Page 150 of A Promise of Peridot
“The guard station first. They’ll escort us to the city’s leader. The last time I had spies sent here, they said the island was ruled by a warlord named Killoran Grim. We’ll find him up there.” Kane pointed to a well-lit wooden platform tented in dark patchwork canvas. “I wish I didn’t need you for this. But when we examine his weaponry, the blade will call to you. We’ll be home in time to have rabbit stew for dinner, and something even better for dessert.” Kane pressed a kiss to the top of my head, and I tried to nod brightly.
I wasn’t scared.
How could I be with him beside me?
43
arwen
I followed Kane down a rope bridge and through the remarkable wooden city. It might have felt whimsical—magical, even—if I hadn’t known it was populated entirely by violent criminals. The sun had slipped behind a cloud, bathing every textured slat and mossy stretch of rope in flickering shadow.
I clung to Kane as we climbed past burly men without teeth hacking into cured meat and women washing dingy linens, pouring the dirty water directly off the platforms and into the foggy depths below.
When we reached a decayed turret with a thatched roof, Kane peered inside and I did the same. It was empty save for two dusty mugs and a blue sparrow picking at a fetid apple.
“Is this where your guards are stationed?”
Kane lifted the empty mug to his nose and sniffed.
“Where are they?”
He didn’t answer but the worry on his brow was clear. “Perhaps we should return tomorrow, with soldiers.”
I shook my head, emboldened by his earlier confidence. “We’re already here. Lazarus could come for Shadowhold any minute, and now that everyone who was evicted from Citrine is there...” I didn’t want to finish the thought.
Kane released a deep sigh, taking my hand as we walked down the rope bridge and farther into the heart of the city. We wove through throngs of uninviting, grimy faces. Up ladders and down ramps and back up winding stairs with sections of rotted wood carved by mold and termites. I watched my feet out of an abundance of caution not to trip and fall right through.
A snapping sound had my eyes off my leather boots and up on a handful of rocks tumbling toward my head. I brought my hands over my face in cover, but the boulders hovered in midair, buoyed by a dark satchel of mist, before flying unnaturally to the right and toppling down into the trees and branches beneath us.
I caught my breath. “What was that?”
Kane shrugged, but concern played across his eyes. “Something shaken loose above us. Perhaps some children trying to give their new guests a head injury.”
I peered up at him. “You used lighte. You never do that.”
“Your face is too pretty. It would be a great shame to see it caved in.”
I didn’t laugh. “Don’t deflect.”
“Don’t pry.” Kane offered a crooked smile and kept walking.
“I will never stop prying, and you know it,” I said, following after him. “Why did you do that?”
“To protect you.”
“You could have moved me out of the way. Why did you use your lighte? And out in the open like that?”
Kane stopped walking and turned to face me. There wasnobody else on the canopied ramp. A single firefly whizzed past his brow. “Fae can harness lighte from various elements. Air, earth, metal, wind, water, fire, ether—the list goes on and on. My lighte comes from the depths of the earth. So I’m strongest, or the lighte flows out of me easiest, in places much like this. Surrounded by dirt, soil, wood. Sometimes the rotting leaves, the decay of the forest itself.”
“But you weren’t as strong in Reaper’s Cavern.”
He lowered a brow playfully. “Ouch.” When I blushed, he said, “That was stone, not earth.”
“That’s why you love Shadowhold. Why you prefer it over your palace in the city. It’s surrounded by dark woods.”
Kane continued to walk. “Come on.”
“And what about mine? It comes from the air?”
