I reposition myself in bed, a twinge of pain flaring in the back of my leg. “I chose the star archway because I could see a purple rose and thought it would lead to the garden in your dream. You said your mom used to hunt behind the castle. I figured that was what she was doing when she lost her earring.”
“Smart.”
“I used a locator spell to find the earring. The spell led me out to the center of the lake, and I realized quickly it was actually in the belly of the salamander. Well, not quickly enough. Only after it tried to eat me and tore into my leg. I killed it and used magic to get it to shore. A little too much magic. But I was right. The earring was in its stomach.”
“I had no idea the challenges would be about me.”
“Of course it’s about you. We’re fighting for the privilege of being your mate.” I try not to sound bitter saying those words, but Damien is already my mate. How unfair is it that I have to risk my life to have what’s already mine?
“What I mean is I had no idea the challenges themselves would be drawn from my personal history and take place on my world, or else an echo of it.”
Our eyes meet, and the meaning behind his words clicks. “Are you saying that challenge wasn’t just about finding your mother’s earring, it was related to something that happened to you personally?”
He nods slowly. “I was twelve, my brother was ten, my sister six. Babies by shade standards. Our parents took us hunting in Stygarde Forest. It borders the Black Lake. My mother lost her earring and didn’t notice until we were home.”
“Why was she wearing earrings to hunt?” I ask. “And for that matter, her gown and crown?”
A wistful smile curls his lips. “My mother owned no other clothing but dresses and at the time almost never wore the same one twice. Besides, to a shade the type of hunting we were doing was an easy stroll in the woods. She was barely at risk of breaking a nail.”
I try to get my mind around that. I suppose when you can easily run as fast as any stag and are as strong as a bear, dealing with a gown isn’t exactly an issue. “How did the earring end up in the lake?”
“Mother had an event that night, and she lamented that she didn’t have the earring. The set had been a gift from my father. So I volunteered to go back into the woods to find it for her. It didn’t take me long. As you saw, the blue pearls glowed in the moonlight, and it stood out on the forest floor. But before I could return it to my mother, Brahm snatched it from my hand. I hadn’t even known he’d followed me into the woods, but he was always up to mischief, and that day was no different. I chased him, trying to get it back, but he darted through the woods and to the shore of the Black Lake, taunting me to follow. I didn’t want to go there. Our parents had always told us to avoid the lake for fear of the monsters that lived in it. It’s said the bottom is covered in bones.”
I think back to the feel of the bottom under my feet. I’d thought I was walking on branches, stripped of their bark and smoothed over time. Bones, though, in retrospect, make more sense. I shudder.
He takes a deep breath and blows it out. “In any case, Brahm walked out onto an outcropping and held the earring over the water, daring me, through an ornery smile, to take it from him before he dropped it in the lake. I thought about taking on my battle form or tangling with his shadows but then decided he wasn’t worth the effort. Brahm would return with the earring and take credit for finding it himself, and that was fine with me. But before I could leave, a Black Lake salamander, presumably the one you killed, leaped from the water and tore Brahm’s arm off, earring and all.”
“Jesus Christ! He lost an arm to that thing?”
Damien pushes off the window and comes to my side. “The salamander’s silver venom is toxic even to us. The sight of Brahm screaming as his body bled, his shadows swirling around him, is something I will never forget. We can transform into shadow, but if we do so with an injury like that, it can become permanent. So I told him not to shift and carried him back to the castle where he had immediate care by the best doctors in Stygarde. It still took over a week for his body to rid itself of the toxin and for his arm to regenerate.”
“That must’ve been terrifying for both of you. Thank fuck he was able to regenerate at all!”
Damien takes my hand, rubbing his thumb over the back of my it. “You are lucky to be alive with all your limbs attached, Eloise. It’s a miracle you survived.”
I flinch at his words, and at first I’m not sure why. There’s nothing uncaring about them or callous. But then it dawns on me. “It wasn’t a miracle, Damien. It was me. My magic. The box didn’t give me more than I could handle. Yes, I was injured, but I still won. And I’ll win again.”
“Maybe.” He frowns.
“I need to know you still believe in me. You of all people have to believe I can do this.”
He takes a deep breath. “I believe you can do it.”
“Good.”
“I also believe you shouldn’t have to.”
I lean my head back and look at the ceiling. “That ship has sailed.”
He grunts in disapproval, but I soldier on. “Look on the bright side, now that we know the nature of the challenges, you can greatly improve my odds of success by telling me more about yourself.”
A low chuckle rumbles in his chest. “How can I do that when my life didn’t start until you summoned me?” We both groan and then laugh together. “I will do as you wish, little bird, as I have always done. But I loathe the thought of you going back through that archway. I’d bargain my soul to get you out of it.”
I shake my head. “Don’t you dare. No more bargains. No more deals. Our debt to this world ends here.”
He gives me a slow, almost reluctant nod, then leans forward to kiss me, saying without words that his only true bargain is with me. A bargain for forever. A bargain to be mates.
When he draws back again, he straightens my blankets. “Now that we know the challenges come from my memories, you have one clear advantage. I plan to share as many of them as possible, only with you.”
