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Corvus smiles dully as we approach. He isn’t alone; I look at his companion and have to bite my lip to stop myself from making a horrified expression.
What the fuck is Edgar doing with him?
He’s been holed up in the Nova House since the incident at the lake, avoiding everyone except his buddies. He even turned Terra away when she tried to reconcile with him.
He’s like a shell of himself. The very thing Corvus described his Shadow as.
“Edgar, what brings you here?” I say as neutrally as I can.
Edgar’s light brown wisps of hair curl at the bottom of his ears and cover most of his brows. He looks me up and down with a blank expression. Those emerald eyes are far more sinister than they were before. His skin is pale and the darkness beneath his eyes is nearly maroon, as if he has makeup on. Just looking at him has my skin crawling with goosebumps.
I shudder under his fractured gaze—eyes filled with so much pain and anguish. He’s no longer Terra’s brother and I don’t think he’s ever coming back. I’m not sure he’d want to if he could see himself clearly.
His voice is raspy as he says, “We found something you need to see.”
Okay, what the fuck?
I look at Corvus for clarity and he mutters, “We think we’ve found the second exam’s portal and believe it leads to Fernestia.”
Kai shifts on his feet uneasily. “I know we’re trying to uncover things here, but I don’t think we should go through it.” Kai’s voice trembles with apprehension.
Corvus and Edgar raise their brows as if they can’t believe what he just said.
Kai goes on: “We have no idea what’s behind it… That would be incredibly stupid.” His voice is sullen and I perk my head up at the sound of it. Each time Kai becomes serious like this it makes my chest seize. I don’t want to think of death and how imminent it is for all of us.
How unfair it is.
I remember a friend’s last smile, but not their face. It still infects my mind like a drug. It’s not fair. We can’t even properly remember our lost friends. I’ve asked myself a thousand times why our Shadows devour their memories, their faces, but there are no answers. Laphia won’t tell me why.
I don’t want to forget any more of them.
Corvus and Edgar are right. We need to figure out what’s really going on here so we can all live and possibly retake Heirah someday. The fun and whimsy of learning the magic of the Shadows is just a ruse—a stupid ploy to keep us all busy while the Fernestians raise us for the inevitable slaughter.
“Kai.” I rest my hand on his shoulder. “Let’s at least go look.” Corvus and Edgar nod in agreement. Kai gives me a painful stare filled with betrayal and something that seems a bit more sorrowful. He just lets his head drop and looks away from us all with a curt nod.
“Good. Now that we’re all on the same page”—Corvus takes a few steps closer to the window—“let’s go.”
I frown. Why do I have a really bad feeling about this?
The four of us make our way through Alkrose to a part of the castle that I’ve never been to before. The walls draw closer together. They’re older here, built in a different time, or perhaps Alkrose was built over the remains of an existing castle. The stones are covered in discolored blotches and the smell of mildew fills my senses. The natural light from the more familiar hallways fades and I create a small flame in my palm to light our way from this point on.
We follow Corvus down a maze of hallways and finally come upon an immense stairwell that spirals down into an abyss of darkness. The stone stairs cling to the circular skeleton of the tower around a hollow center. My flames can’t even cast enough light to use the steps safely, the darkness cloaks the area so heavily.
“Gods, how did you find this place?” Kai shivers beside me. Goosebumps spread across my arms and I hesitantly swallow. It’s disturbing and creepy in this part of the castle.
I make the flame in the center of my palm bigger so the four of us can see one another’s faces. “I don’t think we should go farther. This doesn’t feel safe,” I mutter, studying their expressions.
Corvus has a smirk plastered across his lips and Edgar’s looking down the abyss of stairs with this blank stare.
“It’s fine, Edgar, show them.” Corvus’s dark eyes glint in the dim light and the ominous feeling sneaks back into my chest.
Edgar starts down the stairwell, reaching his hand to the curved wall on his right. My eyes widen with awe. As his fingers glide across the dark stones, a path of light spreads over them and flows out in every direction, as if the light itself is devouring the darkness. It peels the shadows from the space like dust lifting into the air. Kai gasps and I realize I do too.
Kai beats me to say it. “How the fuck are you doing that? What is Edgar’s power? I haven’t come across this in my studies,” he mutters more to himself than to us. His voice is distrustful.
“Darkness itself,” Edgar mutters from below. I flinch. Darkness? What the fuck does that mean? Looking back at the brightening stairwell, I realize it’s not that the darkness is being lifted into the air, more that it’s being consumed. Edgar’s consuming the dark… For what purpose?
My stomach twists uncomfortably.
