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CHAPTER 35
The men around me started crying and screaming for help, twisting their bodies to try and get out of the grasp my Golden shadows had on them, but it was no use.
Mendex was laughing now, hysterically. Almost as if he had accepted what his fate was going to be.
“Do you find this entertaining, Mendex?” I asked, stalking over to where he still sat hunched against the walls, my shadows slithering around his throat.
“Hilarious, actually,” he spat, looking me dead in the eyes. “I’m one of thousands, Rhia. You may think you have accomplished something tonight, but you’re wrong. I’d start learning how to use those shadows if I were you, because war is coming, and you’re on the losing side.”
My heart physically hurt at the sight of Mendex like this. He was my friend and I’d grown to care for him. I just couldn’t believe that it was all an act.
“Why?” I asked.
I could have sworn I saw a wave of pain gloss over his eyes. “You would’ve too, if you were in my shoes.”
I analyzed him, torn between the Mendex I knew and the one that now sat before me.
He dropped his head. “I’m trapped, Rhia. There’s nowhere else for me to go except back to him.”
“To the Skull King?” I asked.
He nodded. “I don’t know who I am anymore.” He looked me in the eyes with sincerity. “Rhia, help me.”
My heart pitied him. I too had been in this position, when I was a slave to Saeva in the circus. Trapped and forced into actions I never wanted to do. Maybe we could hide Mendex from the Skull King, use him as an ally or a spy. He could help us win this war, and we would be saving him in the process.
I loosened my grip on the Golden shadows I had wrapped around him, pulling them back to me.
His shoulders sagged and he shuttered. “Thank you.”
I saw his wrist move slightly. “Mendex, stop!”
He lunged at me, using my grace as an opportunity to strike. He had a blade gripped in his hand and determination in his eyes as he swung at me, aiming to kill.
I leapt to the side, dodging his strike while focusing all my energy on keeping my shadows gripped on his men.
He turned towards me again, a wild look in his eyes as he lunged to strike once more, but this time I knew he was coming. An arm of shadows shot from my hand in an instant, wrapping around his throat and lifting him into the air.
He dropped the dagger as he tried to use both of his hands to loosen the grip of the shadows, desperate for breath.
“That was your one chance, Mendex. When this war is over and you come crawling back to me, I want you to remember this moment.”
I tightened the coil around his neck, his face turning blue.
“I have a message for your Skull King, and you will be the one to deliver it.” His eyes met mine, nothing but hatred in them. “Tell him he’s next.”
Mendex went limp in my shadows and I dropped him to the floor, careful to suffocate him only to the point of fainting, but not enough to kill him. He would wake in an hour with a long journey back to his king, and I prayed to the stars he would be punished for his failure in this task.
I turned on my heels, facing the men that I still held levitated by my shadows.
“Unfortunately, there only needs to be one messenger.”
All the men screamed their protests, begging for help, but the room went quiet as each of their bodies thumped against the wooden floor.
Silence filled the room, and only the sound of faint ringing met my ears. A shudder went down my spine at the sight of the limp bodies, and I had to hold in the bile that threatened to come up.
When I was sure I wasn’t going to be sick, I made my way to Bennett, who simply watched me as if I was the rarest treasure in the world. His eyes were bright and wide, and he looked mesmerized.
I kneeled beside his weak body. “Let me heal you,” I said. I left the cloth in his mouth so he couldn’t protest. I placed both of my hands on his chest as I called to the very depth of my craft and used the last drop of my magic on healing the broken bones and scars until I was completely drained. When I was finished, I untied the ropes that held him captive and took the cloth out of his mouth.
