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The shadow's screams drew the attention of those still in the clearing, and shouts and hollers sounded as the collared mages and wolf shifters finally saw us.
"Ignore him," called out Lady's Frexin's familiar voice. "Finish loading the ship before they arrive."
Lady Frexin, with her familiar hat, moved toward me, removing her glove. She wavered in my vision — first one person, then two, then one again.
"Where is Kaiya?" I called out, voice hoarse, over the shrieks of my shadow.
Lady Frexin cocked a brow and bent to touch the ground. Her fingers dug in, and at first nothing happened … then the ground began to pop and crack, forming a strange wave of stone and dust as it approached me.
A loud shriek drew my wavering attention to the shadow monster, and my skin burned as it yanked me into the sky. I stared as massive black wings of shadows broke from my back, sending massive gusts of wind down — keeping me above the strange magical wave of destruction.
I tried to speak — to push it back. I had to get back to Kaiya!
But the monster had control … was this what happened when it took over?
Lady Frexin's eyes narrowed below me as she took her ungloved hand off the ground and stood back up.
"I was not aware you could use your shadow beast like that." She tsked. "Nor was I aware that you Rogues knew of my powers. How unfortunate."
A pang of fear shot through me as I realized what her words meant.
If she knew I was a Rogue, she likely knew Dimiri was, as well. And saints knew who else!
And what was this crazy stone void magic she was wielding? My brain spun with all the ramifications.
Fuck! How could this get any worse?
Frexin tilted her head to the side. "Then again, I don't suppose you could feign that surprise with as much pain as you have to be in … perhaps you Rogues do still have your heads in the sand. Well, it doesn't really matter either way. Kaiya is alive on my ship, and you — well you don't look like you have much time left at all."
Fear and rage swelled in me as the shadow monster pulled us higher.
"If you hurt her, I will kill you," I growled, struggling against the strange wings.
"You know, if you were here maybe an hour earlier, I might have worried about your threat." She shrugged. "But from the look of you now, I think you're about out of time."
Out of time …
The words echoed in my mind as the truth filtered in.
I — I felt fine. The pain was gone. I —
Oh saints! Where had all the pain gone?
I lifted my hands and stared down, panic making my heart race. Instead of the familiar pale Fae skin I'd worn for the last twenty-eight years, I was met with the charred, cracking flesh of a burned corpse.
No … no!
Fear flooded me, and the wings wavered … and then I was falling. The ground rose to meet me, and I hit hard.
Hard enough that I should be screaming from the agony of broken bones.
But I felt nothing below my neck …
Terrified, I looked down to see the exposed skin of my legs and torso were also charred. They wouldn't move, and the black fire had moved on, that fucking shadow monster steadily working its black flame up my chest and neck.
Fuck! I was dying! This was it.
"Please, Frexin," I said, voice ragged. "Please don't hurt her."
