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Maybe the enraged beasts were exactly what I’d become if I didn’t throttle my powers once and for all.
The Iksass angled its limbs toward our kneeling forms. The shadows spiraling around it jumped erratically as if they were streaks of lightning instead of writhing snakes. There was an undercurrent of energy I didn’t recognize, something hot and burning like an electrical fire, and the dread ratcheting in my chest faltered.
These aren’t mine.
I didn’t get a chance to investigate further. The Iksass drove its weaponized limbs toward us at the same time a snarling, roaring mass of fur crashed into the monster. Boo. He trapped the monster between his massive paws and bellowed directly in its face, coating the Iksass with a fine spray of spittle. And then the putrid stench of death and decay filled the air, along with an unbearable sense of dread. Rook stepped out from behind Boo’s mass with his three eyes focused directly on the immobilized Iksass.
Boo snarled again. Moonlight gathered between his antlers as he threatened to wipe the monster off the map permanently, and the shadows around the Iksass fled. In the span of a breath, it went from being a frenzied creature driven by bloodlust to a scared, trembling Kitska beast withering in the face of certain death.
Leaping to my feet, I rushed to Boo’s side and placed a firm hand against his neck. “He’s fine now. Let him go.”
Boo exhaled forcefully, his gaze full of ire, but he removed his weight just enough for the Iksass to slip out. Rook broke his stare,releasing the creature from paralyzing fear, and the monster fled into the woods without a backward glance.
Kost scrambled to his feet. “What just happened?”
“They’re not my shadows.” I clucked my tongue, and Boo knelt to the ground in response so I could climb atop his back. A timid, fluttering sensation brewed in my chest. This wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t the problem. We could fix this. “Take Rook with you. We need to shock these creatures out of the shadows’ hold.”
A flicker of understanding coursed through his expression, and he answered with a tight nod. Together we charged into the thick of it, Kost shouting orders at Calem and Ozias while I urged Kaori and Raven to do the same. Only a few Charmers remained outside of Jax’s protective rock dome, and they didn’t question my new tactic, either.
We split up and targeted monsters one by one, thrusting them to the earth and cutting off their means for escape. With the power of the full moon etched onto his bone helm, Boo could eliminate any monster here—and they knew it. Once they’d been pinned beneath his paws, they caved. And just as with the Iksass, the shadows disappeared in the face of imminent death.
Little by little, their numbers diminished. Raven’s legendary feline replicated itself ten times over and surrounded beast after beast, allowing for Kaori’s feline to slip in and poise its deadly fangs against the jugulars of monsters. Eventually only the Scorpex remained, but Ozias corralled it with a series of shadow blades and Calem raced through the floating weapons to pounce on the monster. The Scorpex shivered and attempted to curl in on itself for protection. Wispy tendrils pooled beneath it for a moment before shooting off into the woods like bolts of lightning, and Calem stepped off the monster. It retreated as quickly as it had appeared, and the clearing was eerily quiet.
Blood had turned the earth a ruddy brown, and the dirtsquelched beneath my feet as I dismounted from Boo. Flowers were dotted in sparkling droplets of red that stood out like gemstones against their white petals. One canopy had been obliterated, but fortunately most of the homes were largely intact. I nudged aside a broken table leg as I strode toward Jax’s protective dome where everyone had gathered. Calem had shifted back to his human form and quickly snagged a pair of trousers from a nearby decimated dresser. Meanwhile, Charmers were cautiously stepping out from behind the rock walls to survey the damage and tend to their wounds.
“What in the fresh hell was that?” Raven asked. She’d crouched before her beast and was inspecting a small cluster of lacerations marring the feline’s pewter hide.
“Shadows were causing the beasts to act erratically.” Kost folded his arms across his chest and tapped his fingers along his forearm. He glanced to me. “Gaige thinks they’re someone else’s.”
“Whose?” Calem tied his hair in a bun atop his head as he rolled his neck, releasing the leftover tension in his shoulders from his transformation. “I highly doubt anyone from Cruor is just shooting shadows into the forest for shits and giggles. Plus, our magic never bothered the monsters before.”
“True.” My brows pulled together.
“Please don’t take any offense to this…” Kaori edged close to me and put a hand on my arm. “Are you certain the shadows weren’t yours?”
Had she asked me this question hours ago, I would have believed I was responsible. But Kost had seen something I’d missed. He’d pinpointed a unique part of my magic that was wholly mine and mine alone. My shadows behaved like beasts. These strange tendrils were something else entirely. Slanting my gaze toward him, I waited for him to interject. He was brilliant and observant. He had to have noticed the difference.
Ineededhim to notice the difference.
Removing his glasses, he rubbed his temples. “Just this morning we made incredible headway with Gaige’s shadows. They elicited none of the behavior we just witnessed.”
I could have kissed him senseless in that moment, but for the sake of our friends, I refrained. “I’m telling you, it isn’t me. My shadows act like beasts.” I nodded to the lingering forms of wolves waiting on the fringe of the meadow, their ink-black stares trained on me. And it was as if recognizing them was all it took for my body to suddenly tremble with exhaustion. The adrenaline that’d been coursing through my system was gone. With a shaky flick of the wrist, I sent them away in a puff of smoke. A cold sweat dampened my collar, and I leaned against Boo for purchase. Rook let out a worried screech as he wound around my legs, and Okean rammed his head into my thigh. Black dots bloomed across my vision as my breath turned shallow. I started to crumple, but Kost was there to catch me. Shouldering me with ease, he helped me stay on my feet.
“He needs to rest,” Kost said. “He maintained shadows for far longer than any newborn assassin. The toll it took on him…” His eyes traveled over my glistening face.
“Not to mention the Slimack injury.” Ozias gave me a pointed glare. “Have you been getting enough rest?”
“No.” Kost’s answer on my behalf was swift and felt more like a rebuke. I rolled my eyes but didn’t dream of arguing when the world was already spinning.
“No rest?” Calem’s drawl, accompanied by his lopsided, teasing grin, made Kost stiffen beside me. “Wonder why that is.”
Before Kost could murder him with the efficiency of a Foxel, the soft clank of metal armor rose above the quiet din of the clearing. As one we turned to the yawning maw at the edge of the waterfall where the cavern stairs were hidden, and a woman with golden hairaccompanied by a small handful of soldiers in jade armor stood with her mouth agape. Isla recovered quickly, striding across the clearing with powerful steps that threatened to leave canyons in her wake. Abruptly, she halted before us, but her umber gaze never stopped skipping across the aftermath of the monster attack.
“Seems like I missed the party.”
Ozias took an inadvertent step toward her. “You’re here.”
She frowned at him, her diminutive stature doing nothing to make her less fearsome. “I was asked to come. Noc made it sound rather important, but I don’t see him.”
