Chapter 5 Summer Once More #3
A susurrus arose, and with it, Marcus staggered to a halt, all the fight going out of him. Only his grip remained on Elana’s arm, his fingers pressing hard into her skin, bruising for certain.
The hissing wind trailed through the streets and alleys of the village, and it seemed as though every person at the festival was compelled to a stop, the only motion a confused seeking with their heads. What was the sound? Where was it coming from and what did it mean?
“Marcus,” choked Elana, “let go, please, you’re hurting me.”
The hissing became a moan, and several people nearby hitched their cloaks up over their heads to protect from the icy temperature and sudden sound. The moan became a roar, panic swelling through the villagers’ voices, until suddenly the whole village was plunged into darkness.
Screams filled the streets and bodies crashed against Elana and Marcus, and somewhere in the fray he lost his grip on her arm. Elana nearly sobbed with relief, but she could not because she was still trapped in a stampede of fear, within which nobody could see anything.
But that wasn’t quite true. Where she had originally seen only darkness, the relief of shadows started to grow to Elana’s eyes, until she could differentiate shades and layers, and she staggered to a halt as she realized that all the darkness seemed to be emanating from one single place.
She staggered that way, running toward the source, her hand clamping her shadow crown on top of her head securely. And there, a single street away from the bonfire, was a familiar figure.
The source of the pandemonium was Nessa, and she stood, swaying, shadows pouring off her like steam from a boiling pot.
Elana watched the darkness flooding from her, draining from her fingertips and running from her hair as Nessa stood with her head thrown back and her mouth wide.
Shadows pooled in her open mouth and spilled from her lips, shadows ran from her eyes like black tears.
And when Elana thought Nessa’s darkness would fill the whole valley and drown them like an ocean, Nessa brought her head up and looked at Elana.
She wanted to run to Nessa, to throw her arms around her and sob her relief. But something held her back. Was this the Nessa she had grown to know and love? Or was this the monster who had slaughtered a dozen people and changed the history of this valley for a century?
The two stood staring at each other for a heartbeat longer as chaos rained around them. And then, when Elana swore she would burst with anticipation, Nessa spoke.
“Let them have them all back,” she rasped. “All the shadows I’ve eaten for all of eternity mean nothing if I cannot share them with you.”
Elana closed the distance between them and hurled herself against Nessa, their mouths meeting in a desperate kiss, the taste of shadows on Elana’s tongue filling her with a frantic energy, with a fullness she hadn’t felt since Marcus had torn the two apart.
There were so many questions. Where had Nessa been? How was she here now? What did giving back the shadows mean for the village, for the valley?
But the questions would have to wait. Screams erupted from behind them as the few people who still had their wits about them realized what was happening.
But before anyone could make sense of it, a figure wreathed in flame ran howling and staggering from the bonfire, a human torch.
It crashed into a nearby market stall, which collapsed under the fiery assault, the fabric of the stall’s awning blazing into a crescendo of firelight.
Darkness still covered the village, the only exception being the places where the fire kissed.
It was as though every shadow Nessa had ever eaten was pooled over the town itself.
The market stall caught the one next to it, and the dry heat of high summer caused the fire to blaze down the main street.
An icy wind chased the fire onward, urging it toward the temple.
Elana saw her mother. “Get the children,” she screamed, “and get away!”
Mama didn’t need to be told twice. She ran, gathering her skirts and calling for Luc, for Josephine, for the twins, for Papa.
She didn’t call for Marcus. He was a man now, and had made his own decisions.
A decision that seemed to include coming back for Elana, despite the fiery disaster that blazed through the town.
“You would do this to us?” he shouted above the roar of the fire. “You would damn us all for your disgusting love?”
“This village damned itself when it decided to meet a difference with assault and captivity. Nessa has proven over the past year that she can exist alongside us without causing harm. You need to let go of your grudges. You need to change.”
“You are fundamentally wrong!” Sweat gleamed on Marcus’s forehead, his eyes crazed in the firelight. “That thing ruined everything, changed everything. It must be stopped!”
He charged toward Nessa as though he could single handedly destroy her.
The darkness around her seemed to thicken somehow, and the wind coursed from her, black and cold. Marcus staggered to a stop.
