Chapter 26 Marked
MARKED
ELYRIA
“Quartered hell, Ellie!” Kit’s voice was full of alarm as Elyria stepped out from behind the curtains. “Where the fuck did you come from?”
Shit. She was in Kit’s room. She had not meant to shadowstep to Kit.
She had not meant to shadowstep at all.
“Well, it’s about time.” Tenebris Nox’s smooth, dulcet voice drifted into Elyria’s pink-tinged ears. “Finally figured it out, have you?”
“What are you going on about?” Kit asked, thwacking the nocterrian’s dark forearm with the scroll in her hands. The two of them were perched on opposite sides of a small table, laden with maps and papers, in front of the fireplace.
Nox arched a brow. “She’s finally unlocked the ability to walk through the shadows.” Elyria bristled at the condescension oozing from them as they turned back to her with a fang-laced smirk. “You’ve certainly had a busy morning, haven’t you?”
The back of Elyria’s neck felt hot. There’s no way that they could possibly know what just occurred between Cedric and her, could they?
“Shadows talk,” they’d said during the Crucible. “You’ll see.”
She hadn’t had the faintest idea what they’d meant at the time, but now . . . “Wh—I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she stammered.
Nox’s mouth curved into a feline smirk as they leaned forward in their chair, their crimson eyes pointedly darting to the bed on the other side of the room.
Because that smirk wasn’t the only feline thing present.
“What are you—” Elyria’s eyes narrowed on the small bundle of shadow curled up in a ball at the foot of Kit’s bed. “Noctis take me. Sid!”
“Sid?” Kit barked a laugh. “That’s what you named the poor thing?”
The shadowcat lifted its head, looked Elyria up and down with a yawn, and promptly went back to sleep.
“What is she doing here?”
Kit blinked her blue and green eyes. Slowly. “Shouldn’t you be the one telling us?”
“She is yours, isn’t she?” Nox added.
Elyria made a face at the snoozing kitten’s form before slinking over to an empty armchair and falling into it. “She’s not mine. I just sort of . . . made her? Accidentally?”
Nox let out a long breath, a haughty expression flashing across their face that made Elyria suddenly very sure there was an “I knew it” lingering on their tongue.
Elyria pursed her lips. “It’s not like I’m the one who named the damned thing.”
Kit arched a silver brow. “Who did then?”
Elyria cursed inwardly. “Cedric did.” She tried to say the words casually, like it didn’t matter at all. But heat bloomed in her cheeks when she remembered that both Kit and Nox could likely hear the way her heartbeat started hammering the instant his name left her mouth.
“Ah. He did, did he?” Nox’s face was the picture of amusement.
Elyria leveled the nocterrian with a cool stare. “What are you even doing in here?”
“Someone has to do the strategizing around here,” they replied evenly, eyes darting from Elyria to Sid and back again.
“Given your rather spirited greeting to the newest members of our delegation, Kit and I thought a meeting of the minds prudent before everyone sets off on their respective missions tomorrow.”
“I won’t apologize, if that’s part of your plan,” Elyria said, lip curling. If she could, she would go back in time just to punch Raefe in the smug face over and over and over again.
“Of course not, Ellie,” Kit said, her voice gentle.
“We are just trying to make the best of a terrible situation. The reports Sephone gave on the current situation in Luminaria were quite enlightening. However terrible it is that they’re here, that Master Tartanis has somehow convinced my uncle to allow him influence on our efforts here”—she gestured broadly to the room, as if it was representative of all Havensreach—“at least what we’ve learned from Sephone may, in fact, prove useful. ”
“And just what has she taught us?” Elyria asked. “Did she—wait. What did you say?” She tilted her head at Nox. “Before everyone sets off tomorrow? Does that mean—”
“Yes, King Callum just gave his official blessing and—”
“Final-fucking-ly.”
“—you are to leave in the morning.”
Elyria pursed her lips. “Me, but not you?”
Kit squared her shoulders, lowering her voice in a perfect mimicry of Dentarius’ rolling baritone. “It is good for us to maintain a presence here in Kingshelm. For the optics, you see.”
Elyria snorted a laugh. “Oh, but of course.”
Even Nox seemed to be trying to contain a smile. “Lord Jaen thinks it a better use of Kit’s status and his own particular skills to remain here in Kingshelm, as a good faith appeal on our behalf. So the humans don’t feel quite so, how did he put it?”
“Used,” said Kit. “Though, to be frank, I think he’s simply gotten too used to the comforts of the palace. He doesn’t relish the thought of having to rough it on the road.”
“I think it was mention of the caravan that did him in,” Nox mused. “For which I do not blame the man. It is one thing to travel here by gryphon-led carriage. Traipsing through Havensreach on horseback is another entirely.”
