Page 77 of Claimed By Shadow and Blood
Rapid footsteps pattered toward the tall marble double doors. As Ceana vanished in the shadows, a skinny fae with long pointed ears dashed in. He held a folded dark pink garment and a pair of red-brown boots to his chest. As he skidded to a stop in front of me, he looked between the guards. They grumbled with disapproval but released my arms. As the blood flowed more easily through my arms and my elbows ached, I smiled kindly at the servant.
Vyraetos called out, “Rhielle.”
My head jerked in her direction as she strode forward, arms still folded.
The scar across her throat was a vivid purple and heavily bruised. “Just want to say feck every single last one of you who supported this.” She tossed me a tight-lipped smile and stepped into the sigil.
“Briar,” Vyraetos announced.
My insides tightened at the sound of my name, and on instinct, I stepped forward. The eyes of everyone in the room followed as I moved toward the sigil, clutching the garments and boots.
"Win this thing, Briar!" Quen's voice rang out, fierce and determined. "Show them what you're made of! I know you didn’t kill the king. We all do."
Despite myself, I looked up at Vad. His dark, leathery wings flexed, and his steely gray eyes were fixed on me, intense and unreadable to anyone who didn't know what lay beneath that stern exterior. But I knew. I recognized the tension in his jaw, the almost imperceptible softening around his eyes that he reserved only for me.
Soon I’d be out of this mess, and I could be in his arms, breathing in his scent, feeling the steady beat of his heart against mine. No more accusations, no more hiding, no more pretending. The thought sent a warm current through my veins, melting away some of the icy fear and desolation that had formed during my imprisonment.
The shadows swept up around me, and my stomach lurched as the ground fell out from under my feet. My arms tightened around the dress and boots.
Then the shadows vanished, and I found myself in a cavern. I stood in the center of a white circle carved directly into the floor, its edges smooth and cut with precision. At its heart lay a symbol I didn’t recognize: two slender swords crossed behind a chalice, all three etched in a fine silvery line that caught the light and shimmered faintly. A solid wall curved behind me and snaked out on either side of me, creating an elevated protective alcove that descended into a larger chamber beyond.
Orbs of golden light floated high above me, eerily similar to those in the first trial. Their glow cast shifting shadows across the broken terrain, but some of the shadows twitched too slow or too fast to be natural. Something lurked out there and would most likely be triggered once the gong sounded.
A massive, uneven mountain of rubble loomed in the center of the space, its shape jagged and chaotic, like someone had poured the contents of the world into one place and let it rot. Boulders jutted out at crooked angles. Veins of sand spilled between slick banks of clay and mud. Segments of gravel butted against smoother sheets of slate. And in its heart, half-swallowed by the stone at the very top, sat a crumbling well, its lip cracked and the paths to it rising at odd intervals.
The floor beneath me wasn’t any kinder. It rose behind me onto an elevated ledge that went right up against the solid curving wall. In front of me, it slanted downward in a relativelysteep embankment that ended at the base of the mountain. The cracked marble fought against rough, unworked rock in a jagged patchwork, as if the chamber itself couldn’t decide what it was. Strange symbols pulsed faintly along the surface, all ancient and unreadable but vibrating in a way that made the hairs along my arms rise.
Magic thrummed in the air, filling my ears with a buzz just shy of causing pain. The sensation coiled around my throat and chest. What was wrong with this air? I grimaced and rubbed my throat. Already, my mouth was drying, and my eyes had started to burn.
The air smelled wrong. Ozone and upturned earth, but beneath that something sickly sweet, like poison disguised with flowers. And then another note—a dry, sun-warmed scent, hay, or straw perhaps?
I curled my toes against the stone, still barefoot. It was cold in here. Many-Greats had told me to stay in the circle. It was large enough to sit in and stretch out my legs, but my wolf chomped and growled, begging me to let her out.
My skin crawled and itched, and the burning air stung even more. I needed to change out of this wool gown into the softer pink one. As I set down the clothing to change, I noticed the boot laces had been bound together. Assholes.
My wolf pushed harder to the front. Shifting while badly injured was dangerous, and I knew that the spells and torture at the prison had done a number on me. But—my wolf wasn’t having it.
I lost control, and she relished it.
Pain ripped down my spine as if someone had lashed me with a whip. My arms spasmed, the muscles seizing so hard I cried out. My skin tingled and my fingers twisted and cracked as the bones realigned far more slowly than usual. Wool ripped as Itossed the dress and boots away. My back arched, and my body contorted, eachpopa wrenching pull that left me gasping.
Fuck! What was wrong? This wasn’t how shifting was supposed to feel. It had never hurt like this before.
The forced shift on top of my partly healed wounds had to be why.
I collapsed forward, my fingers pressing at the edge of the carved and painted sigil circle. My skin felt like it was peeling away as my bones ground against each other. My wolf howled in panic. Something was wrong. She pushed against me, frantic and clawing.
A wind picked up, stirring dust and grit into the air and circling me. I choked and squeezed my eyes shut as tears spilled down my cheeks.Stay in the circle. Just stay in the circle.
What was making this shift take so long? Had I messed up?
Bile coated my tongue, and I gagged.
Was Fate doing this? Or had the real traitors laid a trap?
Another searing burst of pain exploded down my spine, and I screamed. My arms twitched again as my hands became half-formed paws and shifted back and forth between human and beast. I couldn’t hold the shape. My body burned and twisted. I howled, long and raw, as the magic inside me writhed like it was being torn apart. Fur sprouted along my back and arms.
The gong sounded.
