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Noc strode toward me and placed his hands on my shoulders. The lack of true contact was apparent, but the icy familiarity of those dark tendrils soothed my frayed nerves. “He’ll come around. He has to.”
Or he won’t, and we’ll lose him to the shadows.The unspoken truth of Gaige’s future hung heavy in the air, and I clenched my jaw.
Noc let his hands fall to his sides. “Leena and I leave tomorrow for Rhyne. When we return, we’ll stop through Cruor on our way to Hireath. If he hasn’t figured it out by then, she’ll knock some sense into him.”
With a quiet sigh, I replaced my glasses. “I hope she’s successful.”
“She will be.” Noc tipped his chin ever so slightly, peering at me for a long moment before frowning. “I hate to leave so abruptly but…”
“Go.” I waved him off as I returned to the desk. I slid into the chair and grabbed the nearest quill and inkwell. “I need to evaluate these contracts and determine who would be best suited for the jobs.”
“Maybe Gaige needs an assignment. Purpose will help.” Shadows gathered around Noc, temporarily darkening the room. He hesitated for a breath, half his body already lost to the shadow realm and other still firmly planted in my study.
“We won’t lose him, Kost.”
But as I nodded in answer and Noc disappeared, I couldn’t help but feel like we’d lost Gaige already. The man we knew before had died. This new person was shrouded in a sinister darkness. No matter how much I wanted to try to pierce that veil, I wasn’t sure he’d let me.
One way or another, the shadows would come calling. And the only person who could stop them was Gaige.
TWO
GAIGE
The Kitska Forest felt like home. It shouldn’t have, but it did.
I lingered on the fringe of the tree line and watched as Calem and Ozias ran their brethren through a series of drills. With my senses heightened by death, the forceful grunts and exhales coming from the assassins as they physically attacked one another were easy to discern. Calem was shirtless—he was always shirtless during training, it seemed—and his bronzed skin was somehow aglow despite the lack of direct sunlight. His thick, blond hair was tied up in a loose bun that threatened to topple over as he swirled out of Ozias’s grasp.
Ozias laughed—a deep sound that was incredibly pleasing to the ear—and craned his neck from side to side as he repositioned himself before Calem. Sweat plastered his white work shirt to his dark skin, and he gave his large biceps a flex as if to remind Calem that he could pulverize him at any given moment.
But Calem was faster and much too cocky for that. They both backstepped into a void of darkness and continued their sparring in the shadow realm—a veil between this world and death that only the undead could see. The rest of the group ceased their training to watch, and I could hardly blame them. As much as I despised this new life, the skill they exuded was still admirable.
It was hard to tell whether the dark tendrils swirling about me were of my own making or a result of the strange magic that seemed to pulsate from deep within the wood. Pinesco pods—with their eerie, eyelike pattern—rattled from the treetops in the faint breeze, so much like the unsettling, raspy exhale of a fearsome beast.
But I knew all the monsters in this place. And I was the worst one.
How self-deprecating.Sighing, I folded my arms across my chest and leaned against the nearest trunk. Rough bark scraped against the exposed portion of my arm, but I didn’t flinch. These days, the only thing that gave me pause was the notion that I was expected to do something with these forsaken shadows…and Kost.
My throat tightened. He was so damn infuriating. Yes, we’d rectified things to a certain extent, but that didn’t mean I was in a rush to follow him around again. I couldn’t look at him without anger building inside me. I didn’t know how to forgive him. And I couldn’t pinpoint why. I’d more or less accepted Noc and Leena’s role in my resurrection. They’d both known about the risk. Of what it might do to my powers, but Kost?
A phantom burn spasmed from the back of my gloved hand—where my emblem used to be—and the shadows around me jolted. Being a Charmer was everything to me. Discovering rare creatures, studying their unique habits and ways, befriending them and enjoying their everlasting affection… I’d lost it all. Charmer magic was not compatible with the dark magic of the undead.
Maybe I’d forgiven Noc and Leena because it wasn’t their idea to bring me back. It was Kost’s. And maybe it burned all the more because there was still a small sliver of hope inside me, desperately begging for me to acknowledge it. Because on the rare chance I found respite in my dreams, they were always about my old life. About him.
And with that image teasing my waking moments, tinged byshrouding darkness, it was impossible to forgive—or to move on. I was still soangry, and that only made the shadows worse.
The heady, soulful groan of a door to the beast realm opening rushed through the quiet evening, and I straightened as my hand immediately went to the bronze key dangling about my neck. Calem and Ozias had finished their shadow drills, and they’d brandished their own keys to summon the magical beasts Leena had gifted them when they’d first met.
A sour taste crept up the back of my tongue, and I let my hand fall away from my key. The keys were meant for non-Charmers, in case one of my kind—one of myformerkind—decided to offer a beast to someone they found worthy. I would’ve required hundreds of keys to summon all my beasts like I used to. Instead, I only had one. As much as I cherished the one creature I had left, the key was a reminder of everything I’d lost.
Ozias’s Laharock, Jax, appeared and rammed his thick, dragon-like skull into Ozias’s chest before extending his long neck to the dusk sky. Stars were just beginning to dot the darkening night, and he stared up at them with a look of peace. One that was swiftly interrupted when Calem’s rambunctious beast, an Effreft named Effie, soared through the air and let out a series of sharp but happy trills. She had the build of a small dog and the head of an eagle. Flapping her wings vigorously, she dusted the earth beneath her with a fine powder that glittered like diamonds. Tiny white flowers instantly bloomed around the feet of the small gathering who remained, and a joyful swell of laughter bubbled around them.
I hadn’t summoned Okean in days. Lithe and aqua-blue, my legendary feline was a sight to behold. His power to summon and control water had a unique way of both invigorating and calming me at the same time. And yet I hesitated to call him. I knew in my bones he’d come without fail, but I feared my shadows would haunt him.He wasn’t like Effie and Jax. Okean had lived with me for decades, and he’d witnessed my death. I wasn’t the same person he loved before, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever be. What if he didn’t like what I’d become? I didn’t. And if he rejected me or feared me…I wouldn’t be able to take it. No, Okean was better off lounging in the beast realm, enjoying the company of all the beasts I had to abruptly leave behind.
Not all.Heavy footsteps thudded at my back as twigs snapped beneath the weight of massive paws. I tilted my head ever so slightly until I caught sight of a bear-shaped outline the size of an elephant bull. Boo lumbered forward, a faint mist curling from his snout, and he chuffed in acknowledgment at my shadows before coming to a halt by my side.
“Hey, Boo.”
A warm growl simmered from the back of the Gigloam’s throat. Like me, Boo was undead. Nearly all the beasts that’d aided their Charmers during the centuries-old war that split our continent into factions had died in the battle against Wilheim. But just as the assassins rose for the very first time back then, so too did the beasts. They’d been wild and untamable, and as a result, lived in the secluded Kitksa Forest where they were deemed monsters.
