Kai resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What was it with these girls fawning over Baz in this time?
“Tell us how you did it!” another student demanded.
A flush crept over Baz’s neck. “Oh, well. It all happened so fast…”
“But such quick thinking on your part.”
“It was nothing, really.”
Clover put a hand on Baz’s shoulder. “You’re far too modest. Everyone who was there saw how brilliant you were.”
To everyone’s delight, Clover recounted how Baz had saved the girl from the wards. He painted a glorious picture, his voice rich with the cadence of a storyteller. Even Baz clung to his every word.
But Kai saw through him, right down to the truth of what Clover was.
He was a collector. He surrounded himself with individuals he deemed interesting. Rarities and oddities he acquired like an antiquarian collected invaluable artifacts. And then he threw these parties to revel in his collection.
It was why he didn’t care much for Kai; he already had a Fear Eater in his entourage and didn’t need a second. But Baz…
Timespinners were about as rare as Tidecallers, and so of course Clover had to add him to his collection. And look how much clout and glory this newest addition was bringing him.
Kai noticed Thames at the edge of the crowd, staring at Clover and Baz with something like longing or jealousy. Kai felt for him. It was clear that Thames craved Clover’s affection, and if he had to constantly see Clover chasing after the next rarity…
He wondered if the Fear Eater grew tired of only ever being loved in the shadows.
43EMORY
EMORY KNEW THE TRAIL OFblood wouldn’t lead the knights to the Night Bringer. At first she wasn’t surehowshe knew this, but as she moved away from her friends, she felt it. A tug inside her, calling her forth. A sense of calm in the chaos.
There was also blood on the floor leading away from the more obvious trail left by theursus magnus. It led to a dark, damp cellar, the door to which was ajar. Emory slipped inside, and there was the demon, as she suspected. Hiding in plain sight after duping the knights into believing he had left. What his plan might have been, Emory didn’t know. He looked like an injured animal come to die, slumped as he was against the wall, his hand clutching the bloody wound in his middle, his face drawn and pale.
Still, he managed to give her a withering stare. “If you’ve come to finish me off, I’d rather we get on with it.”
Emory hovered by the door, keeping a careful distance even though she was fairly certain he couldn’t hurt her in this state. “Tell me who you are.”
He laughed, a wet, sinister sound. “Did you not hear them clamoring for my head? I am the villain they made me. The Night Bringer that darkens their world.”
“But that’s not all you are, is it? You said you had many names once.”
“And I said I did not wish to recall them.” He coughed up blood, wincing in pain.
Emory pushed off the door. “Fine. I was going to offer to heal you, but never mind. I hope that body rots with you inside it.”
“Wait.” Keiran studied her. “Why do you insist on this when I suspect you already know the answer?”
Because it wasimpossible, she thought. Because she needed to hear him confirm what had already taken root in her, what felt inevitable now that she’d seen the influence he had on her magic, the way every dark thing in her quieted in his presence.
The words he’d told her when she’d first fainted echoed in the chambers of her mind:I am that which dwells in the dark between stars.Words she’d pondered ever since.
And as the demon looked at her now with Keiran’s face and those unnatural eyes, she knew her suspicion had to be true. Black and silver and gold. They were the eyes of the Sculptress’s demonic counterpart, of the Night Bringer who’d destroyed the Sun Forger.
Of the first eclipse to shadow the world and bring the Tides to their ruin.
“You’re the Shadow,” she said.
His head tilted back against the wall as a faint, knowing smile played on his lips. “In the flesh.” A wince of pain. “Well, not quite.”
Emory’s heart raced. All this time, she’d had it wrong. He was no demon. He wasdivinity. The first Eclipse-born to ever walk the earth. The deity she owed her very magic to.
