My eyes glaze, partly from tears, partly from the memories that overlay my vision. Gods, I’m remembering it now.
I remember…
Chapter Forty
Inana
The pain is blinding. I’ve never felt anything like it, and I nearly lose consciousness. Henry pulls out the blade, eyes widening at the wound he inflicted upon me. He whirls around, muttering to himself, and my blurry eyes move from him to the edges of the room, where shadows are alive with movement.
I focus on that growing darkness, the Shades I attracted when I hummed against Henry’s palm. Maybe I can’t kill him. Maybe I can only wound him. But if this is my end, I will go out with violence. I will do whatever it takes to inflict as much pain as I can with my final breaths.
Henry turns back to me, knife raised, but I slash out with my needle again, opening a gash in his cheek before I stab him in the side of the throat. I lose my grip on my frail weapon, which means I no longer have anything to cut through the ropes binding my other wrist. He staggers back, and the Shades writhe with interest, hunger. His eyes lock on mine with a hateful glare. Never could I have imagined the man I loved would look at me like this.
Never could I have imagined love would turn so ugly.
So deadly.
I meet his hatred with a wicked smile as the Shades grab hold of his heel, the one planted at the edge of the lantern light. He flails as they climb up the leg of his trousers, and his motions jostle the light dangling above.
That’s when I notice the Shade just off to the side. It isn’t hungry like the others. It’s quiet. Patient. Curious.
But as its hollow black eyes meet mine, something changes. I’ve earned its intrigue. I clear my throat, choking on the sobs that try to escape my lips. But instead of crying, I hum. Then I sing. I don’t know what words I utter, but with them I convey my rage. My thirst, as deadly as any Shade’s, is for vengeance. Death. Violence.
The Shade rises to its full height, a creature of gangly limbs and a blank, featureless face. It approaches Henry with its shadowy fingers outstretched. My eyes jump back to my former fiancé, who now claws at his neck where a wisp of shadow slithers into the wound I gave him. Tears stream down his face, eyes bulging.
The Shade behind him steps closer.
Henry freezes, and a squelching sound reaches my ears. Blood dribbles out of his parted lips.
Then several things happen at once.
A sliver of shadow, like an elongated claw, slices overhead, cracking the ceiling beam and sending the lantern tumbling into a pile of straw, casting half the cell in darkness. Another sliver leaps toward my remaining bound wrist. A minor slash of pain, and my wrist is free. Henry collapses to his knees. Then falls face-first on the floor.
The Shade stands behind his body, a human heart clenched in its fist.
I gasp, slumping down the wall, just like I did then.
What the hell was that?
What…
the hell…
was that?
The Shade killed Henry. I could say it wasn’t my fault, but I remember now, the way I pleaded with my song. The way I wove rage into every note, every word, calling to the creature.
And the creature obeyed.
I catch my breath, staring at the bloodstained ground where Henry’s body fell. My legs beg me to run, to scramble off this moldy pile of straw and not remember a single moment more, but…
I can’t run.
I need to remember.
Slowly, I drag my eyes from the blood to where I recall the Shade standing, holding its gruesome prize.
“You…killed him,” I say, voice hollow. With both hands free, I press them to my abdomen. Hot blood seeps between my fingers and my vision goes blurry at the edges.