“You are so spoiled,” Kit said with another playful whack to Nox’s arm.
“Am I to take it that you are deigning to stay behind as well then, Tenebris?” Elyria asked, her eyes darting between the pair of them, an amused sort of curiosity lifting her brow.
“You’re already having to ride through the human countryside on said horseback in order to keep your profile low. Do you really think traveling with a nocterrian is going to help matters?”
“Fair enough,” said Elyria. “Is it just me, then? I go alone?” The thought had a conflicting clash of emotions stirring in her chest. This is all she’d wanted for weeks—the ability to go after Malchior, free and clear. And yet, the idea of finally, truly, actually leaving . . .
Get your head on straight, Lightbreaker, she told herself. He’s leaving too.
“Did you not hear what I said about the caravan? Do try not to annihilate the messenger when I tell you you’ll have a whole jolly crew of companions.”
Irritation brushed up Elyria’s back, and from Kit’s bed, a soft, annoyed mewl sounded as Sid lifted her head once more. “What exactly does that mean?”
Kit pursed her lips. “Lord Church has assigned a couple of guards to accompany you, Thraigg, Jocelyn, Ollie, and . . .”
Elyria’s fingernails dug into the armrest of the chair. “And?”
“And Sephone and . . . Raefe.”
Shadows pulsed under Elyria’s skin. From the bed, Sid hissed. “No. Absolutely fucking not.”
“We don’t have much of a choice, Ellie. It’s by order of the king.”
“Both kings, really,” added Nox.
Kit nodded. “While Sephone and Raefe were doing their ‘reporting’ in Luminaria, they stumbled upon a lead on the Cult of Malakar.”
That had Elyria’s attention. “I’m listening.”
“They observed cultist activity in the Lost City. Were able to follow a trail to Dawnspire. It’s a small town just on this side of the Chasm. Sephone says that Varyth Malchior himself is rumored to meet with contacts there.”
“How did Lady Tempus get this information, exactly?”
“Shockingly, she wasn’t forthcoming with the particulars. But she showed no signs of lying. And it’s the best lead we’ve had since coming here, Ellie.”
“It’s the only lead we have,” corrected Nox.
Elyria sighed. “Fine. The more the merrier, I suppose, as long as Raefe stays as far the fuck away from me as possible.” Though, she supposed she wouldn’t really mind if he tried something again. The sounds he’d made when choking on her vines in The Sweltering Pig had been a sweet sort of symphony.
“For whatever it’s worth, he seems contrite over his actions,” Nox said, brushing a stray hair out of their eyes and tucking it behind one of their horns.
“Tenebris,” Kit warned, giving them a tight shake of her head.
“I’m only saying. Knowing now what he had done, I don’t begrudge the Revenant for reacting as she did. But had she given him the chance to speak, I do suspect an apology would have been the first words to tumble out of his mouth.”
Elyria scoffed, her fingers twitching over her thighs. “If he did apologize, it would only be because his master demanded it. A man like Raefe does not change his tune so easily.”
“Agreed,” said Kit, her lip curled into a sneer.
“Though Master Tartanis does seem to have already punished him for the role he played. Which does not absolve him of his actions, of course,” she added quickly.
“If I had the power to stop him from going with you, I would. But it would appear that he and Sephone are a package deal, and, again, they’re the ones with the lead on Malchior. ”
Nostrils flaring, Elyria nodded. “Is Shep staying here with you then? You didn’t name him as part of our ‘jolly crew.’ ”
Kit and Nox exchanged a look. “King Callum has asked Young Shep to accompany the other mission.”
“What other mi—Oh.” The reminder of Cedric’s own imminent departure felt like a swift kick to the gut.
“Given their destination, the king thought it wise to send a sylvan along with Sir Thorne and Sir Hale.” Kit bit her lip.
“It’s a good thing, Ellie. It means they might be able to get through to the sylvans more easily, might convince them of their help to locate the princess, to recover the other half of the crown more quickly. ”
Elyria exhaled through her nose, rolling her shoulders back. “Did I say it wasn’t a good thing? It’s great. It’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Why indeed?” Nox said, suddenly swirling a glass of something dark and fragrant in their indigo hands.
They took a sip before tutting at Sid, who had resettled in a new position directly on top of Kit’s pillow, shadows trailing off her small body like wisps of smoke.
“Let us worry about the logistics of preparing for tomorrow. I suggest you spend the rest of the day working on replicating whatever you did to finally be able to walk through the shadows to us.”
Elyria blinked slowly, the nocterrian’s words sparking a seed of realization within her.
Holy shit. I shadowstepped.