A single note slipped past my lips, lyrical and winding.
I didn’t know why, only that something primal inside me demanded I sing.
Weakness pulled at my limbs, threatening to drag me into darkness as sweat beaded on my skin.
His steps faltered. Slowed. He lowered his sword, head tilting, mouth slack with wonder. His eyes shone with a strange sheen. A wet gargle sounded as blood spewed from his mouth, breaking whatever enchantment I held over him. The point of a blade burst through his chest, spraying me with warm liquid.
Riven put his boot on his back and pushed, the initiate’s body falling with a wet thump into the snow. Roman slit the last attacker’s throat. I barely registered the medallions clenched in his fist. Riven wiped the blade on the initiates back before glancing up at me.
Each breath burnt my lungs. The power thrumming in my veins threatened to consume me. Something inside me cracked.
Riven’s face had drained of colour. Still, he inched closer, like I was some wild beast that might turn on him.
I dropped to my hands and knees, gasping for air as my fingernails scraped against the pebbles. I clenched my jaw against the scream rising in my throat. The darkness was consuming, breaking through every wall I had put in place to keep it at bay. This was what the priest had bled from me not sin. Darkness and pure evil ran through my veins, tearing to the surface. I had blamed the priest, blamed the Gods, blamed the world. But the horror clawing its way out of me felt too familiar to deny.
I am evil.I had been all along.
Riven’s water called to me. A pulse, a whisper. A promise of power.
I grunted, trying to resist. I wanted to drown him. I looked up at him. Riven stumbled backwards. His breath hitched, sharp and uneven.
“Run!” I screamed. I didn’t know what was happening. But I didn’t want to hurt him.
For the first time, his eyes held no humour, only something raw. Something dangerously close to fear. He opened his mouth, but no words came.
Orin’s dagger laid on the ground next to me. I seized the blade and stabbed it into my wrist, dragging it upwards towards my elbow, leaving a gaping gash in its wake.
Blood poured from me, dulling the urge tokillas the pain grounded me.
It wasn’t enough. I sliced open my other forearm, my blood spilling black across the snow, and with each drop, the monster inside me shrank back. My breath hitched. My head swam. I wouldnothurt Riven.
Riven screamed my name but he sounded far away. The heat consumed me, and everything went black.
Fourteen
Liar
My head throbbed viciously, each pulse of pain syncing with the sluggish thump of my heart.
I pried my eyes open and winced. The dim flicker of dying torchlight seemed to make the pounding worse. The air felt thick, stagnant, laced with the sharp tang of medicinal herbs and something far more metallic beneath it. Blood.
My limbs felt heavy, my mind struggling to find a thought to grip onto.
Shadows slithered across the stone walls. Too thick. Too alive. They stretched towards the corners of the room where the darkness bled into itself. The faint glint of metal caught my eye: a wooden trolley, scattered with healer’s tools. The hairs on my arms stood on end, sweat beading on my skin despite the cool air. The dying torchlight flickered lazily, as if warning me that something unnatural was happening. The shadows rippled and coiled, slow and oozing, holding me captive. My muscles locked in fear as they bled into an inky form. The torches guttered weakly, trembling back tolife. And in the brief second the shadows recoiled, a large figure was watching me. The darkness hid his features, but I could make out a muscular form that stood well over six feet tall. The shadow man took slow, predatory step towards me. Darkness crawled along the stone, creeping towards me in an unnatural slither. That was all the warning I got before the figure lunged at me. Terror locked me in place. The thing lurched forward.
I screamed, sitting up and clutching my chest. My hair clung to my sweat sleeked skin as I frantically searched the room like a trapped animal. I was in the same room. The infirmary.
“Hey. Hey, you’re safe.” Riven leant forward in the chair beside my bed. Dark circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes, and his unruly brown waves looked as though he’d dragged his hands through them repetitively.
I looked past Riven, searching forhim. But there was no darkness. The moving shadows didn’t exist.
“I—There was…” I trailed off, trying to catch my breath.
“You had a nightmare,” Riven reassured me, wrapping his hand around mine.
I startled, not moving for a moment before I wrapped my hand back around his. I needed a tether right now.
Logically, I believed him—yet it had felt real. The hairs on my arms stood on end, every nerve taut with the certainty that something unseen was still watching me.
