Chapter 54 Shadows
SHADOWS
RAE
Surfacing from the strange haze that cocooned my mind and muted the pain from the council’s magical assault, I lifted my head off Ash’s hand.
Olive-green eyes softened as tears slid down my cheeks.
I swiped my cheeks, glancing down at the blood on my fingers, then looked up at Ash. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know, Little Blackbird, but I won’t let them hurt you anymore.”
I peered over at the guys, surrounded by guards.
Zeke stared at me, lips parted, while Cyn stayed close by his side, his narrowed gaze locked on the council.
Ezra watched me with an odd look I couldn’t interpret. He squinted. On anyone else, I’d have called it confusion or distress, but I didn’t know him well enough to read it.
Ash pulled my attention from Ezra. “Are you hurting?”
I looked up into his eyes. “No.” My brows bunched. “I don’t know—” I doubled over as my stomach spasmed.
Ash reached for me. “Rae!”
Searing fire burned up into my throat until I lurched over the altar’s edge, spilling the meager contents of my stomach.
“What is that?”
I groaned, blinking tears from my eyes, unsure which council member spoke or what they meant.
Thick gray sludge oozed across the stone, bubbling as the mist swallowed it.
That came out of me?
What did that mean for my insides? Was there anything left?
Ash’s hand rested on my arm, helping me up. “Rae?”
“I don’t feel good,” I whispered.
Zeke gagged into his hand, and Cyn caught his arm as a nearby guard backed off. Ezra’s shoulders trembled and sweat slid down his temples.
Ash’s chest heaved as he tried to steady me.
Before I could unpack why they seemed ill too, I doubled over again, expelling another bout of acidic sludge that seared my tongue and lips.
“Something’s wrong,” Cornaith said. “Do something!”
I didn’t know who he was yelling at, but his voice grated on my frayed nerves.
“I just need to…” A wave of dizziness swept me under, and I collapsed into Ash’s lap, unable to hold myself up. His trembling fingers brushed the hair from my forehead.
Ash looked at the council. “We’ve been sick for days.”
Lymsrana stepped forward. “What about her?”
“The human has also seemed unwell throughout her detainment,” Ranthus said behind us.
I moaned as another wave of nausea swept through me and I broke out in a cold sweat.
“What are they?”
I tried to see what Lymsrana was looking at, but my body felt weighed down by lead.
Cornaith snarled, “Don’t let them touch her!”
Before anyone could move, my three shadow friends circled the altar.
They crouched, swaying side to side as if assessing me from all angles. Faint chittering slipped through the black haze that surrounded them.
The smallest approached first, stopping only inches from my face.
Ash growled; the sound made me shiver.
“They won’t hurt me,” I whispered, struggling to speak.
His hand tightened on my shoulder as I rested on his lap.
The little infernal touched my face. I’d never touched them before, but I hadn’t expected it to feel soft like a marshmallow.
I grimaced, drawing my knees up to my chest.
The two behind the little one chittered louder, and it hissed at them before pressing its fingers to my forehead. The others joined us—one circling behind me to place its hands on my hip and shoulder blade, while the other held my legs.
Cornaith approached, hand extended. My shadow friends angled toward him, hissing. He recoiled when the smoke around their bodies flared and lashed out in warning.
“She’s controlling them,” Ardvaen said, waving at the guards. “Stop her!”
Three guards approached, but the largest shadow infernal extended an arm. Angry tendrils snapped like whips, stopping them in their tracks.
Once the guards backed off, the shadow infernal returned to me.
I ignored the council’s whispers as my breath grew labored, and my insides tingled and burned.
Zeke’s panicked voice cut through my discomfort. “What are they doing to her?”
“Cyn, you can’t touch them,” Ezra said. I didn’t understand what he meant.
Ash stayed rigid. Any time he tried to move—even to reassure me—they chittered and hissed at him.
We stayed like that for several minutes. Strange sensations lit me from within, easing the pain until only a dull ache remained.
One by one, my shadow friends backed away, hissing at the council as they melted into the dead trees’ shadows at the edge of the clearing.
Earlier, I thought my insides were melting, but now I felt nothing more than a mild stomachache.
Was it out of my system?
What had my shadow friends done?
I slowly sat up, Ash steadying me. “I don’t know what just happened.”
Did they heal the damage from the sludge and the council’s magic, or would I get sick again?
“I’ve never seen infernals like that,” Ezra said, drawing my attention.
Zeke looked at me, head cocked. “Are those your shadow friends?”
“Shadow friends?” Cyn looked between us.
I nodded. “They found me here,” I whispered, throat raw from the acrid puke and the yelling. “I don’t know who or what they are.”
Ash took my hands in his, pulling my attention away from the other guys. “I need you to know the truth.”
What more could he say? After everything, I didn’t know how much more I could take.
Would he take back what he’d said before everything went hazy?
Would he say he didn’t love me?
“Rae.” Ash squeezed my hands. “Breathe.”
When had I started hyperventilating?
I dropped my head, hair falling like a shield, blocking all the eyes that suddenly felt like too much.
Ash pressed his forehead to mine, long hair falling forward. Our heads bent together created a little hair cocoon of safety.
“I don’t understand any of this,” I whispered.
“I know. I don’t either. But believe me when I tell you what I do understand… I love you.” He let go of one of my hands to brush his thumb over my lips. “Mate or no mate. I love the woman you are.”
Movement on my left caught my attention before I could respond.
I looked up, mouth falling open, as someone stepped around the cluster of dead trees where my shadow friends had vanished.
“Quinfina,” Cornaith said. “Why are you here?” A touch of respect colored his stern voice.
“Quin?” I whispered.
Ash’s brows pulled tight as he looked between the woman from the bookstore and me. “You know her?”
“She works at the bookstore.”
Quin crossed to the council, her peridot eyes fixed on me the whole way.
Despite the dreary cyan overcast, her dark skin glowed bronze. She looked the same as in the mall—except for her outfit.
She wore a black taffeta gown, as dark and shiny as the slab. A sparkling wrap crossed her torso and looped over her shoulders from behind, baring her shoulders and collarbones.
Golden chains attached to a headband around her hairline threaded into her springy curls, clipped with tiny multicolored gems. Ruby earrings matching the choker around her neck dripped like tears on delicate golden twine from her ears.
She looked like she belonged on the council in her extravagant attire.
It shouldn’t make sense, but it did.
She’d seemed to understand too much of my breakdown.
She’d given me the book.
Cornaith’s booming laugh made me jerk upright, attention snapping away from her. “Are you suggesting Elyrdin’s spiritual advisor is your accomplice?” He shook his head, tsking. “Foolish girl.”
“Quinfina would never harm the princes,” Ardvaen said, eyes narrowing on me.
“He’s correct,” Quinfina said. She looked around at the remaining unconscious bodies strewn across the staging area of my execution. “I hold no desire to harm my people.”
I licked my chapped lips, unsure how to defend myself. Nothing I said mattered here—same as on Earth.
But I hadn’t imagined her at the bookstore. The book didn’t appear out of thin air. How could I make them believe me?
Quinfina stopped between the altar and the six council members, eerie mist swirling at the hem of her robe.
Ezra shook off the guard, shoved past Ranthus, and planted himself at Ash’s side without looking at me. Cyn and Zeke hurried after him—Cyn behind Ash, and Zeke beside me.
Quinfina eyed the guys with a low hum. “I’m not here to harm her,” she said, tone as soft and reassuring as the day we met.
Cyn’s lip curled. “Then what are you here for?”
“To explain.”
I wish someone would.