Page 29 of A Kingdom of Shadows

Faltering on my legs, I glance over my shoulder before unwillingly agreeing to his offer and entering the grand space of his hut.

"Please take a seat." As he walks past me, he gestures toward the chairs that are covered with straw. There is a table made of oak in the space between them, and when I sit down on one of them, I nod and gather the edges of my dress.

I shift awkwardly, wondering how these can be comfortable in the world of Solaris and Crello. Renward sits opposite me and picks up a fruit from a bowl on the table, offering it to me.

I recognize it in less than a heartbeat.

Teal, plum-shaped—the one I had last night.

The moment I shake my head, he puts it down, and I continue to take in all that is going on around me. His shack is considerably more spacious than the others that are located here. There's a desk on the other side of the room, handmade shelves, and the smell of pine lingering through the space. My eyes draw back to his desk. Scrolls of parchment lie underneath books just as something catches my attention—lines, drawings—a map.

"You left the celebration early last night," Renward says, straying my attention from the desk to him as he hands me a timber cup and steam rolls off the top with an herbal scent. "Why is that?"

"Exhaustion," I answer. "You must know I'm not used to much."

His hum is thoughtful and curious as he rubs his upper lip. The tips of his fingernails are dark moss green and slender—likely to snap in half with hardly any movement. "The dragon... what is he to you?"

Why do you want to know? "His name is Darius," I correct him with a frown. "And he is—" A pause as I think of a term to call what he is. Frenemy, arrogant ass, past enemy? "—My ally."

Disbelief rakes over him as he laughs. "Last I recalled, mortals and dragons did not get on."

"They don't." I choose not to offer him more information on the matter. "Have you lived here since the Elven King created the forests?"

His chuckle is shrill and unpleasant, like a boiling iron pot whistle. "Is that what everyone believes? That he created—" He gestures to the space around him. "This?"

My brows bunch together, full of doubt. "It's what we've grown up to be told."

He shakes his head like it is a travesty that we know little—that I know little of our world. "Our kingdom is the largest of Zerathion, yet we are always forgotten."

Or perhaps the constant hatred between kingdoms ruins that.

"You know," he says, the words slow and thoughtful. "Three hundred years ago, we lived in the woodlands outside the borders of the city Thalore. Sadly, that is all now owned by Dark Elves too."

"Dark Elves?"

"Thalorians," he corrects himself. "Elves of shadow and destruction. They've never gotten along with other Elves in Terranos." He mentions a few of the main cities of Terranos, Thalore, Melwraith—a territory that belongs to mountain Elves near the west and Olcar—the city where the king and most high Elves reside.

It's all very new to me, but the question that keeps running through my head is the one Renward posed: is that what everyone believes?

I cut him off halfway through with a shake of my head and a scrunch of my brows. "I'm sorry, I must ask... if the king didn't create the Screaming Forest, then who else did?"

He grins like he was expecting that question at one point. "Sarilyn Orcharian."

Shock wraps around my neck, suffocating me for a moment.

The air is uneased around us before he says, "Your queen."

My mouth dries. "How?"

Renward waves his hand with a contemptuous expression. "She was a powerful sorceress—a shame it's how she lost it." Creating this must have taken a toll on her powers. "To think, a shifter such as a Rivernorth is all it took for her to become who she is now."

My hand grips the cup even tighter. There's something in the way he says it that I don't like. "Aurum didn't make her the person she is today." I look up through narrowed brows. "She did that herself."

Surprise masked with interest flickers across his eyes. "Is that so?"

"Vengeance can turn us blind at times." I would know. It's all I thought I wanted for my father's death. I despised dragons for thinking they were at fault.

Renward seems fascinated by this answer, tilting his head as he leans forward in his chair. "Would you have done the same as her?"

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