Chapter Thirty-One
Severed
Kaan
THE SHADOW COUNCIL chamber empties slowly, aged shadowlords filing out with wary backward glances.
Their fear perfumes the air—delicious under normal circumstances, but today I barely notice.
My attention drifts toward the window, toward the gardens where Nesilhan should be walking among the nightblooms. I should have gone to her straight away after she left the room, but I was a coward and was easily swayed that the shadowlords needed my attention.
"The crown ceremony preparations are complete," Emir reports, gathering documents that are scattered across the obsidian table. "The Light Court delegation arrives at dawn."
I grunt in acknowledgement, dark energy coiling with unusual restlessness around me. A wrongness pervades everything. Off- balance. Since morning, I have felt a strange hollowness in my chest—an absence where Nesilhan's presence usually burns.
"Have the southern tower prepared for Councillor Taren," I say, moving toward the window. "I want him as far from Nesilhan as possible until we understand his involvement in this prophecy manipulation."
Emir hesitates. "You still plan to proceed with the ceremony? After your... concerns?"
I turn, shadowfire darkening the room in response to his impertinence. "The ceremony proceeds as planned. Nesilhan will be named my equal before the entire court."
"As you wish, my lord." Emir bows slightly. "I will ensure everything is arranged accordingly."
I return to the window, staring out at the gardens where I last saw her— surrounded by orphaned children who no longer fear me because of her. The memory cuts deeper than it should.
"Find her," I command suddenly, unable to shake the growing unease. "Tell her I require her presence." I can’t cower away any longer. I need to tell her the truth.
"Of course." Emir exits quietly, leaving me alone with my increasingly agitated darkness.
Minutes stretch into an hour as I pace the council chamber, a knot of tension forming between my shoulders. The strange emptiness where our bond should pulse has grown more pronounced. I reach for it repeatedly, finding only echoes where her presence should be.
A wrongness pervades everything.
The chamber door crashes open, Emir's usual composure shattered. "She is gone."
Two words, and my world tilts on its axis.
"What do you mean, 'gone'?" My voice becomes deadly quiet, tendrils of darkness lashing across the room, cracking stone and shattering glass .
"She is not in her chambers. Not in the gardens. Not in the library." Emir stands his ground despite the whirlwind of shadow magic erupting around me. "The shadow steed from the eastern stables is missing."
I reach through our bond, stretching my awareness toward Nesilhan with desperate intensity. There—a faint pulse of life, distant and fading, like a star disappearing over the horizon. Moving away from me with every heartbeat.
"Fetch the fairy," I snarl, darkness writhing in mounting panic. "NOW!"
Emir's face drains of color. "Banu has vanished as well."
I slam my fist into the obsidian table, splitting it cleanly down the middle.
The crack echoes through the chamber like thunder, my control fracturing with it.
Shadow magic erupts from me in waves of pure darkness, shredding tapestries, shattering windows, freezing the very air until frost forms on the stone walls.
"FIND THEM BOTH!" I roar, my voice distorting with rage and fear. "Every guard, every shadow hound, every tracker in the court. I want them found before nightfall, or I will feed your entrails to the void beasts!"
Minutes blur into hours as reports are flooding in—sightings at the eastern gate, tracks leading toward the boundary villages, rumors of a hooded woman traveling alone. None of it matters. I can feel her slipping away through our bond, the connection stretching thinner with every passing moment.
I storm through the palace, shadow magic demolishing anything in my path. Courtiers flee, servants cower, guards press themselves against walls—all beneath my notice as panic claws at my throat.
"My lord." Emir moves warily, exhaustion evident in the shadows beneath his eyes. "We have located the fairy."
I whirl toward him. "Where? "
"The northern tower." He hesitates. "She requested... safety guarantees."
A savage laugh tears from my throat, the sound cracking the marble floor beneath my feet. "Safety? She will be fortunate if I leave enough of her to fill a thimble."
"She claims to have information about Lady Nesilhan."
His words stop me mid-stride. The darkness around me freezes in jagged patterns, the temperature dropping precipitously until Emir's breath fogs before his face.
"Bring her to my chambers," I command, my voice barely human. "Intact. For now."
The fairy hovers near the ceiling when I enter, her wings beating frantically, silver-blonde hair cycling through anxious colors. She has positioned herself strategically near an open window—a quick escape route if needed.
