RESCUE
KIT
The shadows spatthem out at the edge of a stars-damned cliff.
Kit staggered as her boots met damp grass, her stomach catching up with the rest of her body after the gut-wrenching sensation of shadowstepping. She doubled over, sucking in breath after breath, willing the nausea to pass.
“This is so embarrassing,” she said with a groan. “It isn’t fair that I’m the only one affected by this.”
“Are you sure about that?” Elyria said, casting her eyes to the knight standing beside her. Cedric was upright and steady on his feet, but Kit supposed his face had paled a bit. He looked...queasy. And when he exhaled, his shouldersdropped several inches.
“Forgive me for not having adjusted to the feeling of the entire world being ripped out from under me time and time again.” Cedric braced his hands on his hips. “I can’t decide which is worse—this or flying.”
Elyria grinned. “You’ve shadowstepped more than I have at this point. You should be an old pro at it.”
“I do not think that being brought along for the ride and walking through the shadows yourself offer the same general experience.”
“I’m with the knightling,” said Kit, her face still twisted in a grimace.
“So, that is Seastone?” Tenebris Nox’s voice carried over the group as they turned and gazed down upon the estate. It loomed below them, perched on a flat stretch of rocky land, seemingly carved from the same slate-gray stone as the cliff they stood on.
From this vantage, Kit could see it all: The stark battlements and flat, near-windowless walls that made up the main structure, evenly lit by the overcast sky. The two rounded towers that rose, high and narrow, on either side—an east and west wing. There were no flowering gardens or sprawling courtyards here. No light, no warmth. Just more stretches of gray—like even the ground between the outer walls and the inner keep had been drained of their color.
It seemed more like a fortress ready for siege than a noble lord’s home. Then again, what did Kit know? Some of these humans did act like they expected an Arcanian invasion at any moment.
As if we are the ones to fear.
Kit’s blue and green eyes were wide as they roamed past the estate to the black void of the Chasm lying several hundred yards beyond. Its endless drop was framed by silvery mist that pooled along the edges, creeping back toward Seastone.
“This is where you grew up?” Elyria slipped her hand into Cedric’s, her voice soft.
He gave a tight nod, his throat bobbing.
A gust of wind knifed through the group, snapping at Kit’s cloak and raising goosebumps along her skin. She wrapped her arms across her chest. “Honestly, if I’d grown up with that view, I would probably hate heights too.”
Cedric loosed a dark laugh. “You’d think if anything, it would’ve had the opposite effect. I should be used to it.”
“I cannot believe this was yourhome,” Elyria said.
He paused, a deep line forming between his brows. “I suppose it never really was.” The sudden sadness in his eyes twisted at Kit’s heart. He blinked rapidly, like he was trying to clear an unwanted vision. “For one thing, this place certainly wasn’t built for comfort. It was built to last.”
“Or built for secrecy.” Elyria’s gaze ran across the heavy iron gate taunting them from the middle of the front wall.
“Yes, well, I suppose now we understand why that is,” he said.
Kit shivered. “Whatever would possess a person to live on the edge of the Chasm like this?”
“Seastone came first,” Cedric said. “It just so happened that when Queen Daephinia?—”
“Your grandmother,” Kit interjected, and he gave another one of his curt nods. She was admittedly still having a bit of trouble accepting the fact that the knightling was mixedborn, let alone descended from stars-damned Arcanian royalty. She squinted, tilting her head to one side as she looked at his thoroughly normal, human-looking face.
Not bad,she thought.Perfectly fine. But nothing special. Nothing unique.He wasn’t even the prettiest human she’d laid eyes on. That honor went to?—
Kit’s gaze finished raking over Cedric’s features before flicking to Elyria, whose own eyes were narrowed in suspicion. Kit flashed an apologetic smile.
Cedric cleared his throat. “Yes, when my—when Daephinia sundered the land and split Arcanis in three, the eastern Chasm happened to run through right here. My understanding is that it swallowed more than half of the surrounding village when it happened.”
“I don’t see a village,” Kit said, brow creasing.
