Chapter 24 #2
My magic stirred again, and another presence slid alongside it, cool and dark as ink.
“I can feel your power, Zane. I need to learn how to use it. And Finn…” I turned toward my redheaded devotee.
He went still, eyes locked on mine, the air between us tightening.
“Yours is a faint vibration, like a tune I can almost catch.” I spoke and signed at the same time.
Zane stepped to my opposite side. “Then let’s practice.
” He gripped my hand. “Think of the shadows not as an absence of light but as a magnetic field. You are the magnet that shapes them.” Shadows detached from the corners of the room and slid toward us.
They climbed our legs, weaving together into a thick, weightless shroud that swallowed the light and hid us from the world until he released them.
I nodded, closed my eyes, and reached for his power within me. A spark of energy answered. I threaded my will through the dark and yanked, teeth grinding as a shadow from the corner stretched like tar, stubborn and slow.
The shadow resisted, then slowly loosened and crawled over the floor. I pushed harder, muscles tightening as if I were dragging something solid. It crept closer, brushing my feet.
“Hold it,” Zane murmured.
Pressure built in my sternum until my breath shook. When the strain threatened to split something inside me, I let go. The shadow snapped back to its corner, and I sagged, sucking air into my lungs.
“Good job, sunshine. Now rest.” Zane ran his hand down my back, lingering at the base of my spine. The touch stirred a yearning, a tide I wanted to ride but held back. I tugged away from his fingers reluctantly.
I sat and closed my eyes, waiting for the tremor in my hands to still. The magic coiled beneath my skin again.
“Ready.” I pushed to my feet the moment my legs felt sure beneath me.
“Now, try to hurt me with it.” Zane linked his hands behind his back, making himself a target.
“Hurt you?” I echoed in concern.
“Yes. Direct your magic at me. Don’t worry; I won’t let the shadows actually hurt me.”
I reached for the darkness again. It surged faster this time, a black flood sliding across the floor. I sent the shadows toward him with intent sharpened to a point. They touched his leg and drifted over him without resistance.
Zane yawned. I tried again, lashing out with more force, but he only shook his head. Frustration tightened my hands into fists. The shadow recoiled, slinking back to the corner.
A scratching at the window pulled my attention. Avoiding the light, Finn let the rats in, though only four remained.
“Let’s finish up before we deal with them.” Zane nodded at the rodents. “I want you to try something else. Imagine your bones turning to soot and your blood to smoke. Become a part of the shadows.”
I stepped back and held the image he’d described in my mind. The ground seemed to surge upward to meet me. The power coiled around me, thinning my flesh until I felt incorporeal.
I pushed forward. My form smeared across the floor in a blur of ink, but the shape wavered like a flame in the wind. Halfway to the door, I lost my hold on the magic. I tore back into reality behind Finn, falling to my knees.
Finn jumped, nearly tripping over his rats. Terrifying, he signed.
The power drained away, leaving my limbs trembling, and my vision pricked with stars. I pressed my palms into my closed eyelids. “It’s a start.”
Zane knelt beside me, his exhale brushing my ear. “You’re so damn sexy using my magic. Once you catch your breath, we’ll try another trick of mine.”
My gaze flicked toward the bed.
Zane grinned and licked his lips. “Not that kind of trick.”
He held my hand as the trembling ebbed away. When I was ready, we stood together. “To move through the shadows—” Zane pointed from corner to corner. “—first, you must visualize where you want to go.”
Using what I had learned, I moved to stand in the darkness in one corner and slipped into it. I tried to move to the other corner, but the magic just wouldn’t do it. I pushed harder, but it remained unyielding.
My body reformed, breath slamming back into my lungs. “I…can’t.” I stayed still until the room stopped spinning.
Zane rested his hand on my shoulder. “That’s enough for now. You’ve shown that you can turn into shadows and manipulate them. You’ll be able to travel through the darkness and weaponize it with practice.”
I sighed in disappointment. I needed mastery of his abilities as soon as possible, but there were clear limitations. As I crossed the room, each step dragged as if the air had thickened around me. I picked up my cup of tea with unsteady hands and sank into the nearest chair.
“Finn, what did the rats see?” I sipped the cooled brew.
Finn gathered his inkpot and quill, then bent over my crude map.
The rodents squeaked and chattered around him.
Under his hand, the simple box I drew transformed into a two-story manor, complete with a servants’ entrance to the east, a main entrance facing south, and a side door to the west. Iron gates marked every approach.
The rats erupted into chaos, squeaking loudly and batting at each other with their paws. Finn watched them, his lips twisting as he adjusted a mark. The largest rat let out a shrill cry.
“Fine,” he muttered, redrawing the line. The rodent’s whiskers twitched.
Finn pulled a wedge of cheese from the platter, broke it into chunks, and tossed the pieces at the rats, who snatched them before vanishing through the gap in the window frame.
Twilight bruised the sky outside, deepening the shadows in the room.
Only the largest rodent remained, settling on its haunches and nibbling its prize.
He is our guide inside. Finn turned the map toward us. Two guards at the servants’ door with halberds. Two mastiffs with them. Four guards at each of the other entrances.
“Service entrance it is,” Zane said. “We need a distraction for the other guards.”
Finn’s eyes brightened. Birds. I can send two flocks to create chaos.
“How long can you keep them distracted?” I asked.
Long enough.
I traced our route one last time. “Zane handles the shadows at the servants’ entrance. Finn, you calm the dogs and send the birds. I’ll nullify the guards’ magic.” I looked at them both. “We move fast when the sun sets. Get in, kill her, and get out before the distraction fails.”
Silence settled over us as I rested, the afternoon thinning toward evening. I finished my cooled tea; the trembling in my hands was finally gone. When I stood, the power still sat strange beneath my skin, but my legs held firm. I peeked out the window as the sun touched the horizon. “Let’s move.”
I flexed my fingers, called forth a thin tendril of shadow, and let it fade.
I will get us some disguises and armor, Finn signed, then left the room.
I set my empty cup aside and went to put on my leathers.
The familiar weight settled over my shoulders as I tightened each buckle.
I slid my daggers into their sheaths and retrieved the rupture vials from their hiding place.
Reaching beneath the wardrobe, I found one of my stakes.
I pulled it free, checked the point, and placed it into its holster.
Finn had since returned with a makeshift mask tucked under his arm and handed a second one to Zane. The disguise was crude, cut from an old pant leg with a knot tied at the top and uneven eyeholes.
We need a group name. Something that strikes fear, like Vengeance. They will remember us as a force, Finn signed.
“We are not naming ourselves that. And this better not stink.” Zane inspected the mask with a judgmental lift of his brow.
There is nothing wrong with a name for our team.
“I’ll consider giving us a name,” I said, just to see the spark of excitement in Finn’s eyes. “But only if it’s a good one.”
Finn grinned, and his gaze drifted as he brainstormed and got changed. Zane glanced at Finn’s ill-fitting leathers with a frown. “And I’m having new armor ordered for you.”
Finn shrugged and crouched to rub Nibs on the head and give him some cheese. The mouse chirped. Then he opened his pocket, and the rat jumped in alongside Nibs.
I slid my bracelet into place, and the illusion of Ilyana shimmered into existence. “All right, everyone. We’ll hit her hard and be back before sunrise.”