Page 57 of Kingdom of Chaos
Talon swipes a hand down his face, not in frustration, at least not with me. It feels more like he’s searching for the right words.
“How did I get away from that swamp monster?” he asks. “It’s bearing down on me. I told you to go without me. And then . . .” He trails off, clearly waiting for me to fill in the blank.
Just thinking about that demonic bunny sends a shiver down my spine. And to think I was going to try to make it a pet.
“You used your magic,” I say slowly. “You swallowed it in shadows and made it back to us.”
He nods. “Right. Except . . . I didn’t.”
My stomach tightens. “Didn’t what?”
“I didn’t use my magic.”
“Of course you did. I was standing right there. I saw the whole thing.”
But Talon shakes his head at me. “No. I didn’t do that. I can’t—” he starts and then snaps his mouth shut.
My brows pinch. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I wasn’t the one who commanded those shadows to attack the beast. Someone else did that.”
“Imogen?” I guess, since shadow powers are typically linked to vampires.
He shakes his head, his gaze intense.
“Well, it wasn’t Ensley or Titus. That definitely wasn’t fae magic back there. So that just leaves you and Imogen. And I’ve seen Imogen manipulate shadows back at Grimspire Castle before she used her compulsion on me, so if it wasn’t you, it must have been her.”
Why is he even pushing this? Who cares if Imogen attacked the swamp monster instead of him?
“It wasn’t Imogen,” Talon says firmly, and I throw up my hands.
“Of course it was. I don’t even understand what we’re doing out here arguing about this. We have a long couple of days in front of us, so if you don’t mind, I’m going back to get some sleep.” Turning on a heel, I start back toward the house when Talon’s next words stop me in my tracks.
“It was you.”
I slowly look over my shoulder. He can’t possibly be saying what I think he is.
Talon strides forward until he’s standing in front of me again. He meets my gaze, his expression more serious than I’ve ever seen it.
“The shadows that saved me from the swamp monster. . . that was you. You commanded them. You saved my life.”
I’m shaking my head even as he’s talking. “Did you forget I’m magicless? That I’mhuman?”
“I know you’re human. But you also won the activation trial and bonded with Shadow Striker. We were separated from the blade before it fully transferred over to you. That’s all new territory. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that you might?—”
“No,” I say, cutting Talon off mid-sentence.
But even as his mouth snaps shut, it’s clear this conversation is far from over. A muscle jumps in his jaw, and he exhales sharply through his nose, frustration written all over his face. I can see it in his eyes, in the tense set of his shoulders that he truly believes I controlled those shadows.
But he’s wrong.
Right?
“I don’t know what she told you, or why she’d lie about it,” I say quickly. “But it had to be Imogen.”
“It wasn’t. Imogen doesn’t have that magic.”
“That you know of. The Arcane Society is so secret, she doesn’t even know what type of creature you are,” I say, giving Talon a pointed look. “How would you know if Imogen was hiding part of her magic from you?”
