Chapter Fifteen Inana #3
The history books say the Holy Continent was the only land blessed by Bastien.
No other continent’s king was turned Sinless or taught the Absolution ritual.
The other lands live and die at the mercy of Shades, and the survivors are warmongering devils, continuing the same vile acts that angered the gods five centuries ago and plunged the world into One Hundred Days of Darkness.
We have so little interaction with other continents, we can only believe it’s true.
Otherwise, wouldn’t we have more than one open port?
More trade? Perhaps limiting trade is a safety measure, to keep outsiders away from this pretend paradise.
Maybe it’s to make it harder for us to leave.
Dominic shakes his head. “No one really knows what it’s like, only that there are no Sinless. No Shadowbanes.”
No protection from Shades, is what he means.
All they have are natural means. Silver and light.
It could be a thousand times worse than it is here, but that doesn’t dissuade me from holding on to my goal.
The alternative is running until the day I die, and outlaws don’t tend to live long on the Holy Continent.
Sloth rolls onto his side, his head resting on my foot. I pet him again, this time stroking his soft ears. “What do you use them for?” I ask. “The Shades you catch. Sloth, Pride, and Lust didn’t help us with the dragon. And where is the new one?”
“The new one is staying in the vial,” Dominic says. “And I don’t use my shadows to fight other Shades. The most they do against their own kind is darken my shadow or move it, allowing me to tempt the Shades I hunt close enough to catch. They do help me with other people, though.”
My stomach sours as I revisit the few times his shadows have touched me. I may have warmed up to Sloth, but I’ll never forget how invasive it felt when he licked my face when I was pressed to the ground, or the terror I felt when one of them had his hand at the base of my throat.
The reminder makes me reconsider petting the shadow dog, but I can’t bring myself to pull away. Not with how real his fur feels, how warm and heavy his belly is beneath my hand. In this moment, he’s just so doglike. I scratch him under the ears.
Dominic makes a strange sound, almost like a moan, and my eyes dart to him. He shifts it into a cough that he hides behind his fist.
I eye him beneath a furrowed brow and resume petting the Shade. “Why doesn’t Sloth wear your face like the others?”
He glances down at the monster with a wry grin. “He may not wear my face, but he’s still a reflection of me.”
“How so?”
“I think we all have a primal, animal aspect to us. Don’t you?”
I’m taken aback. I’ve heard such an analogy stated a time or two, but normally it’s in reference to a wolf or a lion. Something proud and strong. “Your inner animal…is a dog.”
His lips pull into a grin so wide and unexpected it makes my heart stutter.
His posture is easier now, one hand planted on the ridge between us as he slumps slightly to the side.
He holds my gaze with that smile, and I’m struck by how young he looks.
How delicately the corners of his eyes crinkle.
“A lazy, useless dog,” he says, “who just wants to eat and sleep and be petted by a pair of skilled hands. Call me a good boy, and I’ll be happy forever. ”
My mouth falls open. That was probably the most carefree thing he’s ever said to me, and…I’m shocked by how much I liked it. By how warm it makes my stomach feel, how my heartbeat quickens in response. And maybe that’s what emboldens me to do what I do next.
Lifting my hand, I reach for him, letting it fall on his hair. His dark strands are softer than I imagined they would be, despite being mussed by the breeze. “Good boy,” I say, patting his head in what’s supposed to be a taunting gesture.
Yet…it doesn’t feel taunting. Nor does my voice hold an ounce of the ridicule I intended. Instead, my words are soft, almost breathless. And the way his pupils blow wide, the way his chest lifts with a hitch of breath, tells me he doesn’t feel patronized at all.
We freeze like that, eyes locked, my hand still splayed over his hair.
My cheeks heat, and before I can recall my inhibitions, my mind takes another path.
I imagine what it would be like if we weren’t master and crew.
If he wasn’t someone I hate. If we weren’t on this rooftop keeping watch for monsters, but just a man and a woman enjoying a late autumn night.
If we were just that, I’d find him…tolerable.
More than tolerable. Handsome. Desirable, even.
Dominic leans closer, an almost imperceptible distance. In the same moment, his eyes dip to my mouth. In answer, my lips part, and I too find myself leaning closer—
Dominic’s expression shutters, and he pulls back. With stiff motions, he rises to his feet. “You should go,” he says, all traces of his lighthearted mood gone. The hand that had been planted between us opens and closes at his side.
“I…should go, yes,” I say, too startled by what almost happened to argue.
Yet I can’t ignore the way my heart races.
It’s a traitorous rhythm, one it has no right to drum.
Not for Dominic. A Shadowbane. A man who will someday be fully Sinless.
Maybe even become a duke who will proceed to consume hearts.
I don’t look back as I descend the roof and enter the window once more. And as I settle into my blankets, I try to ignore the way my lips tingle, pulsing in the wake of a kiss that never happened. Or the sound of Dominic’s steps crossing the roof, stopping just over my bed.