Page 104 of Taken By Shadows

Their magic was crushing me to the point of collapse. I felt like rabid wolves were gnawing on my body, their teeth grinding into the chalky surface of my bones.

Black shards sliced through the air, and the soldiers who held me were gripped by bands of darkness.

“Release her.” His voice echoed around me. Soldiers’ cries, metal, and crackles of magic sounded all at once. My ears were ringing until everything sounded like the resonance of a bell tolling, all bleeding together and impossible to focus on any one thing.

Vega bucked, his hooves gouging crescent moons into the earth.

The black bands around the soldiers tightened as Kaed’s fist flexed, but the soldiers didn’t release me. If anything, their magic poured deeper, entombing me.

I saw it in his eyes then. The cold dark of what he was holding back. What he would do.

I shook my head. If he killed them, there would be no coming back.

“Kaed …” I rasped. “Don’t—I can’t—”

His magic was pushing the soldiers to cloister me in, not release me.

“Your actions will determine her outcome,” someone informed him from the horde of soldiers.

I heard a rumble of thunder come from Kaed’s chest.

There was a pause.

My breath struggled in my ribcage.

With a single lithe movement, he dismounted Vega and raised his hands as casually as he could manage with that power thrumming beneath the surface.

The darkness rippled around him, but he held it at bay.

He looked at me, his jaw set in a punishing line. I thought for a moment he might still do it. Might still kill every one of them here.

A filament, a nearly imperceptible thread of shadow caressed my cheek. I looked to Kaed, and it vanished as quickly as it had reached out.

I felt his magic retreat.

Entirely.

And then the power that had been crushing me receded until my breath moved in me again.

A dozen guards closed in around Kaed before I could get to him.

“Kneel. Hands behind your back.” A guard with gloved hands approached with the same manacles from the Cage.

“Wait, no! What are you doing?” I tried to push past them, but a hand on my shoulder held me.

“This doesn’t concern you, my lady,” another anonymous voice tolled.

I tried to push past the guards again, but more gripped me. “No! It does! It’s my fault. This is about the city arrest? It’s my fault. Kaedian followed me out there. I don’t understand. He’s back now.”

“Imogen.” Kaed’s voice steadied me as I looked at him. “Go. Now. Find Denora.”

“On your knees,” the guard demanded. “And hold her.”

I was immobilised by gruff hands.

“You said you’d let her go.” He pushed against the guards who held him.

Someone else spoke then, their voice like molasses as it cloyed its way over me. “I said nothing of the sort. I said your actions would determine what happened to her.” A wicked grin corrupted his features as he looked to Kaed.