“Yes. But was it not reluctant?”
Elyria’s fingers twitched, her jaw clenching. “So?”
“So, nothing. I’m merely an interested observer. One who knew you were something special from the second they hauled you into that cell back in Coralith.”
“What were you doing in that jail anyway?” Elyria asked, eager to derail the track that this conversation was currently on.
The nocterrian ignored her question. “I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was then, but therewassomething. And now I know. It was that shadow of yours, talking to mine.”
Elyria didn’t know what to say to that.
Nox released a long breath. “I can’t think of the last time I met a non-nocterrian nightwielder.” Elyria caught a flash of white fangs, evidence of some amusing thought flitting through their mind, before they went on to say, “Finding you out here almost feels like it was designed by Noctis himself.”
“Out here?”
“So far from Nocterrum.”
Elyria made a noncommittal noise. “Many of us shadow-wielding fae running around your homeland then, are there?”
“No,” they said. “There are not.”
Whatever amusement might have been there before had been entirely chased away by a look so suddenly serious that it made Elyria want to immediately avert her gaze.
“Yes, well”—she cleared her throat—“speaking of Noctis, I’m guessing you’re about to tell me that I should be calling on the Warden of Shadows now, given my new magical affinity?”
They huffed. “I couldn’t possibly care less who you pray to. Though, your powers are hardly new, are they?”
“Did your shadows tell you that?”
They shrugged.
“Show me,” she said. It wasn’t a command, not exactly, but it wasn’t a question either. If Tenebris Nox was going to continue giving her shit about her own shadows, it was more than fair to ask for another demonstration of the nocterrian’s power.
Nox’s mouth tipped up on one side as they raised a hand, pulling a shadow from the wall. Unlike the misty tendrils or sharp ribbons that Elyria’s shadows seemed to prefer corporealizing as, Nox’s was more like...a mist. It wasn’t a wholly separate thing from the actual shadow where it began—simply a space the light failed to reach. But that space expanded, grew, and widened. It felt half like an invitation to see what lay within, and half a warning to stay as far away as possible.
“Fascinating,” Elyria said, lifting her hand as if totouch the shadowy mist as it crept closer. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it slunk back, folding into itself. She barely had time to blink before Nox’s shadow was gone—or at least, returned to its original state—once again nothing more than a pocket full of absence.
“I findyoufascinating,” Tenebris replied.
Elyria’s neck prickled with irritation, the thin thread of her patience fraying. She recognized that it wasn’t a wholly rational reaction. She probably should have been excited by the nocterrian’s attention. Hadn’t she just been thinking how she wished to know more about her power? Well, here was a bona fide expert, a nightwielder who’d already expressed an understanding of the very magic she needed to learn about.
But she was not some specimen for them to be fascinated by. She’d spent enough of her life under the watchful eyes of others. And she just needed the space and time to start untangling her feelings from her magic.
Time she didn’t have, and space she wouldn’t get. Not in here.
“What is it that you want, Nox?” she asked, coming to a stop and turning to face them.
“What doyouwant, Revenant?” they asked in return. “Why do you keep holding back?”
“Leave it alone,” Elyria warned. “Whatever you may claim to know?—”
“I know more than you think,” Nox interrupted, their voice dropping to a whisper. The shadows around them seemed to flicker and grow darker as they spoke. “I could help you. We’re not so different, you and I. I know?—”
Elyria took a step forward, her own darkness rippling at the edges of her vision. “Youthinkyou know. Everyonethinksthey know so much about the mighty Revenant. You don’t.”
“Don’t I?” Their magic surged again, swirling around them like a cloak. Itpulsed, as if the shadow had a heartbeat of its own, as if it meant to cross the space between Nox and Elyria and weave itself over her.
Expecting exactly that, Elyria braced herself. Her heart racing, she waited for the cold grip of Nox’s power to blanket her, to tighten around her, to squeeze the breath from her lungs.
