The words rushed out of me as I jerked the memories from my mind and sliced them wide open for her to see. “’Send your shadow closer,’ they said.”
“Why did they want your shadow?”
“Rare individuals collect them. Steal something from them.”
She shuddered.
“The deep folds of their hood shifted but revealed nothing of the face beneath,” I said. “I couldn’t see their hands, but I felt their teeth in the air, their hunger. They saw the weakness in me, the smallness, and it thrilled them.”
“You were a boy.”
“Old enough to wear a crown on my head.”
“Forcedto wear that crown on your head.”
“I wore it proudly.”
Reyla’s hand slipped over mine, and she squeezed. Her other hand rose, and she brushed her fingers along my face, tracing my scar. The skin still ached, though it was old now, an imprint of that night etched into my flesh. “They did this.”
“Yes.” I swallowed and continued, needing her to hear the rest. “The person met me halfway.” The memory clawed its way to the surface, stinging like an open wound. “Their stride was quicker, smoother now, not causing even a ripple in the water as they moved. When they reached me, I could feel them tugging at my core. Not my power but… I watched as my shadow slithered away from me and toward them. I knew if I let them take it, something vital inside me would be missing forever. I lashed out with whatever power I could gather and—” NowItouched my face, and phantom pain surged, sharp and searing. Once again, I could feel the icy sting of the blade.
“They cut you with a knife?”
“Their magic, a power unlike anything I’ve felt before or since. It slashed out, gouging into my skin as though it was meant to sever more than flesh.”
“A distraction so they could finish stealing your shadow?”
I shrugged.
Reyla’s soft breath was warm on my chest where I was so cold, and her eyes were wide and her gaze unflinching. She looked up at me with what I hoped was her heart in her eyes.
Hope. A Merrick word. Never mine.
Funny how in this and only with her, I could somehow grab onto a trace of that feeling.
“Did you run?” Her voice was a whisper.
“I couldn’t.” I leaned into her touch, my hand falling back tomy lap as her fingers brushed over the scar again. “Hewould’ve found a way to escape.”
“Merrick sees in the light while you command the dark. I don’t think so.”
I blinked. All these years, I’d felt like Merrick’s unwelcome shadow, the part of us that no one would ever willingly claim as their own.
Reyla saw something better in me, andthatwas why I could now cling to hope.
“Before I could send magic at them again, something swooped from the sky.” My words caught in my throat, the memory vivid enough to send a tremor through my body. “I couldn’t see what it was, but shadows broke through the treetops, wings slicing the night air. Pandemonium erupted. The cloaked person screeched. That sound.” I shook my head. “It shredded through the air. They spun toward the hut, running for it like the very flames of the fates were snapping at their heels. They barely made it to the threshold.”
“What happened?”
“Fire erupted around them, engulfing the hut in seconds. The smoke turned brighter, somehow alive, curls and tendrils of it reaching outward.”
“Did it kill the cloaked person?”
“I don't know. I didn’t stay to watch. The thing in the sky—” I shook my head again, my jaw clenched tight enough to hurt. “I worried it would turn its flames toward me, so I ran until my legs wanted to give out, until my chest burned, and my throat wheezed with every breath. I didn’t stop until I staggered back into the castle.”
She held her breath.
“I hid in my room for the rest of the night. I healed this as best I could.” I dragged my fingertip along the scar that I could searclosed back then but never take away. Neither could the healers, though they tried. “I didn’t sleep. I just…sat on my bed, waiting for something horrible to happen. Waiting for the person to come after me again, I suppose.”