"Where is she?" I demand, without preamble, shadow magic sealing every exit with walls of impenetrable darkness.
Banu's tiny face hardens with surprising courage. "Safe from you."
Tendrils of darkness lash out, barely missing her as she darts higher.
The stone wall behind her cracks from the impact, chunks of masonry raining down.
"Do not test my patience, fairy. You have three seconds to tell me where my wife is before I tear this palace apart stone by stone—starting with you. "
"Your wife?" she scoffs, her usual playfulness replaced by cold fury. "Or your next victim?"
"What are you talking about?" The shadow magic around me pulses dangerously, forming jagged spikes that reach toward her like hungry predators.
"Isil," she says, the name falling like a stone into still water. "Your pregnant lover who met an untimely end. "
The name stills my power momentarily, shock replacing anger. "You know nothing about her."
"I know enough." Banu drifts lower, emboldened by my reaction. "I know she was carrying your child. I know she died. And I know Nesilhan will not share her fate."
Understanding dawns with sickening clarity. "You think I killed Isil?"
"Did you not?" Her lavender eyes narrow accusingly. "We found her journal, Kaan. We read what happened."
The ground seems to shift beneath my feet. Her journal? The leather-bound book I have kept hidden in my private study for lifetimes of anguish, the last remnant of the woman I loved, the words I have been unable to read since her death, but could not bear to destroy.
"You have stolen from my private study?" My words turn venomous as shadowfire surges upward, engulfing half the room in darkness so complete it seems to devour light itself.
"To protect Nesilhan," Banu replies, unapologetic. "To save her from whatever happened to Isil."
"You know nothing," I repeat, my voice raw with ages of grief and rage. "Nothing about what happened to Isil."
Emir steps forward, having remained silent by the door until now. "My lord, perhaps it would be wise to explain…"
"Explain?" I laugh bitterly, the sound like breaking glass. "Explain ages of grief to this fluttering insect? Explain how Isil's death nearly destroyed me?"
Banu's wings slow, confusion flickering across her face. "What are you saying? That you did not kill her?"
"I did not kill Isil," I snarl, each word like broken glass in my throat, but I reveal nothing more. Dark energy thrashes wildly, responding to emotions I have kept buried for lifetimes. Let the fairy believe what she will - the truth is mine alone to bear .
Banu blinks rapidly, processing this information. "But her journal—"
"Was written by a dying woman whose perception was being increasingly affected by shadow poison," I cut her off, shadowfire surging with renewed violence. "She was confused, paranoid, suffering. Her final words were not reflections of reality."
The temperature in the chamber plummets as my control frays. Ice forms on the windows, spreading in crystalline patterns across the glass. "I did not bring you here to relive my past. Where is Nesilhan?"
Banu's expression shifts, uncertainty replacing defiance. "I do not know exactly. She did not tell me her plans."
"But you helped her leave," I accuse, my patience threadbare. "You knew she was running from me."
The fairy's wings flutter anxiously, confusion evident on her tiny face. "I do not understand. I never told her to leave. We discussed the journal, yes, but I left her sleeping in her chambers. I had no idea she would flee."
I slam my fist into the wall, marble fracturing beneath the impact. "What did you tell her about me? What lies did you feed her?"
"Just what we have found in Isil's journal." Banu's voice grows quieter. "That your shadows became unstable when she told you about the child. That she was afraid. That she did not recognize you anymore."
Cold understanding washes through me. Nesilhan believes I would harm her, believes I am capable of harming a child. The realization burns like acid in my veins.
"Did she say anything?" I press, desperately grasping at straws. "Give any indication where she might go?"
"No." Banu shakes her head. "She was too careful for that. She knew I would tell you if forced. "
"What about the boundary villages? The neutral territories? Did she ever mention safe havens?"
"She has spoken once of a shrine near the Great Divide," Banu offers hesitantly. "Said it was where light and shadow first separated, where the boundary is thinnest."
I turn to Emir. "The Twilight Shrine."
He nods grimly. "Four hours' ride, if we push the shadow steeds to their limits."
"Prepare the riders," I command, already moving toward the door. "We leave immediately."
Banu darts in front of me, her tiny form blocking my path with absurd determination. "I am coming with you."
"You have done enough damage," I snarl, darkness surging around her.