He?
I feel the shadows again, a stronger presence than before. And beneath all the magic, I can vaguely feel the pull of a spirit. There’s at least one dead in our proximity, and I’m pretty sure I know who it is.
Ray lets his magic go, the shadows pushing through to shatter Neve’s ice. In response, she forces an iceberg to burst through the ground, using it to protect Dahlia.
Zarev disperses some of the shadows and I work through the rest, sweat breaking out across my forehead as we slice through the darkness again. The shadows that shot off behind us roll through the trees, and I fear what disaster that may bring.
As we’re pushing away the shadows, Ray screams again, shaking the leaves around us. If anything, the shadow is growing impossibly bigger, dwarfing Ray within it. A pit settles in my stomach. We’re going to have to start hitting back if we can’t stop it.
“Odette, would you get out of here?” Zarev yells, the scythe slicing sideways through the air when Ray jumps at him. The blow knocks him to one side, and I see a swan diving toward the ground.
Gods, it's like no one listens to us.
Odette drops to the ground in her human form, the swan and feathers melting away in a breath as she shifts. The power of Ray’s strike sweeps her hair back, but it doesn’t deter her as she charges forward wearing that familiar, feathery dress. “Ray!”
She landed on the opposite side of him from the three of us, in the worst possible spot. I don’t think she can fight him the way we can, and she doesn’t seem to be able to speak if she keeps the swan form. He doesn’t acknowledge her at all, turning instead with a powerful swing, sending the shadows toward her.
I slide into the shadows at the same time Zarev does. I understand her need to be heard, to make him stop—but the shadows will roll through us without killing us. Odette will not be so lucky.
We can move impossibly fast in the shadows when we try, but so can Ray’s version of magic. It hurtles toward Odette quickly, and I worry we won’t make it.
A figure suddenly appears in front of her, its spirit lingering behind. Their magical signatures are different, the man taking form quickly. There’s a long sword in his hand that he uses to slice through the shadows with ease, milky white eyes focusing on the enemy he cannot truly see.
“No further,” he says, his voice eerily calm and full of command.
I pull from the shadows a few feet short, and so does Zarev. I can’t keep the surprise out of my voice. “Lucius?”
Chapter 37 Neve
“He left Thornton?” Dahlia asks, her voice thick with surprise.
Thornton, there’s that name again. The kingdom that didn’t exist a century ago.
She’s not the only one who’s shocked. When the newcomer appeared, I honestly thought he was another enemy until Ban uttered his name.
Sothisis Lucius. I saw a man in the shadows, and I certainly hoped he was a friend instead of a foe.
Horns sit atop his head, peeking from a mess of pale blond fringe that’s cropped short at the back, with long pieces falling across his face. His skin is a gunmetal gray, not the sickly color of Hans's skin, but something that looks supernatural. There’s a set of massive, folded wings at his back, making him almost the same height as Ban.
He carries a long sword, the only one of the four who does. If I remember right, Lucius is the fourth Reaper, and Dahlia’s awe has me wondering why he’s here.
If Thornton is such a strange place, why did he come all the way across Mystica? Maybe Ray, whose devastation is plain to see, appealed to him, but it’s curious how we’ve all arrived at the same time.
I’m learning that coincidences are never as they seem, and when Dahlia doesn’t say more I turn my attention back to the four Reapers and Odette.
I don’t know why she had to charge into the middle, but I’m personally all for it. She’s not letting this be a boys-only fight, and she’s making it clear that Lucius isn’t the only one who cares for Raymundo.
“Let me pass, Ice Queen,” Dahlia hisses, and I’m startled that she gets my title right. How well read is this stranger to pick up that I’m both a queen, and the Ice Queen at that? Communication with those at the tavern has been scant for the past few days since leaving the Frostlands. How up-to-date is she?
“I can’t do that,” I say, not glancing back at her. There’s too much tension between the others to look away. “Your son… He would want you safe.”
“You don’t know Ray!”
I glance back, giving myself a moment to focus on her grief before letting it go. “Right now, you don’t, either.”
Focusing on the group of five, I try to adjust my eyes to the magic leaching off Ray. The shadows wither around him, almost vibrating in the air, making it that much harder to focus on what he’s doing. When I peer around the block of ice I created to block the two of us, I feel Dahlia breathing down my neck.
I wish I could see the shadows as easily as I can the Icebound, at least the ones like Father and the cursed ones from Mother. I cannot tell if anyone else is here with the group of us. If Ray is falling into the shadows, does that mean he’s becoming one of them?
