Page 106 of Stolen By Shadow Beasts

Unlike with our enemies, Phantom knows where we can hide, so nowhere is safe anymore. On our first night after losing him, he’d sent a team of creatures to kill us in our usual cave. We’d barely gotten out alive, but it was the moment when we realized this was really happening. Phantom was against us. And since then, we’ve found nearly every safe cave the guys were aware of destroyed by rot monkeys and grave trolls.

Phantom isn’t just going after us, he’s going for thejugular. Using the intimate knowledge he has of how we fight the Shadow King, how we’ve managed to stay alive, to make our lives even harder. Onyx seems to think it means there’s nothing left of his best friend. I’m trying not to think that way, and I have no idea how Dusk and Rayne are processing this mess.

Our situation is worse than that, though, because Phantom is also smarter than his father, the Shadow King. It feels like he’ll destroy us. It’s only a matter of time. But we’re doing everything we can not to make it too easy for him, to buy ourselves time to figure out how to save him, all the shadow beasts, and earth itself.

Yet, no matter where we go, Phantom attacks, and nothing stops him. His army of grave trolls and rot monkeys is stronger than we are and seems to have limitless numbers. His shadow beasts are ruthless, aggressive, and unrelenting. Every night is filled with me using my magic until I nearly pass out, and my men fighting until their bodies are battered and bruised.

We’re slowing down. We’re coming undone. It’s an unsaid tension that hangs in the air, almost suffocatingly heavy and impossible to ignore, that we can’t keep doing this.

And it’s all the more painful because someone we love is doing this to us.

I toss the bag that’s slung over my back with all my most important belongings onto the ground and then collapse next to it. The others all find spots around the cave and do the same, and then we’re all taking a moment, sitting in silence. And it honestly feels like we’re soldiers who just keep getting their asses kicked, but somehow manage to survive.

It’s not the best feeling, but it’s better than being dead.

“Good job with your light,” Dusk says, speaking each word clearly so that it’s easier for Onyx to read his lips, but his words are meant for me.

Looking at Dusk, I feel my heart ache a little. His long brown hair had been tied at his nape, but now so much of the strands had come lose that he looks like he’d stood behind an airplane engine. But that’s nothing compared to the scratches on his face, his arms, even his neck. There are tears and stains all over his clothes too… clothes that were clean before this latest battle.

It’s painful to see.

“You guys are the ones getting your asses kicked.” I try to hide the guilt from my voice, but I can’t. They’re basically the brute force in our defense strategy. I’m hidden behind them, channel the light inside of me. I manage to do the most damage, but it doesn’t change the fact that my men are our enemies’ punching bags.

Yes, it’s hard on me. It leaves me light-headed, exhausted, and weak, but it’s nothing like they’re enduring. Punches from the trolls that crack their bones. Scratches from the damn rot monkeys. And worse. So much worse from Phantom and his shadow beasts. My men’s brother and their friends, now our enemies.

“We’re all getting our asses kicked,” Dusk finally manages with a strained smile, then he reaches out and links his fingers through mine.

Just his touch eases some of the loneliness inside of me.

Rayne shakes his head. “We can’t keep doing this. We can talk to the fae. If they knew our world was at risk…”

He’s brought this idea up before, but doesn’t seem to have accepted all the improbabilities of this plan. I’m a minor fae royal. I have lands, a manor, and people to watch out for… but I’m a no one to the other fae. And Rayne? Rayne died according to all the fae. He had a funeral. His body was buried. The man before us now doesn’t look anything like that Rayne. Adrik has light brown hair, light blue eyes, and a much larger build than Rayne ever had. Taking his body meant Rayne was able to come back to me, but it also means that no fae will ever believe the powerful Bloodmore heir is still alive, just in a shadow beast’s body.

Things like that don’t happen every damn day, after all.

When I don’t say anything, Onyx shakes his big head of long blond hair with a frown, then signs, “They still wouldn’t believe you.” Rayne’s eyes have narrowed onto Onyx’s hands as Onyx tries to sign more slowly for our sakes. “And we’ll be dead by the time you get back.”

Rayne lets his head fall back against the cave wall, looking grim. “I know. I know, okay. But this isn’t working either.”

He’s right, but it doesn’t help anything to say it aloud, which is exactly why Onyx has a grumpy look on his face. But Rayne is used to being a royal, being pampered, spending his days with his studies. He’s not used to all of this chaos the way my shadow beasts are.

I mean, neither am I, but I’ve had more time to adapt.

“So, we just keep going?” I ask, and I sound so damn tired.

“Until something changes,” Onyx signs, giving me a sympathetic look, those dark eyes of his holding mine. “Something always changes.”

“But we need something good to happen,” Rayne says.

Onyx shakes his head and goes to the remains of a fire we had from a few days ago. He builds up logs, and soon has a roaring fire going. Then he goes back to the cave wall and collapses, while we all watch the fire grow. We all know we need to gather herbs and vegetables for another soup, maybe even try to get a rabbit or two, but no one is ready to do that yet. Even if we’re all starving.

I’m pretty sure I can make it out of the cave before I have to start crawling, but I try to mentally prepare myself. I know where there are some wild onions and some carrots. We haven’t used them all, so maybe I can make it there and help get something to eat started.

In just a minute. As soon as my legs stop shaking.

Before I can take even a few breaths, someone comes stumbling in. We’re all on our feet in an instant, in defensive stances, before we can get a look at the man. It’s… the elder. Elder Auero, a man we thought had died when we couldn’t find him.

He’s much thinner than before, with clothes that hang off of him in tatters. He’s emaciated. His face is swollen with deep purple that darkens his cheeks and jaw and under his eyes, and there’s even a bruise across his forehead. Tufts of his white hair are missing, and pale skin shines where his scalp is exposed. As he moves, he holds his ribcage, and limps. When he stumbles, Onyx is there in an instant, carrying him and laying him down on a rock inside the cave.

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