He rounded on her. Eira jumped back, startled. His face was twisted in anger; his scars accented by the pale light of the glowing dots on his forehead. He gripped her collar, yanking her toward him.
“Youlyinglittle Dark Isle dweller. It’s because of people like you that those of us on Meru are skeptical if you even knowhowto keep your word,” he snarled.
Eira pursed her lips. He clearly had more to say. She was right.
“Because of you, the whole mission was compromised. More than that, the court’s entire operations were compromised.”
“They were alerted to your presence before mine.”
“ButIcould give them the slip, unlike your clumsy human feet. If you had just waited like you were supposed to…” He yanked her closer, both hands now at her throat. Oddly, for all his rage, Eira didn’t feel threatened by him in the slightest. Not because Ducot couldn’t hurt her. But, for some reason, she truly believed he wouldn’t. It was nothing like when Ferro’s hands were at her neck and she could envision him just continuing tosqueeze. “Do you know how long it took for us to find the information on that safe house of theirs? Do you have any idea how long it might take for us to relocate them? Do you have any idea how many shadows lost their lives to make that mission possible and you just come waltzing in at the end, deliver an item, and think you’re entitled to go because of some foolish vendetta?”
“Avenging my brother isn’t foolish,” she snarled, defensive even though she knew he was right about everything else.
“You’re not the only one who wants vengeance!” His milky eyes were wide and shining. Ducot hung his head in the wake of her silence. His fingers loosened, some, but didn’t leave her throat. “That wasmychance,” he whispered. “You…you ruined it.”
“What?”
Ducot lifted his face, staring at her for a long moment. “You want to know how my face was scarred? Really?”
“I’m guessing it wasn’t from saving a princess?” Eira arched her eyebrows.
Ducot shook his head.
“Then only if youwantto tell me the truth.”
He chuckled darkly. “You think you can handle the truth? It’s darker than you could imagine.”
Eira snorted.
“Really? You scoff at me?” His fingers tightened.
“I’m not afraid of darkness. Not anymore. Not after the pit. Not after I watched my brother die at Ferro’s hands.”
Something about her stone-cold tone, her stare, finally had his fingers unraveling. Ducot stepped away, straightening and looking somewhat apologetic. And, for what might be the first time, Eira felt like they were on equal footing. He might not like her, not anymore. Or agree with her. But maybe they were beginning to at least understand each other a little better.
“Those of the Dark Isle aren’t the only ones that the Faithful so readily associate with Raspian.” Ducot leaned against the wall, staring at nothing. “The morphi and draconi also have that esteemed privilege and, for hundreds of years, it meant we were hunted. We didn’t have the benefit of a small sea and barrier isles. It was why we retreated into the Twilight Forest. Why the then king used the royal shift to pull our city outside of this world—but not quite into the next—to create a haven for us where we couldn’t be found.”
Eira didn’t quite understand what he meant by “royal shift,” or how a city could be between worlds. She was still grasping how the shift worked in general. Some things on Meru were best to take at someone’s word and figure out later. Now wasn’t the time to inquire about magical logistics.
“Ulvarth, the man who then led the Swords of Light, started a campaign against the morphi, claiming the woman who was the Voice at that time had decreed it as Yargen’s holy order.” Ducot lifted his hand, touching his scars lightly. “They came for us with their swords and Lightspinning. They hunted us, tortured us. I was helpless as my family, friends, everyone who had dared make a settlement in the forest on the outskirts of the Twilight Kingdom died around me.”
“How did you survive?” Eira whispered.
“Barely.” He chuckled darkly. “I should have died. They left me for dead. But life clung to me stubbornly until Rebec found me.”
“Rebec?” Eira remembered the female morphi who had been introduced as Deneya’s right hand and one of the three Specters of the Court of Shadows.
“She had been trailing the Swords of Light. Lumeria had known of their treachery and had sent Rebec to warn King Noct. But it all happened a little too slowly, and a little too late.”
“So you vowed vengeance and joined the Court of Shadows then and there,” Eira reasoned. Ducot nodded. She chuckled softly.
“Something funny?”
“You and I…we’re very similar, aren’t we?”
“Deneya said so when she informed me we would be working closely together as competitors.”
“Ferro killed my brother.”
