MINE!
Release me!I thought back, fighting to remain calm.You have no claim to these shadows!
The feeling in my chest tightened one last time before finally relenting. As the pressure slipped away, I exhaled a tense breath, blinking several times to try and bring my focus back.
The sentier was moving.
Its robes billowed. The body beneath it bulged. The hump at its back was shifting, breaking through the folds of white cloth to reveal…something. Not the mangled, protruding spine I expected to see, but…
Wings.
It hadwings—though they were mostly bone, and covered in a membrane so papery thin that I couldn’t imagine them lifting even its emaciated body.
Its muscles flexed and shivered. Its ashen skin glistened. Its eyes opened, two bright slashes of molten silver glaring directly into mine.
As I stared back, I heard that whisper in the back of my mind again, only clearer now, its voice haunting and wild and full of warning—like the creaking branches of a forest caught in the breeze of an approaching storm.
So. You have come back to free me.
“...Back?”
It stretched its wings before giving several quick flaps, stirring up dust and bits of my shadows.
“I’m not the one who created you.”
Another haunting whisper grated through my thoughts:You created my prison.
“Wrong again.”
I am no fool. I remember your eyes.You watched from the other side of the wall.
Arguing seemed pointless. So, I tried a more direct question: “Do you knowhowyou were created? What you came from?”
It tilted its head, the motion almost birdlike. Two more words slipped into my thoughts.
Curse Keeper.
“…That’s right,” I said carefully. “You are. Which means you can help me.”
It cocked its head further. Then its mouth split into a horrible grin, sharp teeth parting to let out a noise caught somewhere between a bark and a yowl. Laughter, maybe. It made me want to drop to my knees and clamp my hands over my ears.
With a single flap, its wings proved more functional than anticipated, propelling it upward in a wild, ungraceful leap. It careened toward the ceiling only to twist violently and dive back down, heading straight toward me.
I rolled aside, landing in a crouch just outside of its reach.
It hit the stone floor, its too-long arms stretching forward, bracing and bending and then immediately launching it back into flight. Letting out a guttural cry, it shot higher, perching in the corner, balancing on a wooden beam that buckled and groaned under its weight.
With a snap of its long neck, the creature expelled a breath of shadow-tinged mist. The taste of salt and ash once again filled the air. My own shadows billowed as the mist met them, seemingly absorbing it. I felt the weight of both our powers rolled into one, so heavy it nearly made me panic, until I realized…
If our magic was born of the same darkness, then why should I fear it?
I spun around to warn the others away—to assure them I could handle this—only to find they were already gone.
THIRTEEN
Nova
There was a thick veil of black separating me from where my companions had once stood. It tumbled and raged, a wall of shadows shot through with chaotic pulses of purple and blue.
