Page 70 of Her Shadow so Dark and Lovely
“Sila,” I hiss.
She keeps walking, picking up that brisk Librarian pace of hers.
“Hush now and indulge me. You will not make it on your own, and I wish to keep you close,” she says, keeping her voice low.
When she puts it like that, it’s hard to deny her anything. I flop against her, and she pats my thigh. It’s entirely the wrong time to think about what else I’d like her to do with my thighs, but I’m exhausted and I don’t know when I’ll next get the chance to sleep, let alone be able to go to bed with her again. With all my defenses down, I am consumed by heartache. This time it’s threaded through with frustration and anguish and I don’t have the space for all these emotions. I want to be back in Sila’s room, in Sila’s bed, not here mourning the loss of it.
“Little mouse?” Sila says, still quiet. We’ve made our way down several floors, deeper and lower than I have ever had any reason to be before.
“Are we going to the catacombs?” I ask, matching her volume.
“Yes, and through the caves below them, if I am assuming correctly,” she replies. There’s silence for another floor. Then, “Will you tell me what the prophecy says?”
I right myself, elbows braced on her back, and tell her. Even as an echo, the words feel heavy and metallic on my tongue. The silence returns and I imagine I can hear the sounds of Sila thinking.
“Do you know,” Sila says. “That the Gloaming Queen’s Court is called the Evenfall.”
“The inverse of the dawn,” I mumble.
“Yes. In your oldest myth, the people of her court are called stars,” says Sila. “Now they are called wraiths, which is the more accurate term.”
Now it is the sound of my thoughts ticking over. My breath catches in my throat. “The Dawn King called you ‘fallen one’.”
“Yes. I suppose he has made that connection,” Sila says. “Though he let us go, which concerns me. He was weakened, dangerous, but if I had been less concerned with you. Well.”
We fall into thoughtful silence again, something nagging at the edge of my thoughts. Why had the queen wanted me dead, too? It clicks into place.
“I thought it was the Dawn King,” I say. “But the Heart said it was for the ‘traitor’.”
“It could be both, or either. That would explain the queen’s interest. And one star has already fallen,” Sila whispers.
She stops suddenly and I notice the sound of heavy boots on stone, the soft clink of metal on metal. I twist to look and Sila lets me go so that I can slide to the ground. She pushes me behind her, placing herself between the dark figure in the corridor, pacing menacingly towards us. Sila steps free of the shadows. They’ll be of little use here, I think, as the figure steps into the low light of the nearest sigil lanterns and tips their chin up.
“Vika,” Sila says.
“Sila, Sila, Sila. What have you been up to?” says Vika, smiling.
Chapter 42
Lorel
Vika is exactlyas terrifying to meet in a dark hallway as I expected. Though the corridor is wide and well lit, she makes it seem small and impenetrable.
“It no longer concerns you, Vika,” Sila says. “Now step aside.”
Vika heaves a theatrical sigh and gives Sila an unapologetic smile. “I’m afraid I can’t. I warned you that there would be consequences. And to find you with the very scribe you were tasked to kill? That’s treason, and my hands are tied when it comes to traitors.”
“They don’t look tied,” I say, eyeing her warily as I sway on my feet.
“Lorel,” hisses Sila in warning.
Vika’s eyes flick to me. “Oh, it talks,” she says. “Don’t worry, I can succeed where you have failed?—”
“If you so much as touch a hair on her head, Vika, you will wish you never knew what it was like to breathe when I’m done with you,” says Sila, voice low and dangerous. “Now stand down.” Sila has grown taller and darker. Less distinct around the edges.
“You no longer have the queen’s blessing, Sila. You can’t hope to walk away from this,” Vika says, rolling her shoulders.
“I do not need it,” hisses Sila. It echoes around us, and even Vika pauses. Then she smirks.
