His face was shockingly pale.
“Erebus,” Kizzi whispered.
“Shh, it’s okay, love. He won’t hurt you. I won’t let him.”
“Erebus,” she said louder. “It’s Erebus.”
“It’s okay.”
She wriggled out of his grasp, forcing him to set her on her feet. Her voice gained volume. “Fucking Erebus is sitting in a cell in the dungeon. Right now. In Moonvale!” she shouted.
Fiella shivered violently and Redd tossed an arm around her shoulders.
“He’s going to kill us all,” Linc hissed. I was surprised he was still in the building considering his earlier hasty exit.
I shook my head.
“We’re dead! We’re all dead!” Linc wailed.
I rose to my feet. “No,” I said.
“I will summon the King; he will know what to do?—”
“No,” I repeated.
Six sets of eyes locked on me.
“If he was going to kill us, don’t you think he would have done so already?” I wasn’t sure why I was the voice of reason here, all things considered.
The God of Shadows was delusional, convinced that I was his mate. The fucking God of Shadows. And I had shot him down. Multiple times. I had evenmockedhim about it. And I was alive to tell the tale. The shock hadn’t fully set in yet, clearly.
“That’s a good point,” Fiella agreed.
“He still could kill us. Maybe he’s biding his time,” Tandor mused.
“For what? The guy doesn’t even remember where he lives.” Which, in hindsight, made a lot of sense consideringwhere he came from. Which was… who knows where. The aether? Spontaneous reincarnation?
“He says he doesn’t know anything,” Tommins added. “Maybe that wasn’t a lie, after all.”
“But how can we be sure?”
The conversation continued.
I zoned out, staring down at my hooves. I would need to wash them off… they didn’t make it through my vomiting unscathed.
As the bickering grew louder, the room slowly began to darken, and wisps of shadow crept under the door. They slithered to the corners, approached me timidly, collected and condensed within my own shadow as though they were comfortable there.
My heart skipped a beat.
The door to the dungeon stairs unlocked with a single click, and then swung open.
He stood in the stairwell. Golden shiny blood coated the lower half of his face, clumped in his hair.
His eyes met mine, wild and wide. He took a deep breath that lifted his shoulders.
His presence was noticed.
“Let’s be reasonable here,” he pleaded.
