Her throat bobs. Once. Twice. Her voice comes out in a whisper. “All of them?”
I speak treason with my answer. “Yes. Every last one. All created as a by-product of Absolution.”
As her understanding deepens, her expression darkens. Her fists curl at her sides and her lips peel back from her teeth. “Do the Sinless know the truth? Does the church?”
“The church, yes,” I say, “but only a select few Sinless. King Kaelum and some of the original princes.”
Tremors rack her frame as she stares into the roaring fire. “The holy texts lie. Thekinglies. If Shades are created from Absolution alone, then the average citizen doesn’t create them. Only the Sinless do, yetthey blame us for it. They let their own fucking souls terrorize villages while staying safe beneath their domes of light.”
“Yes.” I’m torn between wanting to reach out to comfort her and bracing myself for her rage. Because it’s coming. I can see it in the way her irises dart across the fire as she puts more and more pieces together. The way her body goes still.
The way her eyes slowly drag up to mine. “Did you know the truth before or after you became a Shadowbane?”
Ah, here it is. The answer that will draw her hatred. “Before.”
In an instant, she charges at me, closing the distance between us in three quick strides. I don’t shy away, don’t step back. Not even when she wraps her hand around my dagger and pulls it from its sheath. Not even when she flicks the blade to my throat. “You fucking knew. You knew what the Absolution ritual would do. You knew it created Shades, yet you did it anyway. You wanted it. Is this why your Summoners turn on you? Because they find out you’re part of the fucking problem? Because you knew the truth all along, yet so desperately want to complete the very ritual that createsmoremonsters? To become one of those lying, bloodsucking—”
“I don’t,” I say, my voice like a growl. I lean closer, letting the edge of my own dagger break my skin. I hold her eyes, the fury on my face matching hers. “I don’t want to become one of them. I want to burn it all down.”
Chapter Thirty
Inana
The fervor in his eyes, the darkness in his voice, has my grip slackening on the knife. Before I know it, he grabs my wrist and twists until I release the blade. He takes it from me and pivots us both to the side. My back collides with the cave wall, and he pins my hand over my head. I expect him to bring the knife up to my throat now, but his hand is empty, his palm slamming beside my head.
He presses the front of his body into mine, igniting a strange blend of fury and desire.
“What are you saying?” I ask when I manage to find my voice.
“I have a mission,” he says. “I’ve been training for it my whole life. Keeping secrets my whole life. Playing a role for the eventual greater good.”
“What is your mission?”
His jaw tightens, and I don’t think he’ll answer. Then he says, voice barely above a whisper, “I’m going to kill King Kaelum. That’s why I need Prince Leeran’s nomination: so I can attend the solstice ritual at the capital, end the life of a tyrant, and start a fucking war.”
A shudder ripples through me, excitement dancing with my rage. My body reacts like he just serenaded me with the most seductive lullaby. One of violence instead of romance. One that has my core heating just the same. I relinquish my strength to the wall, letting itsupport me as my knees buckle beneath the weight of my conflicting reactions. “How? How will you do it?”
Again he hesitates before answering. “I collect more than just my own Shades.”
I ponder his words until pieces connect in my mind. The way his Shades are attracted to his blood, strongly enough that Calvin can use them as a compass to find us. The vial he held open on the rooftop back in Thornfal and hid as soon as I saw it.
“The vials,” I say. “You have some of the king’s blood?”
He nods.
“You’re looking for the cut-away pieces of his soul. But how will that help?”
“How do you think?”
I grit my teeth. I think we’re well beyond him making me come to my own conclusions so he doesn’t risk breaking his vows. But if he thinks I can find the answer on my own, then it must be staring me in the face. I revisit everything I learned.
Shades are the lunar energy—the sins—that are cut away in the process of turning a human Sinless during the Absolution ritual.
Shades are drawn to their original body’s blood.
Dominic has a vial of the king’s blood and seeks to collect his Shades.
All so he can kill King Kaelum, an immortal Sinless who can’t be killed.
