“You need to breathe, Kaiden,” Eris said somewhere behind me. “I know you’re angry. We all are. But you’re going to need to center yourself before we find her. If she sees you like this?—”
“She’ll understand,” I hissed back at him. “If he’s done anything to her… If he so much astouchedher… I swear to the gods, I’ll?—”
My voice came to a halt as muffled voices began to rise.
Throwing my hand up, I stopped, as did Eris, quickly pressing my back into the wall. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I recognized one of the voices. It came fromhim.
Before I knew it, my shadows tickled my ankles as they swirled down my legs and misted the floor. I could feel my vision fading, distorting as my darkness begged to take over.
“Breathe, Kaiden,” Eris reminded me. “He could be bonded to her.”
Bonded.“He wouldn’t have…” I tried convincing myself.
“He would.”
You know he did.
It took everything in me not to black out from the thought alone. But I wrangled in my shadows and stepped away from the wall. “If he isn’t bonded to her, I’m killing him,” I tossed over my shoulder, walking quickly as the voices grew louder.
“I’ll help you,” he promised.
The tunnel began to brighten as we approached a room lit by torches. I took one more staggering breath before turning and stopping still at the entrance. My breath caught in my lungs as I stared into the large, cavernous room with a small throne at the head of it. Near that throne, the voices halted, and I locked eyes with a tall, green-eyed monster that caused the shadows to hiss beneath my skin. Beside him stood a blonde man, hair a little longer than Dez’s, staring in shock as he took in both me and Eris.
“Shit…” Cain breathed.
Just as the two turned to run, I threw a hand up, sending my shadows toward them. They wrapped around the blonde one like black, poisonous vines, locking his feet in place and binding him to the ground. Cain had already made it a few feet when my darkness reached him, slamming his body against the wall and curling around his neck.
“You look surprised, Cain!” I yelled into the empty space, my voice bellowing against the hollow room. “Were you not expecting us?”
Eris and I walked toward them. He made a beeline to Cain, most likely to make sure I didn’t kill him right then and there. But I stopped in front of the blonde man, who stared at me with eyes that held far too little fear for my liking.
“How did… you…” Cain gargled against my shadows as they choked him, leaving just enough room for little gasps of air.
“We found Rosina’s diary.” Eris began explaining to him what we read—how we realized exactly where to look for him. Then, about the seer that led us here.
But as he spoke, I couldn’t stop staring at the man who stood before me, wondering why he looked so much better off than the rest we had encountered. “What’s your name?” I asked him.
With a smug smirk that didn’t belong on his face, he answered, “Aamon.”
Aamon.
I could sense power from him; it radiated off of his body in deep waves. It took a few seconds for me to pinpoint what it was.A mind renderer.As I opened my mouth to speak, a strange sound stopped me. It was a… creaking of sorts. Quick and quiet, but just enough to distract me from my thoughts.
“Where is she?” Eris demanded.
“I don’t… I don’t… know…”
My shadows trembled as he struggled in my grasp, trying to break free.
But there was that damned creaking again.What is that sound?
Aamon’s smirk grew a little, the corner of his lips quirking up. “Shewashere, My Lord,” he said quietly, “in this very room at one point, actually.”
Darkness slid up his body, curling around his neck, but not constricting quite yet. “Where. Is. She?”
Aamon didn’t move—didn’t even recoil from my power. “We’ve been searching for her, too. She disappeared just a few hours ago.”
I allowed the darkness to tighten slightly, a sliver of unease shining in Aamon’s eyes in response, but he didn’t drop the cocky act just yet.
