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The beast sat on their haunches, curiously eyeing the wisps, and were all but tamed when a sudden influx of shadows exploded around us. They rushed upward to blanket out the sky before smothering us in a maelstrom of wild darkness. My mind went blank at the sudden display of power. I hadn’t sensed anyone else, and yet now we were surrounded. How? Why? One moment I’d been exerting control over my shadows, luring the Kitska beasts in, and thenthis.It was as if those inky tendrils had bloomed from the very earth beneath our feet. As if my lure had summoned them and not the creatures. But as wild and violent as they were—and I knew my own power had a tendency to lash out—they didn’t feel like my shadows. They couldn’t be. Maybe a newer assassin lost control. Maybe…
A sharp wail pulled my focus, and I whirled in place. “Ozias! Calem!”
They didn’t answer.
“Boo!” I tried again.
In the sheer chaos, I heard the frantic cry of Effie and an uneasy warble from Jax. Ozias and Calem were shouting, too, but the whistling of the shadows—like a screeching void that sucked up all sounds—deafened everything.
A sudden white light ruptured the dark for a split second, and I caught sight of Boo. But as the beam of moonlight faded from between his antlers, the tendrils formed as quickly as they’d dispersed and obstructed him from view.
Gritting my teeth, I dared to take a few steps into the storm. Shadows eviscerated my clothes, slicing clean through to my skin and exposing raw flesh and blood. They cut with the efficiency of a freshly sharpened blade, and I buckled to the ground as one tendril sliced me from forehead to chin, just narrowly missing my eye. Yelling, I clamped my hands over my face and prayed—begged—for the shadows to stop.
And then they did.
They disappeared with such abruptness that, if not for the heady ringing in my ears and blood weeping from countless wounds, I wouldn’t have believed they’d existed at all.
Letting my hands fall away, I blinked. My eye burned and I sucked in a sharp breath as I rotated so I could see Calem and Ozias.
“Effie!” Calem cried. Like me, he was covered head to toe ingashes, but he paid little mind to his injuries. His hands were shaking over his badly mangled beast, and she whimpered in response. Her mint-green feathers were a muddy red, but she was breathing, if erratically.
“Get her to the realm! Jax, too,” I shouted, glancing at Ozias’s beast. For the most part, his Laharock had faired the best out of all of us. Those gleaming-red scales had protected Jax from the brunt of the attack, but there were a few places where the plates had been pried almost clean off. Still, the beast realm would heal both Effie and Jax in time.
Ozias wiped blood from a deep wound across his lips and nodded. They gripped their bronze keys tight, and the signature groan of the realm door opening crested over the now-quiet lawns. I scoured the clearing, hoping to find the one responsible for unleashing the onslaught of shadows. A retreating shadow darted into the woods, pausing only for a moment at the threshold of the tree line. It lingered as if it were watching, and then suddenly it was gone. Before I could investigate, a belabored chuff rooted my place.
Boo was slumped to his haunches and bleeding profusely. Unlike Calem and Ozias’s beasts, Boo couldn’t return to the realm, which meant that the lacerations lining his rib cage would need immediate medical attention. Fortunately, the infirmary would have adequate materials to treat his wounds. He would survive.
“Thank the gods,” I muttered, finally allowing myself a sigh of relief. But just as we were regaining our bearings, so too were the Mizobats. Somehow, the shadows had all but glossed over them. They had a few nicks marring their hides. Nothing overly serious, but certainly enough for them to think we’d attacked them. And judging by their challenging, predatory shrieks and quivering whiskers, they were no longer interested in being tamed.
“Get back!” I yelled to Calem and Ozias, scrambling to my feet. “GET BACK!”
The Mizobats lunged forward—two immediately breaking off and heading for Boo—while the leader raced straight to me. Calem and Ozias were shouting, each still in the process of safely ensuring their beasts made it home. Boo howled in rage as the other Mizobats sank their fangs into his hind quarters.
A shield. Form a shield!I crossed my arms and braced for the hit while calling on my power. I tried to focus. Tried to pull darkness from the surrounding night and bend it to my will. I tried—
A maelstrom of charcoal shadows manifested before my eyes, just in time for the Mizobat’s massive talons to clash against an ink-black rapier.
A rapier?Oh.Oh.Relief and frustration and anger coalesced inside me as the tendrils peeled back like a cloak falling to the ground, and a man emerged. Kost. The muscles of his exposed forearms strained as he held his weapon steady. His jaw was set, ice-green eyes hard and wild. The tendons down his neck jumped, but he didn’t budge as the Mizobat tried to bury him with its weight.
Without meeting my gaze, he bit out an order. “Get inside. Now.” Then, a little louder, “Calem, Ozias—take care of the ones on Boo.” With Effie and Jax safe, they leapt into action, calling on their own shadows to wrangle the monsters swarming my Gigloam.
“I’m not going inside. I can help.”
Kost did an impressive sweeping motion that dislodged the beast’s talons from the blade, and he angled the tip directly at the creature’s jugular. The Mizobat hissed and crouched low. Its tentacle whiskers lashed wildly around us as it determined where and how to strike.
“Go inside,” Kost seethed as he sidestepped me, blocking the Mizobat from my view.
My stomach hardened, and I pushed to my feet. The shadows I hadn’t been able to summon to protect myself began to gather around my hands, and the Mizobat roared in response.
“Gaige!” Kost shouted, his stare darting from me to the enraged monster. “You’ve doneenough.”
I flinched, and the brewing anger in me died. A cold, defeated emotion settled over me instead, and I let my face go blank. Of course he blamed me. I could argue and try to tell him that I hadn’t done this. I’d only attempted to tame the Mizobats with a shadow lure—something I’d made a point to perfect in order to help these poor monsters. The violent tendrils that’d birthed from the ground itself? I didn’t do that. I couldn’t…
My fingers trembled. At least, I hadn’tmeantto. It didn’t feel like I did. Still, the way Kost looked at me now told me everything I needed to know. He believed I’d caused this. It’s not like I expected anything different from him. I knew I was a burden. I heard everything the members said about me. It shouldn’t have hurt to discover Kost felt the same.
“Boo needs you. No one else here knows how to treat a beast. Now, go.”
At leastsomeoneneeded me. I turned my back on Kost, ignoring the small, insistent part of me that begged me to stay. Not because I wanted to defy him, but because I wanted to make sure he would be okay. But the larger, dominating voice—the one full of resentment and anger—won out and I walked away from Kost. Again.
