“The demons wouldn’t have escaped if you hadn’t forced me to be your sacrifice,” I snapped.
“Sacrifice? I tried to make you myheir. But how fortunate for you that—”
“Fortunatefor me? If it weren’t for you, my sister and parents would be alive and I’d be home and at peace with my family. Not here with you in an eternal nightmare.”
“I already told you. I didn’t harm your family.”
“How can you be so sure? You don’t even remember how Corruption started, Shadow Bringer. You have scarcely any memories at all, even though the tales blame you with absolute certainty.” I crossed my arms, daring him to speak. When he didn’t, I barreled on. “If I help you through this, you owe me something in return.”
“Your promised freedom should be motivation enough.”
“Not when my freedom means a pitch-black tomb with no food or water. Or the Light Bringer deciding I’ve broken our agreement and punishing Elliot. I want to learn more about this demon—and hopefullythis gets us closer to escaping your castle—but it still forces me to place a lot of faith in you.” I sank into a sofa, picking at the fraying edge of an embroidered lion. “Faith that I don’t quite have at the moment.”
The Bringer shot me an exasperated look. “You’re overestimating how much choice you have. Hurry up. We need to keep moving before the dream collapses.”
Try me, Shadow Bringer.
Sweeping an arm out, I gestured toward the parlor’s several bookcases. Thick, leather-bound tomes sat within each one, some organized by color, others by topic or even length.
“Perhaps mychoicecould be to first read every single book in this place, since you want me to ‘hurry up’ so badly.” I picked one at random, flipping through its gilt-edged pages, then another, a red monstrosity with an embossed shield in its middle. Each held words—clear, coherent words. Strange that a dream could be so detailed and visceral that it mimicked reality itself. I’ll admit I was being childish, but a few things needed to be made clear if we were going to work together as a team. “Every single one. Even the storybooks with all the illustrations.”
Like a warrior drawn to battle, the Bringer approached, armor gleaming wickedly. “Then I will destroy them before you can,” he threatened, shadows darkening the edges of the room and crawling toward his outreached hands. “Or I could pick you up and drag you with me. Yourchoice.”
There was that flicker again, just below my wrist.
Now wasn’t the time to battle the Shadow Bringer—not when I was pitifully untrained and he looked perfectly capable of strangling me with a single curl of his index finger. But my sword was insistent. It itched underneath my skin, forcing my attention as though it were suffocating on blood and bone.
He caught the uncomfortable expression on my face. “Fitting. You’re afraid of me,” he noted. “Perhaps I won’t need force after all. You’d follow me regardless, fearful for your life.”
“I am absolutely not afraid of you,” I shot back, wincing again as the sword prodded my palm.
“See? You flinch from me.” The Bringer snarled, crossing his arms in a mirror to me. “So, what would I owe you for your cooperation?”
“What I want is your knowledge,” I began, taking a small bit of satisfaction at the surprise on his face. “Teach me how to use the shadows, or other ways of power in the Realm. And then, when we’re free from your castle, you will do everything you can to stop Corruption. Even if that means partnering with the Weavers and treating Somnus with civility.”
“What you’re asking is no simple task. Stopping Corruption isn’t like bandaging a small cut. It’s a centuries-old wound as wide and weeping as a tempest.”
“Your memory is broken. Perhaps you’re just forgetting how,” I said through gritted teeth.
The Shadow Bringer pinched the skin between his brow, considering. Then he said quickly, meeting my eyes, “Fine. But I cannot agree to partnering with the Weavers. Or Mithras. Not when I’d rather see them dead.”
Begging to be unleashed at the most ill-timed moment, the sword launched from my palm, warming with life when its hilt met my hands. It thrummed softly, as if it held a soul within. And maybe it did. The soul of a demon so powerful that it could warp mountains and blot out the sky. A demon so mighty that Xander, Theia, and Lord Mithras sought to crush it with the power of their three legions.
The Bringer recoiled, staring at me as though I’d grown a second head.
He dropped his gaze to the sword, mouth thinning. “Did Somnus give you that?”
I gripped the handle tight. “I know how to use it.”
“Good,” he said simply, unsheathing his own blade. It was a brutal thing, a twin to my own. Pure, light-eating black. “Show me you’re not afraid of the shadows that bind us.”
With a snarl, he pounced, blade raised high and shadows storming in his wake.
And something in me snapped.
My sword unlocked some raw, instinctual knowledge about battle. How to parry and block. How to handle the weight of a blade and prepare for the onslaught of another. How to study an opponent’s body and react accordingly. So when I met the Shadow Bringer’s powerful swing with a counter of my own, his eyes widened—then gleamed bright with some feverish, unhinged thrill. Shadows ebbed to their corners as the Bringer launched forward again, slinking down into the floor as though he wanted this fight to be between us, and us alone.
But that wasn’t what I—what thesword—wanted.
