Chapter 15
Ifollowed Crispin into the house where he started rummaging through the cupboards, presumably for something else to eat. We’d lit a few lanterns, though after the shadow sighting, I would have preferred much more light.
“I take it that conversation didn’t go well?”
Crispin slammed a cupboard with a little more force than was necessary.
“Of course not. She stands by the notion that because things turned out alright for me, she made the right choice. Because of her I went to court, then ultimately carved a path to the earth realm to become an advisor to the king. This was all because of her, obviously.” He knelt in front of another cupboard to peer inside.
I approached him cautiously, not used to seeing him so angry. When he only tilted his head to look up at me, I gripped his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you to talk to her.”
I felt the tension leaving his shoulders with his resigned sigh. “No. You were right. I would have regretted leaving again without at least trying. Even once we heal the pathway, this could be the last time I might see her.”
“Once there’s a pathway, you could always come back and try again.” I doubted it would do much good, but, well, my mother had redeemed herself, so there was always a chance.
“I don’t want to come back here again.” He stood, dropping my hand from his shoulder. “Meanwhile, my mother believes that now that I’m back, I shouldn’t leave.”
I inhaled sharply, caught off guard by his words. I had considered the possibility of losing Mistral to his home realm, but hadn’t considered losing Crispin instead. He liked earth, and within Emerald Heights, his magic could still flourish.
Not seeming to notice my reaction, Crispin continued, “She believes my duty is to my people. Not all elves have magic, and few have magic as strong as mine. I could do good here, growing new homes, encouraging the crops to flourish.”
My throat was tight as I asked, “Is that what you want?”
He turned around, suddenly looking devilish, which was even more unexpected than the idea of losing him. “Oh dear Eva, your tone suggests that you might miss me.”
I frowned. “Don’t tease me.”
His expression softened as he closed the space between us. “Not even a little?”
“Not even a little teasing or not even a little missing you?”
Gripping my hands, he lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “Both?”
I matched his shrug. “I can agree to a little bit of both.”
“Splendid.” He gripped my hands a little tighter. “Now don’t look now, but there’s a wisp of shadow creeping under the door.”
I went still, then rasped, “What is it doing?”
“It’s slinking this way, attempting to remain hidden in the dark corners.”
“Okay, so what are we doing?”
“We are letting it get close enough for me to attempt trapping it.”
The seconds dragged on as we waited on the shadow. I had finally spotted it out of the corner of my eye when it crept a little too close to a dome of lamplight. It was only a few paces away now.
Crispin moved suddenly, then a flash of cool light nearly blinded me. I staggered back, blinking rapidly as my vision cleared. A ring of what looked like pure moonlight circled the shadow on the ground, caging it. Every time it tried to drift upward, the light would flare, forcing it back down.
Over the shock of it all, I crept closer. “How did you do that?“
“I told you my magic is stronger here.” Crispin knelt on one knee in front of the caged shadow. His eyes reflected the little ring of moonlight as he observed his quarry. “It obviously came back to find you. I wonder if it’s some sort of scout.“
“A scout for whatever nighttime dangers your mom was alluding to?”
“Yes,” his voice was all cool reasoning as he went on, “I have been thinking about that. Before I left, these dangers did not exist. Normal dangers, yes, like running afoul of beasts in the wood, but my mother wouldn’t have felt compelled to mention anything like that.
” He glanced at me, then returned his eyes to the shadow.
“I can’t help but wonder if I let something through with my departure roughly fifty-three years ago. ”
I lifted my brows, getting brave enough to kneel on the other side of the trapped shadow. “But the pathway you made was just big enough for one, and it closed up once you were on earth.”
“Yes, but I potentially passed through any number of pocket realms on my way. While I did not stop in any of them, the pathway behind me could have been enough for something to creep through. And if that something has been causing trouble for the past fifty years, I imagine it’s a little bigger than this. ” He gestured at the shadow.
