When she finally managed to lift her head a few minutes later, she saw that another of those shadowy beasts lingered. It had taken on a feline-like shape, and it was stretching itself toward her, tilting its makeshift head in a studious way.
Worried about her?
She rose slowly and took a threatening step toward it. “You have to leave me alone.”
The beast didn’t move.
Sephia felt the claws of panic crawling for her again. Even if the Sun fae in this place couldn’t see the shade beasts, surely they would sense that something was amiss if they kept lingering around her. The shadows couldn’t stay.
I am not a bride of Shadows. I am the Sun bride. I have to be the Sun—
“Go away! Now!”
The beast retreated a few spaces, but it still did not disappear.
And Sephia could feel her buried magic starting to stir once more.
Keeping her eyes on the beast, she raced over to the nightstand and grabbed the discarded ring. Fumbled with nervous hands until she managed to slide it on.
“Stay down,” she begged her magic through clenched teeth. “Staydown.”
And it did.
With the ring back in place, her innate magic sank back down so violently that it felt like someone had punched her in the stomach. She wanted to double over and collapse in pain, but she stayed on her feet and kept her head lifted, her eyes trained on the beast until it finally wavered and then disappeared.
There one moment, gone the next.
But she could still sense it. Her magic was still reaching upward, trying to find it, making that ring on her finger burn hotter and hotter. The witch’s potion continued to churn through her all the while, and suddenly everything,everythingwas too much, too painful, too sickening. The room reeled around her. She stumbled toward the bed. Reached for the edge. Missed it, fell—
She was unconscious before her head hit the floor.
Chapter 9
The members of Prince Tarron’s small council all rose to their feet as he entered the meeting room, and all seven of them started talking at once.
“A shade beast of sorts—“
“Suspects in the city have been—“
“The Shadow Court—“
“Enough,” Tarron snapped.
Silence sank over the group.
“Have a seat,” he ordered. “And councilman Osric, please summarize what exactly is going on.”
Osric nodded, and once they were all seated around the round table once more, the silver-haired man gave his summary: “Early this morning, one of the gardeners was found unconscious. When he regained his senses, he claimed to have seen a dark…creatureof some sort before he fell.”
“A shade of the belephor—anumbra,” blurted out the council member to Tarron’s right.
Councilman Osric silenced the interruptor with a cross look. “It isn’t entirely clearwhathe saw; there were no other witnesses. But we sent guards to investigate, of course. And while searching the grounds for these allegedbeasts, they instead stumbled upon two suspicious characters that we believe may have ties to the Shadow Court—though they’ve sworn otherwise.
“They don’t carry the mark of the Shadow Lord, and their magic seems weak—too weak to conjure up any shade beasts, perhaps. But the supposed sightings of those beasts, coupled with potential enemy spies, makes for a…questionable situation. We’ve apprehended those potential spies, and we will interrogate them as you command.”
The prince thought of the conversation he’d had with his brother the night before. Ten years since the original beast had slaughtered their parents. Three years since those beasts had last appeared in any form. Three years ofpeace.
He didn’t want to see that peace shattered.
