Page 27 of Stolen By Shadow Beasts

Her face goes pale. “More dangerous than creepy creatures attacking us?”

“They’re called rot monkeys and grave trolls,” I explain, suddenly feeling weary.

“And they’ll tell this…Shadow King about me? Which is a problem?”

“Exactly,” Dusk says, but the tone of his voice says he doesn’t want to keep talking about the man who ruined all our lives. The man I should have seen the truth in, and who Dusk should have killed when we had the chance.

Neither of us like to talk about him. Any time his name gets brought up, Onyx grows quiet. Dusk trains harder, wanting to become a better warrior, even though we both know he’ll never train hard enough tofeelgood enough. Not unless training harder can somehow turn back time. And I just hate myself a little more.

“Are you guys ever going to explain anything to me?” Ann asks, her brows drawing together in frustration.

“What my little brother means--”

“Little brother?” She perks up. “I thought you were twins.”

Ah, this.“Technically, we are. But in our world, the child who enters the world first is the oldest, and that is a very important difference.”

For me it means the responsibility of our world falls on my shoulders. It means never having the luxury to be softer like my brother, to enjoy poetry or reading the same way he could. He could explore his friendships and his life in a way I never could. For him, apparently, it means always living in my shadow.

Both of us envy the other in ways that are hard to explain.

“And is Onyx your brother too?”

“Yes,” I say. “Not by blood, but by our bond.”

Onyx signs. “You need to stop saying that. Your blood matters more than any bond.”

I mouth back, “Not to me.”

Since Onyx spent most of his life able to hear, he’s very good with reading lips. He can often speak without hearing himself, but has chosen not to. Partially, I believe, because he knows his voice box was also injured in the attack, so he fears what he sounds like now. He’s only spoken since his injury when it was a life-or-death situation. But luckily for all of us, signing is something most shadow beasts know how to do, because there are many creatures in our world that only communicate with their hands.

“So, things are going to get harder,” Dusk says, and the exhaustion in his voice is evident.

I was worried about my brother and my best friend before Ann came along. And when we were taken and imprisoned, each day was horrible. Not just the torture. Not just the terrible things that we did, things I’ll never forgive myself for. But because we knew we were leaving the other shadow beasts to fight a war they couldn’t possibly win.

With our help, they were surviving.

While we were gone, we lost three men. Technically, Adrik isn’t dead yet, but he might as well be. And all the death of our kind, every day, it was all my fault. My blindness that led us to this life of misery.

My mistake.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to have to tell the others that the Shadow King knows of her existence so close to the Void.” The increase in troll activity alone will be a tip-off to the others that something is going on, and therewillbe an increase. There’s no getting around it. As soon as the king finds out about Ann, he’s going to throw everything he has in his arsenal into finding her. We’re going to be overrun with rot monkeys, trolls, maybe even smoke dragons, if he can muster the strength to send one to this world.

The shit show is about to begin.

“They won’t be happy,” Onyx signs.

Dusk signs back, looking grim. “Or will they? If we found a mate in this world, maybe they can too.”

The implication of his words is more than I can handle. Ann’s existence would bring hope to our kind in any other world. But in this one, her presence brings trouble, and we have enough of that already. And yet, will her existence finally be the thing that makes them give up this fight and go out into this bright world looking for something else, even knowing what that decision would bring?

No…they can’t be that short-sighted. Can they?

“I’ll keep first watch,” Dusk says, even though he knows no one needs to keep watch during the day.

He stands and walks outside the cave, and I don’t know what to tell him. He’s angry. Angry that Onyx was hurt. Angry that the woman is the cause. Angry that because she’s our mate, we’re going to be hunted by every troll and rot monkey the king can send our way. Probably angry that we have to tell the others the coming assault is our doing.

I can’t blame him for not wanting to be inside the cave with us.

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