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Okay…“Does that mean you’re not working for the Shadow King?”
Fire leaps into her eyes. “I’d sooner carve out my own heart than help that cruel bastard. He took everything from me… starting with my freedom, my choice in a husband, then my men.” She pauses, some of the fire dims, but not as much as I might have hoped from a woman talking about my men like they’re hers. “But nothing was worse than destroying this world, than enslaving my people. Do you know that his powers spread across the lands? Not just taking the people here but my own? Everyone I ever knew. My siblings. My parents. Every person I’d ever spoken to. They’re all his slaves.”
I don’t want to be cruel, but I have to ask. Have to know. “I thought you died in the moat.”
She lifts a brow. “I almost did. Rather than waiting to be rescued from this same room, I leapt. Broke my legs. Hurt myself. But managed to crawl to safety only to see my maid throw herself too. I guess she decided that rather than face the wrath of the king, she’d die. The top of her body hit the ground, then slid into the water. It was… unpleasant to watch, but her body gave me the cover I needed to disappear.”
Well, fuck, that’s dark.
“That seems lucky for you and unlucky for her…”
“Or I had no choice,” she gives me a pointed look. “Not all of us are willing to wait and hope to be rescued.”
Pompous much?“Well, I guess it’s good I didn’t throw myself out the window, because if I did, your great woman of prophecy would either be dead or too broken to help anyone.”
She looks like she wants to punch me, but moves closer, erasing the distance between us. “Just be glad I took the risk for the both of us, or there would be no one here to releaseyou. To bringyouto your men and help to save both our worlds.”
It takes everything in me not to take a step back as her wrath emanates off of her. “Agreed.”
She moves back, her gaze sweeping over me again, sizing me up. “You’re not much. Not at all what I expected, but it doesn’t really matter, we need to go. The king has taken the wealth of his army to earth. They’ll plant the shards, including the one in Phantom’s heart, into the earth, and then the Void will spread. His power will grow, and he’ll keep spreading it until all of your world is plunged into darkness. If we aren’t fast enough, regardless of the prophecy, all will be lost. And he’ll be too powerful to ever stop.”
I knew everything except the piece about Phantom, even though the king had made it clear that Phantom wouldn’t be ruling alongside him. “He’s going to kill Phantom?”
She lifts a brow. “He was always going to kill Phantom. The Shadow King was never a good person, but his first wife tapered that evil. She gave him a reason to want more than just power. And then she died, and that terrible darkness inside of him overcame him. Even if he hadn’t found a way to take the goddess’s heart from the sky, he would have found a way to destroy this world. He needs to be stopped, regardless of whether it costs Phantom his life or not.”
“No,” I tell her, and she looks surprised. “We’re going to save this world, my world, him, all ofmymen. I swear it.” And this time, I’m the one who advances on her, glaring.
It’s strange when she looks at me as if impressed. “Maybe you’re not nearly as useless as I thought. Now, come on, I have our ride. But we’re going to have to hurry.”
She doesn’t give me time to think, time to consider what we’re doing. She just turns and head out the door. It’s maybe not exactly what I pictured, but I followed her, because this woman seems to be the one who will lead me to wherever my men are.
We race down the steps, and I hope like hell that we’re fast enough. Maybe I’m not the person of prophecy. Maybe the prophecy is a lie. But I’ll be damned if this thing doesn’t end with me fighting at my men’s side.
FOURTEEN
Rayne
Swallowing around the lump in my throat, I try to keep my breathing and heartrate even. I have no idea how refined the shadow beasts’ hearing is, but if I give myself away, it’s all over. Not just my chance to save Phantom, butourchance to save earth.
This is my role. My part to play in this war.
Even if just the idea of giving up this body makes me sick.What if I can’t come back? What if the body dies while I’m out of it? What if the king pushes me out and I spend the rest of my life as a ghost?
Fuck.Those aren’t good thoughts, so I try to force them away. To focus on the situation in front of me. Even though I’ve changed since dying, I’m still deep down a scholar, not a soldier, and right now I need to be a soldier. A warrior. Someone who stays calm and focused in a dangerous situation.
Someone like Phantom, Onyx, and Dusk. For some reason, I want to make them proud. I want to do this for them. Over our time together I’ve changed from someone they saw as competition to maybe… a brother. I already disappointed Esmeray when I died, when I pulled away from her, I didn’t want to ruin this second chance by disappointing these men too.
So don’t disappoint them.
And then there’s Ann. This fucking king took her, or at the least, commanded Phantom to take her. He hurt her and created this whole mess, so I need to do this. For her. And for the men she loves.
I’m as close to the Shadow King and Phantom as I can possibly get, hiding in a patch of dead trees with a sizable boulder in the center of them. Luckily, the spot was close to where I’d crossed over, so I hadn’t had to go far. I didn’t risk peeking out at them as I heard their army approaching. There were too many eyes that could spot me, but I listened carefully as their sounds and voices got louder. Now, I can hear Phantom and the Shadow King like I’m standing beside them.
Although mostly the king has been busy tooting his own horn over the sound of the chittering rot monkeys, the growls of the shadow beasts, and the grunting of the grave trolls. Like now, as he finishes a string of compliments about himself, then releases a deep sigh. “This is it, son, this is the moment we’ve been waiting for.”
“Your kingdom will expand,” Phantom responds, his voice strangely emotionless compared to his father’s. “Earth will be yours, and you’ll have the power you deserve.”
The sound of his dark creatures quiets so quickly from one moment to the next that it’s eerie. I’m sure if I looked out now, they’d be all standing in silence, staring at the king, waiting for his command, having been silenced by whatever power the king holds. But I can’t see them, all I can do is stay still and pray that Dusk and Onyx can handle what’s coming their way. At least until I can save Phantom. Then, Phantom can help us take down his father, stop the shadow beasts, and end this war.
