Dominic stepped forward, drawn to her despite the gore around them. He felt that he knew her.
Darkness continued to swirl around them, feeding off the carcasses. A chill ran down his spine, and the hair on the back of his neck stood. Dominic frantically searched for a weapon as the bodies charred, turning to ash. Kneeling to the ground, hands blindly searching through the dark, he came up short. A shuddering breath came from his lips as Dominic realized these people were unarmed. Defenseless and slaughtered within seconds.
The world shifted, like it was speeding back in time.
Soldiers who moved like shadows, killing innocent citizens. More blood and death painted the land. A girl with dark skin and curly black hair fought valiantly against one of the armored knights, but soon perished. The world was moving again, spinning faster than Dominic could comprehend.
When it settled, he saw the brown-haired girl from before kneeling over a boy, her hand clasping his lifeless one. Tears ran down her face, landing on the blond-haired boy’s cheeks. Gold glinted between her fingers.
“Cal,” she sobbed, cupping his pallid cheek with her bloodied hand. “Callan, please don’t go.” When she finally released his hand, a gold key was clutched in her palm.
He moved toward her, his foot colliding with something. Something sickening churned in Dominic’s stomach as he glanced down to see another corpse lying among the carnage, a knife protruding from its chest near the shoulder, shirt torn to reveal tawny skin. Not exactly a fatal wound, but enough to kill if left unattended long enough to bleed out.
He ignored the body and the dread sluicing through him as he continued to watch the scene play out like he was nothing but a ghost.
A scream tore through the land. The girl scrambled backward as the corpse before her moved. No, the bodies hadn’t been reduced to ash. They became shadows of death. Silhouettes of the dead rose all around them, circling them like vultures waiting for their next meal.
“Run!” the girl bellowed to the remaining citizens and soldiers still locked in battle as she stood on shaking legs.
Taking the girl’s advice, Dominic turned to run, but he found himself surrounded by shadow monsters, slowly closing in on him. He closed his eyes, accepting his fate. He’d been in the dark for so long he’d grown used to it. But instead of being consumedby agonizing pain, the shadows passed right through him. They pursued the girl instead. He whipped back around to see them advancing on her. Hope glimmered in her blue eyes, but not for herself.
For him—for the remaining citizens—he realized. It was hope that they could take their chances and run while the shadows were targeting her.
The girl was surrounded with no way out. She stood still, paralyzed by horror. Slowly, the shadows enveloped her.
“RUN!” she screamed again, voice trembling with perpetual terror.
The last thing Dominic saw was her blazing sapphire eyes before she disappeared within the shadows.
He ran.
An explosion of light blinded him, throwing him to the dirt. Lifting a hand to shield his eyes, Dominic pushed himself up and glanced back. Blue flames crackled and thrashed inside the writhing shadows, but the light did not escape.
He turned and ran. Ran and didn’t look back again as the girl’s screams faded into oblivion. As if she never existed.
Dominic jolted awake in a sweat. “Adara,” he breathed warily. His fists bunched around the bedroll beneath him, tight enough that his nails threatened to tear through it. He’d never seen anything like it before. Shadows coming to life, draining the soul from anything it touched. He shuddered at the thought of her being consumed by her greatest fear.
The dream felt soreal. The sound of her terrified voice, the reeking smell of the rotting corpses, the blood-soaked ground beneath his feet. He could have sworn he was awake. The fright in Adara’s eyes—
No, it wasn’t a dream. It was amemory.A memory that completed what the Whisperer had begun to show him.
He ran a hand through his hair in distress, rising to his feet on wobbly legs. Then he carefully tiptoed through the desert. Sand shifted beneath his feet as he tried not to step on the others in the dim moonlight. He scrambled through the darkness until he was a short distance away from the others camped in the middle of the desert. He heaved in the chilly night air, swallowing back the bile rising in his throat.
What kind of Hel had he and Adara been through that left him reeling so terribly to have thought he’d be better off not remembering? That he’d been driven to enough agony that he’d rid himself of the memories instead of living with them, leaving a gap in the timeline of his life where he knew nothing.
But there had always been that one feeling he couldn’t shake. That no matter how strong of magic he used, he would never forget that he had fallen in love with a girl who never reciprocated his feelings. That no matter how many keys he stole, no heart would ever truly belong to him.
A deep sense of dread sank in his chest, weighing him down, collapsing his lungs. Dominic stumbled. The world tilted with each jarring movement. Something inside his chest strained, a deep, unending pain that had only been suppressed, never healed. His breaths came out in shallow pants. He collapsed onto his knees, hands braced against the ground. Sand sifted through his fingers just as her love had slipped right through his grasp.
As much as he wanted to deny it, Dominic Nite had been in love with Adara Rhyes.
And she loved Callan.
Because she believed Cal was her soulmate.
Because Dominic was never good enough. Because he was a heartless monster who could not love or be loved, no matter how badly he wished for it. He had let himself fall to the darkness—Adara’s worst nightmare—which kept her at a distance as he desperately reached for her light.
The gods Adara was so desperate to believe in had given her the love of a boy who was not even made for her. And she’d given her love to a boy who died. And with him, her love died too.
