When had that shown up?
“Just me and you, then,” I muttered, turning back to the sentier, holding up my hand and letting more dark ripples of power pour from my palm.
I’d left Grimnor behind in Noctaris—concerned about how the sword and Lorien’s essence might react to the magic here—so I instead formed my shadows into a sharpened point and brandished it like a blade.
The sentier’s shiny eyes narrowed on it.
In the next heartbeat, it shot toward me, its horrible voice filling my head as it came.
I am the Curse Keeper!
“Yes,” I snarled, ducking to avoid its clawing, skeletal fingers as it swooped low and made a grab for my hair. “We’ve established that.”
It hit the wall and ricocheted off it, doubling its speed. I couldn’t avoid it a second time; it grabbed both of my arms in a violent hold. Like its wings, its long fingers proved much stronger than they looked, circling my wrists so tightly I quickly lost the feeling in my hands.
It stretched its grip wide, pulling as if it intended to rip my arms straight from my body. I curled this way and that, trying to loosen the pressure while also trying to somehow keep my throat angled away from its mouth full of sharp, glistening teeth. Its hold tightened as it brought that mouth terribly close to me, breathing the foul stench of rot and damp earth directly into my face.
Why have you revived me, necromancer?
The question briefly stopped my struggling.
That odd pulling sensation I’d felt earlier…
I hadn’t beentryingto revive it—I’d never managed magic as advanced as that. The closest I’d come was reversing Phantom’s death, but that hadn’t been a complete spell, nor had it been on purpose.
But what I’d done moments ago had felt different. I’d been aware and in control of the threads of my power slipping in, and maybe Ihadunconsciously encouraged it to grab hold so that I might pull it up from the grave. I’d been so desperate to get answers, whatever it took, so maybe…
Why have you revived me, necromancer?it repeated.
Instead of replying, I went back to trying to break free.
Why?it howled at me.
Catching a flash of an Order symbol etched into the altar it had once rested against, I deflected with a question of my own: “Why were you locked away in this room and left to die?”
It let out another howl, its words unintelligible this time. The shadowy energy swirling all around us grew more dense. More chaotic. I focused on summoning even more, calling it forth with a violence I hoped would knock the sentier off balance.
It worked; it twisted away, screeching and throwing me to the ground as it went.
“Who left you to die here?” I demanded again, staggering to my feet, reforming some of the shadows into a blade for each of my hands this time. “Andwhy?”
The sentier stopped its screeching. Slowly, it swooped back to me, landing with the full force of its weight and rattling the ground as it did.
I parted the dense magic surrounding it so I could look more fully into its eyes. It rose to its full height within the clearing, those silver eyes darkening. Calculating. Its wings stretched wide again. Cold energy washed over me as it exhaled a slow, rattling breath.
I willed myself not to cower beneath its glare.
“Andwhy?” it repeated, speaking out loud, this time—though its voice had changed to something entirely different. Something almost human-sounding, as though parroting some other being; maybe the one who had killed it. “Why?Becausethe dead keep their secrets.”
I sidestepped as it lunged.
“Not from me, they don’t,” I said, gritting my teeth and guiding one of my blades into something more flexible—a whip of shadow that snapped out and caught the sentier’s long neck, jerking it to a stop.
I dug in my heels and pulled. I didn’t have the strength to draw it in, but my shadows did; with another violent flex of my magic, we were standing inches away from one another.
I wasted no time darting a hand toward its gruesome face, digging my fingers into its hollow cheeks. Its skin felt bumpy and slightly slimy, like a toad’s.
“You will reveal what you know,” I commanded. “Show me the knowledge they tried to bury about the curse you keep—whoevertheyare.”
