“And that is why you are everything Evylere needs...everythingIneed. You have fought against the odds all your life and survived. You havechosento survive. Magic or not, there is something more powerful in you than any of us. My impossible mystery, of Light and Shadow,” he murmured.
The way her eyes shimmered at his words made her all the more magnetic. And if he didn’t stop the horse, stop that bewitching, relentless motion of hers that coaxed his achingneed, as the memory of bare body dripping wet in the sunlight bombarded his mind, every part of him was going to unravel there in the saddle, and he might very well take her in a moment of weakness—a moment of selfishness that would damn them all.
And that’s when he ordered they stop for camp one last time. Just to let the horses rest. He knew it would delay another hour. But it was either that or succumb to his unquenchable thirst and risk becoming a beast forever.
54
Into the Woods
Caramyn
It was a sensation she couldn’t stop thinking about, the trace of him at her back even long after they’d dismounted. Her mind knew it was a wicked, fool’s game to even entertain the idea of what it might feel like to entangle her body with Prince Asterious’, but she couldn’t stop playing nonetheless. Even despite the crushing certainty that it would always leave her the loser, empty and wanting.
After they’d rested a while, and mounted back up on their horses, Caramyn prepared once more to ignore the torture of feeling Asterious behind her, of his length pressed firm against her backside, hot and ever-present. She would have to stoptalking to him so much, because she could hardly handle it when that velvet voice answered her against the back of her neck and sent a cruel warmth blooming through her.
She focused on Nocthar flying above, and on what it might be like to have wings. At least when the snow began to fall, its chilling beauty became something else to distract her as a thin layer of white coated the ground, a subtle contrast against the bleak grey clouds above.
And then, as the evening drew near, it came into view—the edge of the Shadow Woods. It lay miles into the distance, sprawling across infinite acres like a black hedge of white-tipped thorns. The dense trees jutted into the darkening sky with gnarled branches that might have been claws bursting from the smooth pure ground beneath it. And it beckoned, like an ominous threat and an old, familiar friend at the same time. Caramyn drew in a deep breath, unable to pry her gaze away.
“Are you alright?” Asterious leaned forward, his voice gentle.
“Yes,” she mumbled. “It’s just...it’s strange to think thatthatwas my home for five years. It was the only thing I knew—until it wasn’t. A place that looks so hopeless from here, now that I’ve seen the beauty of what lies beyond. Now I don’t know what home is anymore.”
“Coming out of the fire doesn’t mean we forget what forged us. This is still a part of you, just as much as the Lightborn lands, if you so choose.”
Caramyn bit the inside of her lip, twisting her mouth as she thought. “The Shadow Woods will always be a part of me. A place I will protect as it protected me. And right now, it needs me…because an intruder lurks within—one even the Shadows can’t seem to keep out.”
She didn’t need Nocthar to fly ahead and warn her. Somehow, just as she sensed the letter in the library and the prey in theSpires, she could sense the presence of Sinevia all on her own, even from here.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Asterious said. He commanded his men to follow as Caramyn dug her heels into the horse’s flanks, sending him into the fastest gallop he could manage. He snorted with each breath as his hooves pounded across the fresh fallen snow, carrying the prince and the witch beneath the soaring shadow of Nocthar.
They slowed as they neared the foreboding forest’s edge, where they dismounted, facing the entrance to the Woods. Dark tendrils of shadows curled along the snow-dusted forest floor, phantom wisps as they crept toward her feet. Eerie whispers and strange songs flowed from the depths of the swaying trees, beckoning her closer. It was a warning and a lure all on its own. And it was hers.
Caramyn tilted her head.
“I spent my whole life thinking that I was destined for darkness—that I could never do anything good. That my blood of Shadows would always outweigh the Light in me. But when I found the Shadowblood’s letter, and then later when I saved Narahbi, it made me rethink everything. And I decided I was done letting others write my story,” she said. “I still don’t understand what I am, or why I exist. But I believe that, Shadow or Light, my destiny is my own.”
She stared into the trees, the rest of everything fading away in the snowy silence. Then glanced down at her sleeve, where she could envision the black patterned veins beneath them as Zera’s words breathed hope into her.
The darkness that marks you does not define you. What you do in spite of it, does.
She turned around to face the others. “This is as far as you all can go.”
They looked at the prince, uncertainty written across their faces. He took a step back to place himself behind Caramyn. “Don’t wait for orders from me to tell you otherwise. This is her domain, and we are to obey whatever she says.”
Their confused faces told her they did not understand. They must’ve thought she would be able to shield them all. But they were wrong. She still didn’t even know if she could convince the Shadows to permit Asterious—but they had before, hadn’t they? When he first crossed to find her. Or maybe they had known if they tried to stop him, they might awaken something even worse. Either way, he was the only one who could come with her.
The Shadows hissed from the depths behind her, and she looked at them once more, reaching for her bow. “The Prince will go with me so that I can lead him through, but I can’t protect all of you. If you decide to be brave and try to cross anyway, the Shadows will come for you. And I won’t be around to put an arrow through you to spare you the misery.”
Silent and bewildered, the group cautiously stepped back, a silent pledge to stay put at the forest’s edge, though she secretly hoped Wyran might attempt to prove her wrong.
Asterious grabbed his stallion’s reins.
“Leave the horse,” Caramyn said. “I don’t want anything to happen to Alofreise. I’ve never known the Shadows to hurt an animal, but the Woods are angry at Sinevia’s presence. I don’t know what they might do.”
Asterious nodded, and turned the horse away.
Side by side, they entered the Woods. Nocthar fluttered from branch to branch, as if greeting each one with his return. They tread carefully, with Caramyn leading through every uneven spot, every low hanging branch, weaving through the maze of black trees like it was second nature. Each strip of bark against her fingertips, each frost-tipped bramble that she brushed aside, felt like a kiss from an old friend. And she felt a rhythm in herbones and a strange song in the wind, composed of the footsteps of a stranger never invited, one the Shadows did not welcome.
