“Please, stand,” Damien says. “Be at ease.”
Warbill stands but a slight tremble blights his hands, and his skin hangs off his bones. Shades are hard to kill and don’t age like humans. Warbill’s appearance is symptomatic of long-term starvation.
“Is there a safe place we can talk?” I ask in a whisper.
Warbill nods. “Safer than here. Although, I’m afraid no place on Tenebris is truly safe for any of us anymore, most especially you, my lady.”
Damien clears his throat. “Not your lady, your queen,” he corrects. Warbill does a double take, and my cheeks grow hot under his scrutiny. “A witch priestess in Dimhollow wed us before New Stygarde descended on the village.”
“My fealty is yours, my queen.” Placing a hand over hisheart, Warbill starts to kneel again, and I am quick to stop him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Please. You said there was a place to talk.”
He nods and gestures for us to follow him into the woods.
Without a trail to guide us, we have to stay close as the tightly spaced trees drown out the moon, and the thick undergrowth makes me wish I could easily shift into shadow form to navigate them. But then, even if I could, Borus and Romulus, who follow single file behind Damien and me, could not. Warbill appears to be too weak to shift anyway. Which leaves us picking our way through the forest in familiar, human fashion.
The minutes tick by in silence until we reach a break in the trees and a small log cabin comes into view. A curl of smoke rises from the chimney, cutting a path through the glow of the moon. Inside, firelight penetrates the darkness. Hearth and home. A cozy cabin to starve in.
Warbill opens the door. “You’ll never guess who I found lurking in the cemetery,” he says to someone inside. A graying head pokes out the door.
“Ariadne!” I gasp. The dressmaker rushes out to me, and we embrace, before Damien pulls her into his arms, his eyes full of tears. “We thought you were dead! Your shop?—”
“After years of oppression at the hands of New Stygarde, building a secret passageway out of Ariadne’s seemed worth the investment. Warbill and I tried to help the others, but most were too weak to shift. The two of us barely made it here.”
Damien recovers from the shock of finding her aliveand turns to me, his expression grave. “A protective ward?”
I nod. “And a stag,” I suggest back to him at the sight of Ariadne, whose bones I can count through her pale skin.
“You’ll find no stags near here,” Warbill says. “New Stygarde drove off the herd in their efforts to starve us. Nothing but vespers—and only if you’re lucky enough to find one of the few that remain.”
I shake my head at Brahm and Nevina’s cruelty and then call Phantom. I don’t have to open my mouth, just reach for the bond, and they arrive. The colossal white dragon forms in the clearing and lowers their head to look at me. A noise comes from deep within Ariadne’s throat, and she lurches back into the cabin, eyes ever wider. From inside, Warbill looks just as shaken.
“It’s all right,” I say, trying my best to comfort them. “This is Phantom. They’re my familiar. They won’t hurt you.”
Eyes bulging, Warbill clears his throat before asking, “They?”
“Um, the body of this dragon contains more than one soul, both male and female.”
Warbill mumbles, “Oh.” But his expression remains confused.
I rest my hands on either side of Phantom’s snout. “We need a stag. The largest one you can find. These people are hungry.”
The dragon smiles a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth, each as long as I am tall. “You can count on us,” the beast says in my grandmother’s voice. “Grandpa Henry was one hell of a huntsman, if he does say so himself. We won’t let you down.”
I kiss the scales of their snout. “Thank you. Careful no one sees you.”
“Of course, my dear.” They spread their wings and shoot into the sky, disappearing the moment they break the tree line.
“Goddess bless us all,” Ariadne says breathlessly. “You’ve tamed the dragon! I always thought she was a myth.”
“They,” I correct. “They are an extension of my spirit magic.”
Damien adds, “My queenisthe dragon.” The love and admiration in his eyes are almost too much to bear.
“Well, come in,” Warbill says. “It sounds like you have a story to tell, and I’m afraid we do too, one I wish we didn’t have to.”
With a nod, Damien moves toward the door, his hand settling on my cheek as the others pad deeper into the cabin. “Do you need to wait until Phantom returns to lay the wards?”
