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So, we run. Or, at least, I limp along as fast as I possibly can, passing the little cave Dusk had sewn me up in. We take a corner, choose one direction over another, and circle higher until we spot branches covering the exit. When we reach them, we put the torch out, and then Dusk leads us both out, moving slowly and cautiously. I can’t hear if anything is on the other side, but Dusk seems confident, so I trust him.
These are the moment I wish, for the millionth time, to have that sense back.
We come out into the night… and into an army of waiting enemies. Shadow beasts with glowing eyes sit, as if patiently waiting for us. Grave trolls are behind them, and the rot monkeys are scattered around all of them.
Without speaking, Dusk and I withdraw our swords.
I don’t need to ask him to know we can’t go back into the cave. Our enemies are already there, and we can’t run fast enough to avoid the shadow beasts. So, fighting is our only option. Even if fighting against such odds, in our condition, means certain death.
At least it’ll be a warrior’s death.
Taking a slow and steady breath, I look more carefully over the creatures around us. We’re surrounded by every manner of killer the king could have sent our way— grave trolls salivating, thirsting for blood the king denies them to make them more vicious fighters; rot monkeys who hunger for entrails and are eyeing us like we’re about to be a tasty treat; shadow beasts who are dedicated and loyal to a king that wouldn’t think twice about killing them.
Two of us against all of them.
But then I see the Void peeking out from between a few of them. When Dusk glances in my direction, I nod toward it and his eyes widen. Only a few enemies stand between us and it… probably because they’d never believe we’d be stupid enough to run straight into it.
The thing is… right now it’s a better option than any other.
I nod to Dusk. His eyes harden, and he nods back. Then, he holds up his free hand with three fingers raised. He drops one, then another, and finally the third. I start running, but he moves more slowly, running at my back, probably so he won’t leave me behind.
Damn the honorable fool.
I zig and zag, cutting down a few rot monkeys with my sword as I breeze past. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I attack anything that moves around me, feeling their blood painting my face and body. Afraid of leaving my best friend behind, I glance back and watch as Dusk plunges his sword, lightning fast, into the eye of a grave troll, and then slashes a shadow beast that leaps at us. He turns to me with eyes wide and nods toward the Void.
It’s right in front of us, and even though my stomach flips, I dive right in, wondering if our enemies will simply race in behind us.
We explode into the shadow realm, a place that is darker than the one we left behind. Slowing just a bit, I glance back at Dusk and see that he’s covered in troll blood and monkey innards. He catches my gaze and gives me a look, one that says he’s okay.
I slow a little and look at myself. My leg feels swollen and painful. I’m definitely covered in the blood of my enemies, and one stitch of my shoulder wound has opened, creating a line of blood that leaks down my arm.Again.
This time it’s manageable. Ignorable. Especially because nothing is following us here. I’m guessing because those aren’t the orders of that asshole Shadow King.
Dusk sheaths his sword, and I do too. For now. And then he signs, “Need to find cover.”
I nod, then look around, searching for something that can work. Dusk takes the lead this time, and I’m grateful. He moves at a slower pace, a half-jog, and I can let some of my pain show knowing he can’t see my winces with every movement.
We’re more than twenty yards into the Void when I stop so I don’t run into Dusk’s back. So I don’t crash into him. He slowly lifts a hand and points, and I shift to peer around him to see what’s got him acting so strangely… when I find it.Him.
Phantom is lying motionlessly on the ground. He looks like he’s dead, his body curled into a half circle, eyes closed, every inch of him whispering that he’s nothing but an empty shell now. My gaze moves to his chest, but there’s no rise and fall.
He’s just… gone.
My heart beats so hard in my chest that it feels like everything around me dims.
I want to scream. My best friend… is dead. A man I’m proud to call my brother. A man I’ve fought beside my entire life. Gone. No more sparring. No more listening to him snore. No more stupid jokes he found in some paper edition of a book he “found” and kept in his travel pack.
But how? How is he dead?
His shirt has been torn open, and my gaze snaps to his pale skin. There’s nothing but a trail of blood. A trail that starts from his heart and leaks down his body until it disappears into his clothes.
The shard. The shard was removed.
Movement draws my gaze to some trees. Suddenly, the Shadow King emerges, and our swords are in our hands in an instant. I level my blade at his chest, rage building inside of me.
But then the king signs, “It’s me! It’s Rayne,” in frantic movements.
Some strange part of me still wants to kill him because all I can see is the face of the man I hate to my core. It’s hatred from a dark place inside of me that knows deep inside it’s Rayne, butseesthe bastard who lied, who forced our people into his slavery, who effectively killed Phantom as soon as he put that moon shard in his chest.
