My head spun.Hiskind?
“He went this way!”a voice yelled down the alleyway, followed by the sound of stomping boots getting louder.
“Dust!”I said, looking around the dead end, seeing no chance of escape.The walls were tall and smooth with few handholds.I could make it out with some fancy climbing, but a typical person couldn’t.Darion would be stuck alone.I pulled out my dagger, ready to face our enemy.
“Can you climb out?”Darion asked.
“Yes, but I’m not leaving you,” I said.My tone left no room for debate.
Down the alleyway, Syra and two guards were running in our direction.She looked our way, then stopped, signaling the guards to do the same.She took a deep breath.A shimmering light surrounded her, almost as if the air had caught fire.I blinked and shook my head.“What in all the hells?”
A coldness gripped me.Her hands and feet transformed into hooves.The sound of bones snapping echoed through the alleyway.Twisting, razor-sharp horns emerged from her head, and her nose turned into a snout.She was half woman, half beast.
“Darion, are you seeing this?I can’t believe—”
“You need to go,” Darion insisted.“Climb out.I can take care of myself.”
“I already told you, I’m not leaving,” I said, squaring my shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Cas.I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“Find out what?”I asked, looking toward him.
A glimmer radiated from his body.He looked directly at me with sad eyes, their deep emerald color transforming into a golden hue.
One moment, Darion was standing next to me, and the next moment, he had vanished.And in his wake was the smell of ozone and citrus.
Part Two
Chapter sixteen
The Emberborn
Istruggledtograspwhatwas happening before me.For an instant, time was broken.There was no other way to describe it—the world simply stopped around me.Syra’s mouth was open, frozen in mid-snarl.A bead of sweat that had flown from my head was hanging in midair.Only Darion was moving, running down the alley.I was barely able to even turn my head.
Then time came rushing back like a torrential river, and Darion was gone.
The woman-beast Syra and the guards flew back like they’d been hit with cannonballs, careening halfway across the alley and crashing to the ground.
With no time to rationalize what had happened, I scaled the wall, pausing for only a moment at the top to look back.The beast peered up at me with black eyes like a predator hunting its prey.I raced away.
As I made my way across the rooftops of Analon, shouts came from below but quickly faded as I jumped from building to building.My mind was a jumble.Maintaining my concentration took everything I had.
The events in the alley were starting to sink in.
Darion was the golden-eyed thief.
The truth landed like a blow.
And he’d hidden it from me.Thatwas his secret.And last night, when he’d pulled away from our kiss, I hadn’t questioned it.This was how it always went: I let someone in, and then they vanished.Something deep within me cracked the slightest bit, subtle but fundamental.My hands shook so badly I nearly missed the next jump.
I paused on a rooftop and sank down next to a chimney to try to stop spiraling.But my brain wouldn’t slow down.Darion could vanish into thin air, leaving behind the scent of ozone and citrus.And he could…what, manipulate time?And Syra had transformed before my eyes—she must have been the one who had stalked me outside the Charred Snake.
Some people have the ability to sense Emberborn, Mrs.Crowe had said.Did that mean thatIcould sense Emberborn, that Darion and SyrawereEmberborn?The implications made my head spin.
I kept making connections and slotting truths into place that I had previously refused to accept.It was Darion who had left me the invitation to the Emberlight Trials.That was plain now.Had he been following me from the start?Spying on me from the moment I first saw him at the Bleeding Oak?Was this part of the Emberlight Trials?Did all recruits to the Emberlight Trials have someone to watch over them, as Darion had done for me?
Crouched on a rooftop, I replayed every moment, every interaction, everything he’d said to me.Were the things he’d said sincere, or was it all just part of the Trials?
