a shake of his head and stared into the cavern. It was the first time he’d seen a reaper since he himself had been cursed. Half choking on the thick, rotten air around him, he wondered if the monster who had sired him was in this lair, if the creature would recognise him. The strange stirring in his chest answered yes to both questions.
It was also the first time he’d been in the presence of wraiths without the bedlam of a battle. Here, he could sense their power, feel it permeating the cave and all the connections that came with it. The monsters below were linked, threads of dark magic tethering them to one another in ways he couldn’t yet understand. But there was something here, something he needed to know; he could feel it leaching into his bones.
He loosed a tight breath. ‘Every one of those foul things was a human once…’ He reached out and gripped Drue’s hand, squeezing it. ‘See what they become? There is no hope for your friend, Drue… I’m so sorry.’
‘Tal! Seriously. How do you know?’ Wilder snapped. ‘What aren’t you telling —’
Adrienne raised a fist in warning. They fell silent as she pointed below.
The reaper at the centre of the cave paused… It lifted its head, sniffing.
Talemir’s blood went cold. Could it sense him? Was he connected to —
Drue elbowed him, nodding to the right of the monster. ‘That’s an antechamber over there… That’s where they’d be holding prisoners.’
Talemir’s heart was breaking. He couldn’t allow this, couldn’t stand it. He grabbed her chin firmly, forcing her gaze to his. ‘Enough, Wildfire. They are lost to you.’
Drue’s breaths came fast and shallow, her stare intensifying before she hit his hand away from her as though his touch had burned.
A silent scream left his lips as she twisted from his grip entirely and darted deep into the cave.
Leaving Wilder and Adrienne crying out soundlessly in his wake, Talemir didn’t think.
He lunged after Drue, calling upon his own shadows as he had only a few times before. He threw them out towards Drue first, the wisps of obsidian obscuring her lithe frame as she sprinted around the edge, ducking behind cover where she could, running straight for the antechamber she’d pointed out.
Hidden in his own darkness, Talemir moved like tendrils of smoke across the cavern, unnoticed by the monsters, heart hammering wildly to the drumbeat of his own power.
The cave was swarming with wraiths and reapers and he wove between them, his magic kissing theirs in a terrifying dance.
But Drue made it to the antechamber.
