Page 77 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
Our laughter didn’t fix anything. It didn’t erase the blood or the memories, but it carved out just enough space to breathe. And for now, that was enough.
Draven
Frost shimmeredalong the invisible wards, tracing each of my steps like breath fogging glass.
I took my time circling the boundaries of the protective walls while my wolves hunted just beyond them. This was the second time I had walked the perimeter, searching for holes or fractures, for any sign of a breach that might explain the warning bells that pulled at my mana at all hours of the day and night.
Just like last time, the wards held steady under my scrutiny. There was no visible weakness to account for the intensity of the alerts.
And yet?—
Shadows shifted just beyond the wards. Long, gleaming teeth flashed with the snapping of jaws while hungry eyes blinked against the darkness.
It had been this way since we returned. And Eryx insisted the disturbances had plagued the walls ever since the wards fell the first time.
A snarl ripped through the night as a Tharnok launched itself forward, claws raking against the invisible barrier with a sound like steel on glass.
My wards held, but a pricking sensation whispered along the side of my neck, like an insect waiting to be batted away. Nothing like the deep, bone-rattling alerts that had woken me before.
The monster shrieked as Eryx drove a spear of hardened ice through its skull. His spear shattered into a spray of frost as the body collapsed against the wards and slid into the snow.
The line flared once, then steadied.
“Persistent bastards,” Eryx muttered, summoning another length of glacial steel into his palm, its edges still steaming with cold.
I gave a single nod and stepped just beyond the wards to test from the other side. Everly’s dagger pulsed warm against my palm, thrumming with that strange, willful mana as I scraped it along the boundary.
The wards held strong. Not a single echo of the prickle that had needled my skin. I pressed harder, dragging the edge in a long, deliberate line down to where the corpse lay propped against the invisible wall.
Violet light emanated from the blackened steel, growing brighter the harder I pressed, like it wanted to break through.
Could a more powerful weapon do the trick? Something larger?
I thought back to my time in the Unseelie Wilds, the matching dagger the warrior had used to help me escape.
How many of these were there?
I stepped back behind the safety of the wards, turning the dagger over in my hand. It felt like her, like Everly. Jagged, and ethereal, and chaotic.
But not malevolent.
“Strong enough?” Eryx asked, his breath misting in the cold.
He scanned the treeline in the distance before meeting my gaze.
“For now,” I said bitterly.
He dipped his chin in a silent acknowledgment.
“Do you think it’s them?” he asked, emphasizing the final word in a way that set my teeth on edge.
Them.
The Unseelie.
My breath fogged the night air as I stared down at the weapon in my hand.
He didn’t know, not yet, that the queen he protected carried Unseelie blood in her veins.
