Let us out. We can protect you.
My opponent sent a beam of light toward my midsection, and my magic jumped to block it. I feinted left and aimed for his neck, then jabbed at his stomach with the shorter dagger. The blade sank in before he leaped back with a hiss.
A lightning whip flashed from his hand and nicked my shoulder. I yelped as blood loomed to the surface and dripped down my arm. But…it wasn’t just blood.
Shadows leaked from the wound, spilling over the sleeves of my turquoise dress and mingling with my blood. I watched with dread as they slowly rose in a cloud of dark gray and red, the scent of copper thick in the air.
Say the word, little one, they crooned.He will kill your friends if you don’t stop him.
That same sense of bloodthirsty power sang in my veins. They were right. I’d seen what these men did to our refugees—most of them stillchildren. And they worked for Scarven. Who knew how many other people they’d harmed?
That’s right, my shadows whispered.He deserves to die.He deserves your vengeance.
My resolve slipped little by little, the image of Silas’s body coming back to me with every breath. My hold on the shadows released ever so slightly.
They instantly solidified into a sharp blade. Before I could blink, it zipped through the air and straight toward my attacker.
It sliced clean through his neck. His head rolled to the ground, and my shadows swirled around the severed skin. I could feel their glee as they lapped up his blood. Could feel their dark satisfaction and hunger for more.
A voice in the back of my mind told me I should be horrified. But this time…I wasn’t.
I was curious. Intrigued.
Yes,they chanted.Give us more.
A garbled shout reached my ears, and I spun on my heels as a giant hawk Shifter descended from the sky. It stretched out a talon and struck a familiar face, hard and fast.
Everett.
The Illusionist fell to the ground. He pressed both hands to his eye, but it wasn’t enough to stem the spurt of blood that spilled over his fingers and onto the grass.
I reacted without thinking. My shadows, now a darker, pulsing red, immediately shot toward the hawk. When they touched his feathers, he let out a shriek and shifted back into his human form. His body convulsed on the ground as his skin turned gray.
Ifeltmy shadows consume him. I felt them drain him of his life, leaving him a husk as he went rigid, then limp.
Satisfied with their work, they rushed back to me and twisted up my arms, flitting through my hair as I stalked toward my next target.
Not many of Scarven’s men remained standing, but three of them sprinted to the line of our Alchemists holding their magic shields at the walls of the Keep. One of them raised their sword.
“Oh no you don’t,” I muttered.
I didn’t bother holding my shadows back.
I lashed out an arm, and they formed a lasso. It snapped through the air and whipped around the man’s neck. When I yanked, he jerked toward me, his back dragging over the grass. A smirk crept up my lips as I squeezed.
The shadows tightened until his face turned red, then purple, his fingers clawing at his neck as he gasped for air. I twisted my wrist, and he fell silent.
Tendrils of my magic branched out from his body to grab the other two men. Shadows wrapped around their bodies and lifted them into the air. I crafted little spikes of darkness that sank into their skin. Their screams filled the night, their blood dripping from hundreds of tiny wounds, and my shadows drank it up before they could fall to theground.
I thought I heard voices calling my name, but the roaring in my ears drowned them out.
My grin widened as more shadows branched from my feet. They snaked over bodies of the living and the dead, aiming for Scarven’s five remaining men. Wind whipped around us like a storm. My shadows tightened around all seven enemies in their grip, the same little needles digging into their skin until they cried out.
“Where is he?” I shouted, a voice I didn’t recognize as my own booming around us. “Where is Kane Scarven?”
The bodies writhed in the air, struggling to break free from their bonds. None of them responded.
Anger ripped through me, hot and corrosive. He didn’t even have thenerveto come here. He sent hislapdogs totear down our walls. To break our defenses and our spirits. Tomurderour friend.
