“Why?” the beast asked him. “Because I’m different?”
The question surprised him.
“Because you have claws on your hands,” Kinlear blurted, still holding his blade between them. “Because you have shadows for a face and you have hunted me, haunted me, every day of my life.”
But the monster only chuckled, and the sound was so familiar it made Kinlear’s stomach ache.
He watched as the shadows tumbled away from the monster’s face...as they slithered down his neck and shoulders until they finally coiled up at his feet like snakes.
And where the shadows had once been...
Just like he remembered, it was his own face staring back.
Same...but different, for where Kinlear had teeth, this darksoul version of him had elongated fangs. Where Kinlear’s skin was pale, the monster had dark tendrils beneath the surface, revealing the black blood in his veins.
Terrifying.
Handsome, yes, for he emanatedpower,the kind anyone would want.
But his hands?
His hands were tipped in those long, terrible claws, black as the night above them.
Kinlear flinched at the sight of them, remembering so many deaths. So much pain.
“I live and breathe and walk and worship, the same as you,” the monster said. “And I hardly think hunting you, haunting you, counts as monstrous, when it’syourdream.”
“But I can’t control it,” Kinlear said.
The monster chuckled, revealing his fangs. “Aren’t you, though?”
Kinlear raised a brow.
“You’re looking at your future. Your destiny. You are to be what your brother couldnever.”
“And what is that?” Kinlear asked, as the snow muddled his monster’s expression.
“A catalyst,” it hissed. The shadows churned at his feet. “You, Little Prince, are to be the one that sets everything in motion. When you bring Ezer to the other side, when you reveal to her that bowing to the Acolyte is not so forbidden, after all...when you use the Veilblade to take her to the darkness...” the monster smiled. “She will finally step into her power. And become the greatest threat that Lordach has ever known.”
“No,” Kinlear said.
Because he did not yet understand, because this darksoul version of him was speaking about Ezer and a blade, Ezer and darkness, and the two were meant todestroyit, notbecomeit.
“Yes, Little Prince,” the darksoul said, and for a second, he sighed in frustration.
Before he lunged forward, faster than Kinlear thought him able...and drove his claws into his chest.
There was no pain.
There wasn’t even death, he didn’t think, because suddenly everything shifted, and hewasfalling again. He saw it all play out, like normal. Himself on the cliffside, facing a mother that had always hated him. Ezer beside him, Six beneath them both. A journey through the shadowstorm and the jagged beauty of the world that awaited beyond.
He saw the purple cave, the strange shapes on the black stone walls.
Ezer’s kiss and Six’s final goodbye and then Kinlear...
Bowing to the Acolyte, a blade revealing the dark blood hidden beneath his skin.
But it did not end there.
