She should never have attempted this – no good can come of meddling with Shadow Lore. The Queen’s stories taught me that. I curse, running my fingers along her jaw again. She was too slight to ever control it. Could never hope to master it.
For a long moment, no one speaks. Then people are crying, pressing closer.
I screw my eyes shut. A child’s hope. If I don’t see it, it isn’t true.
But my hands are shaking; grief shreds at my chest, flaying me as the night-birds savaged the Clanschief’s face.
And then, a gasp.
My eyes fly open. The Princess is staring back at me. Warmth floods my body again. She’s mumbling, something about finding the next sceptre. But I can’t focus on the words. Slowly, my blood refreezes. This should be a miracle; her eyes are open, her lips are moving.
Only it’s not Leilani’s eyes staring back at me.
They’re darker, deeper. Colder.
Orthriel’s warning ricochets my mind like the cries of the mutilated night-birds still echoing this cave. Leilani was Shadow-Marked, yes – as they’d told the others. But this final warning the cielsylph reserved for me alone.
‘For I trust you to do what they will not,’Orthriel said.‘What I failed to do when it happened to Noelani. What I cannot do for Leilani, not weak as I am.’They sighed.‘The corruption has begun, but she may rally. You’ll know it’s too late if her eyes change. If they darken, then you must be on your guard. For then she’s begun a true descent into Shadow, one she may never come back from. Do you understand?’
I nodded, dumbstruck.
‘You swore to the King to protect her, Astrophel. I need you to swear it again, this time to me. But know this; when it comes to it, theone Leilani may need protecting from is herself. If she can’t resistthe contamination, if she starts to behave in ways that put others at risk, then prophecy or no prophecy, you’ll have to act. She’s Starborn, never forget that, and a dying star can burn bright enough to reduce the four realms to ash. Can I trust you with this?’
As I look down at this new Leilani, who now wields her ancestor’s eyes as well as her sceptre, I no longer know.
The change is begun. If she can’t fight this, if we can’t fulfil the prophecy before Shadow consumes her, how far will I go to protect her – this woman I’ve come to imagine my future with…
Unto death?
CHANGELING
LEILANI
DARKNESS.
At first, it’s the absolute dark of a starless, moonless night. Slowly, pricks of light pierce the gloom. The light surges: filling me, flooding me, forging me anew. And with it comes knowledge. A great torrent. I can see everything: past, present, future. All their possible permutations.
And then I see myself.
As if I’m perched above my own body, looking down. Both here and not here. Peering through a murky fog.
Am I dead? Is this what it is to cross the Veil?
‘Leilani? Lili, can you hear me?’
Astrophel is crouched over my body, shaking me, calling my name over and over. Tansy is by his side, frantically checking me over for signs of life. Her mouth twists; she shakes her head.
‘She’s gone.’
No one speaks. No one moves. The cave is silent save for occasional croaks from the savaged night-birds.
The night-birds live, and I am dead…
Then something moves in the strange shifting shadows that envelop me. Something flashes in the darkness. A knife – a bright, short blade. And wielding it, a woman with the burning eyes that haunt my dreams, that wild mass of red hair vivid as unmarked blood. The others don’t react. They don’t see her. They’re weeping over my body.
‘Arden.’ I shudder as I speak her name.
She laughs. And it’s the same high-pealed laugh that’s echoed my mind all these moons.