“Get out, now,” Nessa urged. “The town is burning.” As if in agreement, a beam from a nearby building crashed to the ground, sending a tower of sparks into the sky to dance with the stars. More screams followed.
“And it’s your fault!” Marcus yelled.
“I cannot stop it now,” said Nessa sadly, shaking her head. “We can only save those who will run.”
Up the street, the fire caught the dry shrubs at the temple walk. Sparks jumped from brush to brush, and within seconds, the fire was at the temple doors.
“No,” breathed Marcus. “No!” He ran toward the temple as the fire closed the street behind him.
“Marcus!” cried Elana.
“We have to leave,” urged Nessa, grabbing Elana’s hand. Her fingers did not bruise like Marcus’s; instead, they were cool and insistent.
Elana’s skin blazed hot as the fire neared. The smell of burning hair and flesh invaded her nostrils, choking her.
“The fire is headed straight for the temple. We have to go this way.” Nessa tugged her into a side street, opposite of the way the fire had gone.
Dazed, Elana followed. As she went, shadows seemed to cling to Nessa, a trail of darkness gathering behind them as they went. “Come on,” she urged Elana, “it’s a bit of a walk.”
Elana was barely aware of the landscape passing, of the wildflowers gilded in moonlight.
They passed her home, not near to it but near enough to see the lights within burning.
Elana tried to count the people she saw moving through the windows; she was fairly certain all were present and accounted for.
All except Marcus.
She shoved thoughts of Marcus into a quiet room in her mind and heaved the door closed. She couldn’t think about him now. She was so tired; she had to think about getting to safety.
“Where are we going?” she asked Nessa.
“Somewhere safe,” she replied.
Soon the forest appeared before them, and Nessa wove them deftly between trees until the sound of the waterfall erased the memory of the sound of fire and screaming.
Elana’s exhausted mind was playing tricks on her. It seemed as though the waterfall was pounding down the mountainside and then simply… disappearing.
“What have you…” she tried, and then shook her head. “Where is it…” but she couldn’t complete the thought. The vision before her simply didn’t make sense.
Nessa smiled, gently guiding Elana into the darkness. She slid her fingers through the empty space, parting it like a drape of fabric, and guided Elana inside. “It’s not much,” said Nessa, “but it’s all I have for now.”
She had made a home of shadows. It was true that there wasn’t much here, just a space that anyone else would have a hard time finding. Just a bed of moss. Just a blanket of darkness.
But to Elana, in that moment, it was safety. “It’s like a palace of shadows,” she murmured.
Nessa reached up, gently running a finger along Elana’s shadow crown. “I do hope it’s fit for a queen of darkness?” she asked, her brown knitting with faint apprehension. “Did I… did I do right?”
Elana clenched her fists as her bottom lip found its way between her teeth. Tears stung her eyes. “Nothing has ever felt more right than I feel when I’m with you.”
She stumbled then, and Nessa only barely caught her. “Are you hurt?” Nessa cried, supporting Elana in a gentle fall onto the moss. She began running her hands over Elana’s limbs, checking for bruises, cuts, or anything worse.
Elana shivered at the attention. She let Nessa touch her for a long time before she answered. “The only thing that really hurt was not being near you.”
Nessa’s face softened. “Do you mean that?”
“Nessa,” Elana whispered. “My shadow grew when I was with you. I have a darkness in me also, I told you from the first time we met.”
Nessa moved down Elana’s body to her feet, pulling off her filthy cloth slippers and lifting her skirt. Within the cocoon of shadows Nessa had created, there was no light, so she stood and parted the darkness again, letting a sliver of moonlight fall across Elana’s legs.
There, sure as the sunrise itself, Elana’s legs cast a shadow of a darker shade than those around her. She faintly kicked one leg up, and the long, narrow shadow of it danced against the rocks and moss.
Nessa’s teeth glinted darkly in the moonlight, and Elana swallowed. “Will you eat it?” she whispered.
Nessa ran her hands up Elana’s soft skin and gathered the silken fibers of shadow, winding them around her fingers. The sensation sent chillbumps over Elana’s legs and torso and a stab of longing through her core.
“No,” answered Nessa. “For you did, at last, bring me into town.”
Elana’s eyebrows shot up. It was true; when she called for Nessa, she had fulfilled the third task.