“Very well. You have it then. But don’t forget or else there will be dire consequences indeed.” She vanished.
Folding his arms across his chest, Shadow sighed. “She forgot to warn you about getting out of here.”
“Don’t look back?” Nibo asked flippantly.
He inclined his head respectfully at Nibo. “Good, you know.” He pointed to his left. “Door’s that way.”
Nibo held his arm out to him. “Thank you.”
“I would say it’s a pleasure, but I’m off to have that now. Stay safe.”
Valynda shook her head at his hasty departure. “He’s such a peculiar beast.”
“That he is. And if you think he’s odd, you should meet his brother.”
Agrios kept eyeing the spiderwebs as if waiting for one of the spiders to come and get him. “Can I really go?”
“We’re about to find out.” Nibo gestured toward the direction Shadow had shown them.
Valynda led the way. “Have you known Shadow long?”
“Long enough.”
“For what?”
“To know not to ever fully trust him.”
That seemed odd given that he’d helped them without question. “How so?”
“He’s the son of Azura.”
She stumbled at the last thing she’d ever expected him to say. Dear Lord! Had she really been that close to the spawn of all evil? Could the Queen of All Shadows really have a child? “What?”
“Aye. At one time, he was her lead general and the right hand of Noir. Hence why they call him the Prince of Shadows.”
Her jaw dropped. “But he’s no longer on their side?”
“That is the question, isn’t it? Shadow is a nebulous little bastard, which makes him hard to trust. Especially when one of the reasons he was so quick to kill in the past was his ironclad belief that it’s all right to slaughter the innocent, since so many who profess good too often practice evil in its name.”
“He’s not wrong,” Agrios groused.
“No, but it’s a slippery slope. Once you begin to justify something, there’s no end to it. And when we justify bad behavior as something our innocent victims deserve when we know in our hearts they don’t … that is when we’re truly damned.” He paused to look at Valynda. “Can you imagine a world where people tried to help each other up, not kick each other down?”
Nay, she could not. Because she’d been one of those innocents who’d been kicked repeatedly for no reason at all. By far too many.
Nibo shook his head. “As much as it pains me, I have to admit to how sage that little prick is.”
“How so?”
“He’s also the one who said that we are never punished for the sins we commit, but rather by them.”
Valynda flinched at the truth of that statement. “Ouch!”
“Indeed.”
And that made her wonder just what had happened in Shadow’s past that had made him learn such harsh lessons. That kind of wisdom came with a price. One she wished she’d never been forced to pay.
But then he was the son of Azura.
