Page 111 of Taken By Shadows

“He killed hundreds of Aurorans that night.” A solemn look filled his eyes. “And not just Aurorans. My parents … I am the last of my family.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, but it did nothing to ease the spasm in my chest.

Eryk’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“That can’t be true.” I knew it was true. Somehow. I just didn’t want to believe it.

The Auroran book Eryk gave me now held a different meaning.

A book he enjoyed.

One he wanted me to read. To see the beauty of a city and people that had been destroyed by the male who would hold my hand in marriage. Or at least that’s what Eryk believed. Regardless of what Eryk thought I was to Kaed, or he to me, he had wanted me to see the truth of the Aurorans before their destruction by the Northern Crown.

“I wish it weren’t.” I knew Eryk was speaking of the people who had been lost that night and not about Kaed.

“The fires burned my people in their homes along with the Auroran soldiers. Your prince knelt in the ashes and mud and watched it all.”

My head moved as my eyes swam.

No. No. No …

But it wasn’t fear of Kaed that filled me as Eryk’s eyes fell heavy as he turned to leave again. It was sorrow. To take that much life, to carry it with you …

It didn’t change what I felt about Kaed, even if I wasn’t sure what that was. It just felt like a weight I now carried too. Kaed carried burdens he never spoke about. He carried the burden of his father and his crown.

He carried the burden of everyone’s hate.

And he had carried the burden of my actions today. If I hadn’t left, he wouldn’t be in this mess. He wouldn’t be caged.

Even if Kaed had been acting under his father’s orders, he had been the blade that Eryk saw landing on his home, his people.

An unusual look passed over Eryk’s eyes at my reaction to Kaed’s bloody history.

But instead of spilling every other dark secret Kaed had, he composed his features and twitched a smile into existence on his face.

“Believe me when I say, I am not the person you want for this task.”

Eryk’s honesty was something I couldn’t argue with. He wasn’t pretending he had other, more important duties. He hated him.

And I didn’t know how to navigate his feelings towards Kaed.

But I knew how he felt towards me.

Eryk was nearly to the far hall that was seething with darkness from beyond.

“Wait. Please,” I said again. “I … I will be in your debt. Or Kaed will be. Whatever you prefer.”

Maybe that was too far. To offer Kaed’s debt. I knew he’d be raging over that. But he’d be out of the Cage.

Eryk paused mid-stride. I had his attention.

The pale stone steps of the council chambers fanned out in front of us.

“Before we go in there,” Eryk said, turning to me, “I need to know. Why are you doing this?”

I hesitated. He believed me to be Kaed’s betrothed, and that was the answer I should have given. “I can’t see him suffer for my failings.” Raw honesty coated my throat.

Eryk didn’t seem to care about the layers in my own words; even I couldn’t divine all of them. There was no point in explaining the complexities of how I felt for Kaed—the tangle of emotional turmoil. I hated him for abducting me. I cursed him for it, and in the same beat, I enjoyed not being in Shadowfall. Not being able to think straight at the sight of him. Worry shadowed my thoughts always, of being alone with him … for fear of what I might do. Of what he might do. And there was an ache inside me. I was unable to walk away when he was in pain.