It was late enough that lights were out in most of the homes, and no one saw us passing as we turned down a narrow path into the woods. Branches snagged my clothing and I almost tripped a few times, but I continued barreling forward, not wanting Crispin to face whatever was ahead alone.
I distantly noted the sound of running water, then Crispin stopped so abruptly I ran into his back.
“Ow,” I groaned, holding onto him so I wouldn’t fall over. Once I was steady, I stepped away, then up to his side.
A stream trickled black as night ahead of us, wisps of darkness rising from the water. Even in the middle of the night, the darkness was solid enough for me to differentiate it from everything else.
“It was me.” Crispin’s breath fogged the night air. “I was the one who let the darkness into this realm with my departure. I left from the capital, butthisis not in the capital.”
“Then why do you think it was you?” I whispered as if the shadows might overhear.
“This—” he audibly swallowed. “This was my favorite place as a boy.”
“But how could the darkness know that?” I watched the dark mist rising from the stream. A wisp of it might have been checking me out, but it didn’t seem concerned that we were now checkingitout instead.
“I don’t know. But it has to be connected.”
I shook my head. “Even if it came through your pathway, you didn’t make the shadows. This isn’t your fault.”
A gurgling, popping sound drew my attention back to the water, which was starting to bubble up like black oil. Onemoment it was calm, then the next it started flooding the banks, rushing toward us.
Crispin swept his arm back, moving me out of the way as the darkness formed into what I could only describe as a monster, not a forest creature like I had expected given our previous experience.
Crispin withdrew his hand from me, aiming both palms at the monster with a blinding flash of moonlight, but the darkness barely hesitated. It reared over us, turning back into something viscous and shapeless, like a tidal wave of oil about to crash onto our heads.
“Eva!” Crispin shouted, grabbing my hands and aiming them at the wave of black.
It crashed into us, but as soon as my hands made contact, I started absorbing it. I was lost in a moment of dizzying darkness where I couldn’t think or breathe, then it was over. The last hint of darkness disappeared into my hands. Unsettling emotions bubbled in my chest, not having anything to do with what I was thinking or feeling.
I swayed on my feet, dizzy and unable to push the strange feeling away.
“Eva.” I felt Crispin’s arms around me, then my feet were off the ground and I was being carried.
My last thought before losing consciousness was that the darkness was something more than we thought. It wasn’t just wild magic. There was emotion within it, and all of that had gone into me. But I couldn’t quite explain what it had been feeling. All I knew was that it had crossed paths with Crispin, and that was enough for it to go to the place he’d loved most when he was a child.
16
Something was dripping rivulets of cold water down my forehead and into my hair, threatening to wake me out of a dreamless sleep.
Whatever it was lifted and dripped water onto my closed eyelids. Yep. There it was. Awake now.
I squinted upward at Crispin holding a damp washcloth midair as he watched my eyes opening. He set the washcloth aside, then felt the side of my neck with his palm. “Thank goodness. I was beginning to think you’d be out all night.”
I blinked a few times, realizing it was lamplight gilding one side of his face and not regular electricity. “Still the same night?” I croaked.
“Yes. It’s only been about an hour.”
Tension I’d woken with eased out of me. I felt bad enough making the other guys worry for one night. I would be apologizing forever if it went on for more.
“Do you want to sit up?” he asked.
I thought about it, started to shake my head, then winced. I wasn’t exactly comfortable. I was pretty sure he’d just piled up fresh blankets on the ground to make a little nest for me. I was glad he knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t have liked to bebundled up in his mother’s bed. Or maybe he was the one who wouldn’t have liked it.
Either way, I’d take the floor. Even if my head was currently killing me.
“All the darkness is gone?”
Crispin’s eyes shuttered. “It would seem so.”
