Page 23 of Crowned By the Shadow
I pulled the small grass weaving from my pocket. It was frayed at the edges now, but still intact, still imbued with Wyn’s essence. Placing it in my palm, I cupped my other hand around the pendant.
“Focus on her,” Thorn reminded me. “On your connection.”
I closed my eyes, picturing Wyn’s face. Her curious eyes and her gentle smile filled my mind’s eye. I thought of her laugh, the way she’d excitedly explain magical theories I barely understood. The way she’d stood by me, believed in me, even when I hadn’t believed in myself.
“Find her,” I whispered to the pendant. “Show me where she is.”
The metal warmed against my skin. A familiar tingle spread up my arm, into my chest, behind my eyes. The world fell away.
Darkness. Cold stone. The taste of iron, of blood, on my tongue.
Blink.
I was looking through Wyn’s eyes.
Sitting huddled in a corner, her silver hair fluttered in the edges of her vision thanks to a draft coming from somewhere, the strands now dulled with dust and blood. Her wrists were bound with shackles that glowed with strange runes. Despite the weight in her body, the lethargy I could sense filling her, she remained alert, watching.
A door opened. Light spilled across the floor, burning her eyes and illuminating a cell carved from obsidian crystal. A tall figure entered. Eldric. His face was impassive as he regarded his prisoner.
“Your friends are coming for you,” he said, his voice echoing strangely in the crystalline chamber. “They don’t understand what they’re walking into.”
Wyn lifted her chin. “Neither do you, if you think Senara will be stopped by your traps.” Anger flared bright and hot within her, but so did dread, an awful, cold trepidation that almost quashed the anger she felt but she held firm to the emotion.
Eldric laughed, the sound hollow and bitter. “I’m counting on her persistence. The Eclipse Child must come to the Obsidian Keep. It may as well be written in the stars.” He stepped closer, kneeling before her. “But you already know that, don’t you? Your research into the ancient texts... you’ve pieced it together. Or are you not as smart as I thought?”
The words were on Wyn’s lips, her retort, but she bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to remain defiant, and not give him the answer or general response he wanted. The flicker of fear that skated up and down her spine was enough to make me enraged though.
“Tell me,” Eldric continued, “did yourfriendever tell you about the previous Eclipse Child?”
Wyn’s composure cracked. “What are you talking about?”
“Ask him,” Eldric said, rising. “Ask him about Fiona, the last Moon Marked who tried to stop the Void Dragon Empress. Ask him what happened when the stars last aligned.”
Eldric’s hand whipped out faster than a blade and connected with Wyn’s head, his fingers digging in to her temples.
The scene shifted. Disoriented, I found myself in a different chamber, one that was larger and much grander. There was also a sterility to it, though.
A war room.
Maps covered the walls, and a massive table dominated the center, scattered with scrolls and artifacts.
Eldric stood before a window that looked out over a landscape of twisted black crystal. Beyond, storm clouds churned, shot through with veins of purple lightning.
“The convergence approaches,” he said to someone I couldn’t see. “The void grows restless.”
“The girl isn’t ready,” came the reply, a voice that was familiar enough that I should be able to place it, but couldn’t. “She hasn’t unlocked the full power of the Mark.”
“She will when she has no choice.” Eldric turned, revealing a male standing in the shadows, his face concealed by the hooded cloak he wore. “When her friend’s life hangs in the balance.”
“And if she fails? If the binding fails? If she doesn’t love me enough?”
Eldric’s smile was terrible to behold. “Then the Empress returns, and we take our rightful place at her side.”
The vision shattered. I gasped, falling forward. Thorn caught me, his face tight with concern.
“What did you see?”
I struggled to catch my breath, the images still burning behind my eyes. “Wyn. She’s alive, but imprisoned in theObsidian Keep.” I swallowed hard. “Eldric is waiting for us, for me. He wants me there.”
