He swallows a groan. “Yes. I’d never hurt you, but this form ismadeto take you. To possess you. Sometimes, it takes everything I have not to.”
Something about that coils around my ribs and squeezes, and I lay my cheek against his shoulder again, at a loss for words. But despite what he says, I trust him. Enough that I don’t need to peer into the surrounding shadows or scan the forest for threats. The dread that has haunted me all day finally drains away, and it’s like setting down a thousand-pound weight. Like warming myself by a fire after a long, cold-bitten day in the elements.
We pass through the darkness in silence, twigs cracking beneath the Shadow’s feet, our hearts beating in tandem, even our inhales and exhales aligned. Wherever we are, this place doesn’t glow like the rest of the Wildwood. It looks like Aethrolia—a normal, night-cloaked wood, nothing special, nothing different.
Until the Shadow stops.
I lift my head to find a door before us, recessed into the trunk of a massive yew. Green light glows around its square frame, which is large enough to accommodate both of us without the Shadow having to put me down.
He turns the knob, his dagger clinking against the metal. The door swings open onto darkness. A cloud of sweet rot drifts across the threshold.
I recoil, practically climbing the Shadow’s chest. “Oh, goddess. Not there. Anywhere but there.”
“It’s all right. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
“But there’re monsters in there. Shadowy things, with too many eyes. And they make this howling sound, like?—”
“I know.” A buried laugh fills his voice. “I’ve killed them before, Princess. During the day. Torn more than a few to shreds. Trust me, they don’t like me any more than you like them.”
I process that with a frown. “You’ve killed them?”
“Yes,” the Shadow says. “And this is the quickest way through the labyrinth. The shadow place, it’s always the quickest way.”
I swallow a bitter laugh. Of course it is. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
“If you’re with me? Yes.” The words land heavy and solemn, like a promise. “Always.”
Warmth coats the walls of my heart. “Well…all right. If you’re certain.”
“I am.”
I curl into him, quaking a little. But I believe him.
We pass through. The door swings shut, then disappears, and I squeeze my eyes closed, blocking out the towering, unfriendly trees, the anemic starlight, the dead leaves that cage us in. But no amount of closed eyes can drive away the suffocating stench. I bury my nose in the Shadow’s shoulder, hunting for his warmth, for the incomparable scent that makes him…him.
I find it. It steadies me as surely as a gust of wind filling the sails of a ship. But a howl rises in the distance, and others answer nearby. Echoes bounce off the trees, wrapping around me like a hand clamped around my throat.
I cling tighter, which doesn’t seem to bother the Shadow in the slightest. Gratification flows from him through the bond, along with the assurance that he’ll dismember anything that tries to hurt me.
Still, it doesn’t take long for the monsters to start circling. I peek past the Shadow’s shoulder to find eyes—a nauseating number of eyes, slitted and hungry—surrounding us, peering through the dark.
A whimper erupts from me before I can stop it.
“It’s all right,” the Shadow says. “I’ve got you.”
And he does. He burns so brightly that a pool of violet light haloes us, illuminating the shriveled leaves, accompanying us through the dark. The eye-creatures seem hesitant to touch it. Shadowy forms swarm at the perimeter, but never stray into the light.
Except for one. Something dark and misshapen lunges at us, and the Shadow lashes out with the dagger. A shrill scream erupts as a steaming hunk of…something…thuds to the ground. A limb, maybe.
The thing goes skittering and squealing away. The Shadow continues on as if nothing happened.
I shrink. Goddess. I don’t know how much of this I can take.
“Talk to me,” I gasp. “Please. Distract me.”
“Hmm.” The low thunder of his voice grounds me, vibrating from his chest into mine. “About what?”
My panicked mind flies through possibilities. Not religion. That didn’t help much, with Amriel. Something else. “You said you’ve killed these things, during the day. Which means…you can see what you’re doing, even when the sun is up? You can remember it?”
