Page 131 of A Kingdom of Shadows

"The stone is yours," Kirian says, mildly bored, and I blink. "So long as you understand the consequences of what this task will leave you as if you are to fail."

"What do we have to do?" My eyes remain on him as I lift my chin. "Kirian Tryskalyn."

His smile is a wicked sight. "You've heard of me." He fits his hands in his pockets. "All good things, I hope."

Darius chuckles beside me. "You're wildly popular with the royals."

Kirian hums. He doesn't seem amused anymore. "So, I hear," he says dryly, his semblance suddenly cold. "You know, there's a saying Thalorians use when it comes to High Elves."

I think back to the books I'd read on Thalorians. Nothing comes to mind except what Dusan said and my curiosity about why Kirian killed the last Thalorian leader.

"What does it matter?" Darius asks, and it's a question I wonder myself.

Kirian simply smiles though it never reaches the polished amber of his eyes. "Even the good can harbor a dark heart," he says the phrase regardless, leaving a crack to fissure between us because he knows it is something so true to the world. He looks to his right and changes subjects. "Those doors." We glance in that direction, noticing two placed doors that were not there when we first entered. They aren't attached to a wall and have a marble-cut sphere handle on the left side. "That is what you must go through to complete your task. You both will choose which door you want—"

"Why must we go separately?" My gaze goes to Kirian's. Weakness shows in the break of my voice as I say these words.

Kirian cocks his head to the side, noticing it himself as he looks from me to Darius, and his lip twitches. "This is a task one must do alone. However, if either of you is to fail, you must both submit to losing, and the stone stays here. It is all or nothing."

That does anything but calm me.

Darius turns me to him, lowering his voice just for me. "We'll get that last stone, Goldie, trust me."

I nod. "I know we will."

His eyes pierce mine, and what I wish most right now is to be able to wrap myself up in his arms and for him to take me high into the skies.

I glance toward Kirian. He's staring at us like we are so unordinary to him, so far out of what he must know in his world of blackened hearts and shadows.

As Darius and I make our way to the doors, we stand before them. Me to the right, Darius to the left. We look at each other. His fingertips hovering over the door handle like mine are too. A perfect mirroring of what we are about to enter.

"Good luck," I say quietly, doubting he will need it.

His smile is small and full of worry. "You too, Goldie."

At the same time, we open the door and walk through.

I step into a place void of color and just as empty. Everything around me, including the ground, is pitch black, and I look over my shoulder to see that the door is gone. Distressed, I rush to where it once was, searching with my hands for a way to find a crack that leads back to Kirian's chambers.

"Giving up so soon?"

I go cold.

That voice, I recognize everything about it. I've had sweet nothings whispered into my ears with that voice.

"Out of us two, I thought I was the coward, not you."

My pulse pounds, and I turn around so slowly as if I'm too afraid to see the owner of who that voice belongs to.

Copper hair, green eyes, and a smile that once trapped me in what I thought was love stands before me. "Hello, Miss Ambrose."

I shake my head, and he starts moving. Each step pounding against the ground. I'm frozen. Everything in me wants to get out of here, but another part can't do that. He's a width away from me now, wearing the venator armor. I glance at the dragon crest on his plate and then up at his eyes. It's him. How, how—

He grabs my coin necklace and eyes it with chilled amusement. "I always knew it would be him."

I don't know what to say. I don't know what to think.

"I saw it in the way you looked at him."

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