I had to find him.
And make sure he’s still alive.
I shook this last, morbid thought from my mind and knelt before Phantom, running a soothing hand over his trembling body.
“Can you lead me to Bastian?”
He hesitated a moment, fur bristling as those sounds of distant fighting grew louder. A cold wind blew, low and haunting, as if mourning the dead scattered around us. Phantom lifted his pointed nose into the frigid breeze and started hunting for my brother’s scent. After a few false starts, he seemed to find what he was looking for and shot off into the dark.
We sprinted after him, trying not to get distracted by the sounds and smells of the battle unfolding in the distance, pressing toward us like a rising tide.
Phantom took us to one of the side entrances, through the formal dining room it led into, and then into the hall beyond and up a narrow, twisting staircase to the second floor. On the landing, we were met by a small group of soldiers, most of whom looked ragged and battle-worn.
They wore the emblem of the Drynlands—a black lion standing on two legs with its claws extended, mouth open in a roar.
I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t care what they were doing this deep in my palace, in a wing that should have been secure. Thoughts of their disgusting king flooded my mind, mixing with images of the night’s mounting collection of dead bodies. The blood on these soldiers’ own swords looked fresh, too. Abundant. They raised those swords, as if they intended to add my blood to them.
One of them stepped forward.
The next thing I knew, Grimnor had pierced him in the throat. Dark wisps of energy bled from the steel as I pressed it through, becoming solid, sharp barbs that helped me cut a path that was viciously wider and deeper.
As the man crumpled at my feet, it set off a predictable chain reaction. The soldiers didn’t bother with questions or words of any kind, either; they moved as one to avenge their fallencomrade, charging toward me with a recklessness that might have frightened me if I hadn’t been so furious and numb.
More were flooding in from the hallway behind them.
I didn’t take the time to count them all. I only noted how outnumbered we were, and then I flicked the excess gore from Grimnor and readied it for my next swing.
I took a single deep breath. Exhaled it with power and purpose. Shadows rose around my body, writhing in a violent dance, blocking out the light from the flickering lamps along the walls.
Phantom drew closer to me, shadows of his own flickering around his form. His darkness blended with mine, until the only clear thing setting him apart was the terrifying gleam of his eyes and teeth.
Most of the soldiers stumbled back at the sight of us.
Aleks intercepted the first soldier who found the courage to attack me. He grabbed him by the front of his coat, spinning him around and shoving his sword between the man’s shoulder blades, then dislodged it by kicking him down the stairs.
As the body thumped and rolled down the steps, Phantom and my shadows surged forward. I moved in their wake, cutting through the line of enemies with brutal efficiency.
More and more blood coated Grimnor’s blade. It began to hum, its ghostly white energy joined by twisting tendrils of pale blue—Lorien, making himself known. My shadows seemed to respond to his presence, growing darker and more aggressive. Power surged in a dizzying spiral around me. I wasn’t entirely sure where it was coming from, but I grabbed hold of it all the same, letting it flow through my body and into every strike.
It was a quick massacre after that.
Aleks and Phantom still moved alongside me, relentlessly tearing our enemies down, but I lost track of them and everything else as I slashed, parried, and stabbed.
When I finally stopped, chest heaving and blood staining most of my clothing, a pile of bodies littered the landing and the stairs below it.
Eerie silence settled once more.
I was still too numb to think about what I’d done. About the lives I’d taken. I just kept hurrying onward—until I noticed Aleks wasn’t following me.
Skidding to a stop, I twisted around to find him still standing over the ones we’d slain.
He was perfectly still, his sword held loosely at his side, his head tilted as though listening to something only he could hear. The veins in his wrists and neck were glowing faintly through his skin, that same cold shade of violet I’d seen earlier.
Grimnor shook in my hand.
My breath caught in my throat as I realized where we were in the palace—how close we were to the vault where the two shards of Lorien’s soul had been placed for safekeeping. A chill raced through me; it felt like Lorien’s ghost was watching me from beside the balcony doors again.
But there was no one here except Aleks and me, the corridor so empty and silent that my footsteps echoed as I moved uncertainly back toward him.