“Maybe we should let it go and see if it leads us to its source,” I said, not liking the idea, but if we were going to heal the full pathway, we needed to know what we were dealing with.
Crispin’s eyes lifted to the sword over my shoulder. “I suppose we are as equipped to deal with it as we can be. But promise me something.“
I narrowed my eyes. “Depends on what that something is.”
“If what we face is too dangerous, you draw on my magic and use the Realm Breaker to guide you home.”
I lowered my chin. “I’ll use it to guide us home.”
“If it comes to it, you’ll let me protect you, and you’ll leave me behind.”
“No,” I said instantly, knowing I’d never be able to do it.
He gave me a patient look. “There’s much depending on you, Eva. Your mother, for one. But also all of our allies. You’ll be needed to put things back to rights once and for all.”
“I don’t care.”
“You do care, Eva.”
I huffed, because he was kind of right. Just when had I started caring so much? “I’ll agree to your promise if you agree to not do anything stupid. No acts of honor. If we can both run, we run.”
After a moment, he nodded. “Deal. Now are you ready?“
I looked down at the caged shadow. “Not at all.”
“Good.“ He waved his hand, and the moonlight disappeared. The shadow darted toward the door like an imp out of the hells, with both of us hot on its heels.
You know, if it had heels.
Crispin led the way as we ran through the darkness. Which was just as well—he had better night vision than me and I couldn’t even see the shadow we were following.
It was late enough that lights were out in most of the homes, and no one saw us passing as we turned down a narrow path into the woods. Branches snagged my clothing and I almost tripped a few times, but I continued barreling forward, not wanting Crispin to face whatever was ahead alone.
I distantly noted the sound of running water, then Crispin stopped so abruptly I ran into his back.
“Ow,” I groaned, holding onto him so I wouldn’t fall over. Once I was steady, I stepped away, then up to his side.
A stream trickled black as night ahead of us, wisps of darkness rising from the water. Even in the middle of the night, the darkness was solid enough for me to differentiate it from everything else.
“It was me.” Crispin’s breath fogged the night air. “I was the one who let the darkness into this realm with my departure. I left from the capital, but this is not in the capital.”
“Then why do you think it was you?” I whispered as if the shadows might overhear.
“This—” he audibly swallowed. “This was my favorite place as a boy.”
“But how could the darkness know that?” I watched the dark mist rising from the stream. A wisp of it might have been checking me out, but it didn’t seem concerned that we were now checking it out instead.
“I don’t know. But it has to be connected.”
I shook my head. “Even if it came through your pathway, you didn’t make the shadows. This isn’t your fault.”
A gurgling, popping sound drew my attention back to the water, which was starting to bubble up like black oil. One moment it was calm, then the next it started flooding the banks, rushing toward us.
Crispin swept his arm back, moving me out of the way as the darkness formed into what I could only describe as a monster, not a forest creature like I had expected given our previous experience.
Crispin withdrew his hand from me, aiming both palms at the monster with a blinding flash of moonlight, but the darkness barely hesitated. It reared over us, turning back into something viscous and shapeless, like a tidal wave of oil about to crash onto our heads.
“Eva!” Crispin shouted, grabbing my hands and aiming them at the wave of black.
It crashed into us, but as soon as my hands made contact, I started absorbing it.
I was lost in a moment of dizzying darkness where I couldn’t think or breathe, then it was over.
The last hint of darkness disappeared into my hands.
Unsettling emotions bubbled in my chest, not having anything to do with what I was thinking or feeling.
I swayed on my feet, dizzy and unable to push the strange feeling away.
“Eva.” I felt Crispin’s arms around me, then my feet were off the ground and I was being carried.
My last thought before losing consciousness was that the darkness was something more than we thought.
It wasn’t just wild magic. There was emotion within it, and all of that had gone into me.
But I couldn’t quite explain what it had been feeling.
All I knew was that it had crossed paths with Crispin, and that was enough for it to go to the place he’d loved most when he was a child.