Her fingers on my pulse grounded me, like an anchor in a storm. "I'm scared too," she said. "Every time we find out something new, every time we have to face him…I wonder if it’s the last time I’ll see you. But he doesn’t get to control our lives, Nox.Wedo."
I let out a soft exhale. “If anything happens to you?—”
She pulled back just enough to look into my eyes. “Then it will happen with mefighting beside you,not sitting behind waiting.”
I swallowed. I could feel the shift. Could feel my heart warring with my mind, that unbearable tension between protecting her and giving her freedom. I never wanted to cage her. I never wanted her to feel imprisoned again. But now all I was doing was trading one locked tower for another.
She leaned in and pressed her lips to my forehead. “I’m nother, Nox,” she whispered, and my heart clenched. “I’m not the woman you lost. I know you’ll carry that with you for the rest of your life, and I wish more than anything I could take away even a fraction of the pain you’ve been through. I’m not trying to make this harder for you. But I—I can’t live in that shadow.”
I moved my thumb to her waist, rubbing back and forth along the sliver of exposed skin beneath her shirt. “You’re not her,” I said, the words catching in my throat. “But I’m stillhim. The man who couldn’t save the people he loved.”
Silver lined her eyes. “You’resomuch more than that. You’re the man who put aside his own safety, his ownidentity, to protect them. The man who’s led countless missions to rescue people who couldn’t save themselves. The man who’s givenhopein a world fullof darkness.” She paused, giving me a gentle smile even as a tear slipped down her cheek. “I want you to see that, Nox. Because you’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever known.”
I swallowed hard and slowly nodded, entranced by the tear lingering at the corner of her lips, her warm breath cascading over my nose.
She kissed me again, slow and deep, and I could taste her salty tears. “Oh, and, Nox?” she murmured into the kiss.
“Hmm?”
I felt her mouth curve upward. “I love you too.”
The backs of my eyes pricked, warmth spreading through my chest and settling around my heart. I held her close, knowing there was no going back now. Knowing this could be the last time she was in my arms.
Tenderly brushing my thumb along her jaw, I said, “Then go pack, Devora, my darling. We leave at dawn.”
The Switch
61
Devora
The mountains of the Guardian Range loomed before us, browner and greener than the cold, dark peaks at the south end of the province. This range marked the border between Emberfell, home of the Lightbenders, and Drakorum. On the ride north, the others told me about Emberfell and its jungles, how the coldness of the Shifter province slowly transitioned to lush greenery beyond the mountains.
I could feel the change. It was still cold, but a slight dampness entered the air the further we went, one that reminded me more of the shores back in Mysthelm.
As we climbed higher into the range, the path narrowed into a single, winding trail carved into the mountainside—barely wide enough for a carriage. There was a steep drop on one side and an unforgiving rock face on the other. Moss clung to the stone, slick from the morning frost that was quickly melting in the afternoon sun, and old trees leaned over the path.
Nox came to a halt on his horse in front of me, and that’s when I saw it.
Half-swallowed by the cliffside was the entrance to the Guardian Forge. There was still quite a bit of distance between us and it, but I could see the jagged edges of rock, the darkenedarchway that gaped like a mouth, so flush with the mountainside that it was easy to mistake for a large shadow if you weren’t looking. Whoever built this wanted to keep it hidden.
“It looks empty,” Arowyn remarked as we all clustered together at a fork in the road. One way led to the forge, and the other to a mountain pass.
I tentatively called on my shadows, sifting and weighing them to see how they responded. I hadn’t felt that uncontrollable side of them since the fight, but I was still hesitant to overuse them. When a couple of strands pulled away from my skin and wound peacefully around my fingers, I sent them over the narrow path toward the opening up ahead.
Their movements nudged against my mind, bringing with it sounds of the mountain. Rocks clattering, wind weaving through open spaces, small claws of animals tapping on stone. I felt my shadows crawl through the entrance to the Guardian Forge, then swell and expand in the comfort of the darkness.
I closed my eyes and concentrated. A couple of unfamiliar voices reached me, my shadows whispering their words into my ears.
I faced the others at the same time Nox did and said, “It’s just a couple of guards?—”
“A few guards on duty. Nothing to?—”
We looked at each other, sharing a smirk. “Your shadow whispering is getting good,” Nox admitted.
“Yeah, we get it, you’re the super cool, super powerful couple of the group.” Arowyn waved a hand in the air. “Everett, ready to go?”
The plan was for him to illusion himself and Arowyn to go scout a place to drop the fire quartz, while Nox and I stood on guard duty. Everett nodded, then paused to scratch beneath his temporary eyepatch. The scar had improved, but he still couldn’t see very well out of his left eye. It was unfortunate for him, considering Illusionists relied on sight to cast magic. If anything happened to his other eye, he’d be powerless.
