Page 17 of Crowned By the Shadow
Chapter
Six
Senara
The hedge maze swallowed us whole, its towering walls of greenery offering momentary sanctuary. I crouched low, my breath coming in short, controlled bursts as I followed Sebastian’s lead through the winding paths. The pendant hung heavy against my chest, pulsing with an energy that seemed to match my racing heartbeat.
“We need to get beyond the outer gardens,” Sebastian whispered, his voice barely audible above the distant shouts of guards. “There’s a passage that leads?—”
He froze mid-sentence. I nearly collided with his back.
The surrounding air changed, grew heavier, thicker, with something that tasted like decay on my tongue. My skin prickled with warning before my eyes confirmed what my instincts already knew.
They emerged from all sides at once. Fae guards, but not as they should be. Their movements were wrong, jerky and uncoordinated, like puppets with tangled strings, and their skin bore a sickly gray pallor, veined with black lines that crawled across their faces like spiderwebs. The worse was their eyes,which were clouded with an inky darkness that consumed the whites entirely.
“Corrupted,” Thorn breathed, drawing his blade in one fluid motion. “The Void’s influence has spread further than we thought.”
We backed into a tight triangle, shoulders pressed together as the corrupted fae closed in. I counted twelve, then fifteen, then stopped counting altogether as more poured in from the maze’s hidden entrances.
“Any suggestions?” I asked, drawing my weapon and feeling woefully unprepared.
Sebastian’s laugh was bitter. “Fight like hell.”
The first one lunged without warning, faster than any natural movement should allow. I pivoted, narrowly avoiding the clawed fingers that grazed my cheek. My blade caught it across the chest, but instead of blood, a viscous black substance oozed from the wound.
The creature didn’t even flinch.
“Some of them don’t feel pain,” Thorn called out, reminding me and probably educating Sebastian. My soul mate’s movements were precise, calculated, each strike meant to disable or kill rather than wound. We both knew that there was no way to get these fae back once the corruption had spread this far.
I ducked beneath another attack, slashing upward through a corrupted guard’s arm. The limb fell away, but the fae kept coming, the black ichor dripping from the severed joint as I used the opening and stabbed upward into its chest.
Catching movement from the corner of my eye, I spun toward it. Two more rushed me from opposite directions. I dropped to one knee, letting them collide above me before thrusting upward with my blade. One fell, the other staggered back.
The pendant at my chest burned hot suddenly, almost searing through my shirt. Acting on pure instinct, I grabbed it with my free hand.
Power surged through me, raw and ancient. The Moon Mark across my skin ignited with silver light, patterns blazing across my flesh like liquid starlight. The nearest corrupted fae recoiled, shielding their darkened eyes.
“Senara!” Sebastian’s voice cut through the chaos. “The pendant! Use it!”
I still wasn’t entirely sure how, but my body seemed to know, and I thrust my hand forward, palm out, and a pulse of silver-blue energy erupted from the pendant. Three corrupted fae disintegrated on contact, their ashes scattered by an unseen wind.
But for each one that fell, two more emerged from the maze.
Thorn fought with the grace of a dancer, each movement flowing into the next as he cut down foe after foe. Still, a corrupted guard sliced across his arm, drawing a hiss of pain.
Sebastian moved like a force of nature, all controlled fury and precision. His face was transformed in battle, the madness in his eyes replaced by cold calculation. This was the Sun King, I realized. This was my father, as he must have been before grief broke him.
“There’s too many!” I called out, dispatching another with a clean strike through its throat.
A corrupted fae tackled me from behind, its weight driving me to my knees. Claws dug into my shoulders, tearing through fabric and skin. Pain lanced down my back as I struggled beneath it.
The pendant pulsed again, and instinctively I rolled, throwing the creature off. As it scrambled to its feet, I drove my blade up through its jaw, watching as it crumbled to ash.
Blood trickled down my back, hot and sticky. I staggered to my feet, finding myself separated from Thorn and Sebastian by a wall of corrupted fae.
“Fall back to the fountain!” Sebastian shouted, his voice barely audible over the inhuman screeching of our attackers.
I cut a path toward him, each swing of my blade fueled by desperation and the strange power flowing through my veins. The pendant’s energy seemed to guide my movements, making me faster, stronger than I’d ever been.
