AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We have to go back.”
Calem braved a quick look over his shoulder at me. “Trust me, I didn’t want to run, either. But it’s what he wanted.”
“Screw what he wanted.” My hands fisted by my sides, and shadows crept through the mist to converge at my feet. A few of the beasts in the fog whined. “Do you really think he’ll survive without us?”
Calem flinched. “No.”
“Then do we even have a choice?”
All around us the beasts edged closer, drawing near enough that I could pick out their snarling muzzles and flattened ears. There were too many of them for Calem’s blades. He could release his weapons now and decimate the first wave of creatures, but therewere endless rows of glowing eyes waiting in the mist. Another wolf dared to fully emerge from the fog. With its hackles standing on end, it drew its snout close to the blades. A shiver coursed through its wispy hide. There was a glimmer of recognition in its magicked gaze as the shadows I’d summoned curled in my hands.
If I could charm a Kitksa monster with a shadow lure, then certainly I could charm a beast of my own making. Slipping my eyes closed, I drew in three slow breaths and cupped my hands before me. With each inhale, I willed the shadows to do my bidding, and with each exhale I thrust out all my doubts. I had the power to save my friends. I had been given a second chance at life. I wasn’t a burden. And I alone was responsible for my fate.
When my eyes flew open, a magnificent sphere the size of a freestanding globe hovered before my torso. Its polished, sable surface was completely smooth and perfectly intact. Each shadow had woven together in perfect harmony, and when I gazed into its reflective sheen, the only thing I saw was me.
“Come back to me,” I whispered, and the orb erupted in hundreds of beautiful threads eager to carry my command. They shot like arrows through every shadow beast before returning to flood into my center. The cool blast of power was followed by a deep sense of knowing, as each beast shook off the Lost’s control and fell back onto their haunches. I felt their bonds now, attached to my magic and my soul. This wasmypower. It didn’t belong to the Lost; it lived within me. It was part of me in a way that had once been terrifying, but now… Now I would sooner die than let anyone take it away. The shadow beasts shuddered in recognition, and I knew they would not fall prey to the mage’s control again.
Slack jawed and unmoving, Calem watched it all. “I really wish you’d done that sooner.”
“Me too.” I grimaced as a sharp twinge spurred in my side.Between my wounds and the sheer amount of power I was attempting to maintain, I wasn’t sure how long I had. “Come on.”
Calem called off his blades as two shadow steeds trotted to our sides. They bent to their knees and allowed us to climb atop their backs. The moment we’d wrenched our fists in their manes, they took off. They didn’t need the ebony stone path to navigate this world, and instead cut directly through the dense mist. And my beasts followed. The scrape of their claws, the clatter of hooves, the earsplitting howls, and wet snarls—they pounded through me with the effectiveness of a battle drum calling soldiers to war. It reverberated through my bones and dulled all my pains, my fears, until all I had was one overriding certainty.
I would protect Kost with my life.
The roar of crashing waves met my ears as the mist began to thin. So did the sharp scrape of metal on metal.Kost.My heart pounded in my throat. At least he still wielded his rapier. So long as he had that, then he couldn’t be too badly injured. He had to be…
Time slowed as we broke through the veil of fog. The Lost floated above Kost in a maelstrom of lashing shadows. He was the center of the storm, and he ceaselessly battered against Kost’s weakening form. With two rapiers crossed before him, Kost held off the brunt of the Lost’s attack, but countless more streaks cut around his barricade and sliced into his already weeping skin. His tunic was gone, shredded and discarded about the beach. His glasses were missing, and his whole body trembled as if it were on the verge of giving out. I knew his skin was pale, but I couldn’t see it beneath the thick sheen of blood covering him from chin to waistline. Worse, I could no longer detect the solid ridges and hard lines of his chest and abdomen. There were too many open wounds and layers of skin cut down to the bone.
It was the most horrific thing I’d ever seen in my life, and it filledme with such rage that I hardly recognized myself. Fury burned through me with a fire that would rival any mage’s, and it sped down the shadow bonds to my creatures and filled them with a similar animalistic rage. Beside me, scales raced over Calem’s shaking arms, but his beast never came. The unbridled fury in his mercury gaze, though, was something that no manner of magic or shadow realm could repress.
Just then, Kost crumpled to one knee and his rapiers fell to the ground. His chest heaved as blood splattered against the sand before him. Hand trembling, he tried to grasp his nearest sword, but one of the Lost’s shadows smashed it into oblivion.
A deep, rumbling laugh shook the air as the Lost summoned one disastrously long lance twice the length of his body. He held his arm high, guiding the weapon into the air and poising it like the guillotine it was right above Kost’s head.
“You never stood a chance.”
I moved without rational thought. Heels driving into my steed’s sides, I urged it to run with godly speed fueled by panic and rage. Its muscles writhed beneath my legs as it heeded my call and drove us between the Lost’s rapidly descending weapon and Kost. He looked up at me, a dawning look of both relief and panic filling his expression, and he raised a limp hand. I snagged his wrist and yanked him up behind me without stopping, and the lance impaled the space where he used to be.
“You came back.” His voice was hoarse and so dangerously soft, but I took solace in the weight of him against my spine, in the loose wrap of his arms around my waist.
“I will always come back for you.” I jerked my steed around until I was staring down the Lost. Calem and my beasts thundered to my side. For a moment, the mage did nothing. With his lips peeled back in a tight grimace, he simply stared. His virulent shadows, however, never tired. They continued to lash out aimlessly, strikingthe ground before us with the force of lightning and turning small spots in the sand into glimmering, onyx glass.
“You regained control of your powers.” The Lost’s tight gaze flickered to the army of beasts. “I knew you were extraordinary.”
“We’re leaving.” I still wasn’t sure we could beat him, but I prayed my heightened power was enough to convince him to let us go. Once we were healed and could find a way to bring the full force of the Council, we’d end the Lost. We had to, because I knew from the deranged look in his tight stare that he would never give up. He’d already tasted my blood, and he was far from satisfied. He wanted everything I had to offer, and I had no intention of giving it to him.
He sighed—a bored, annoyed thing. “No, you’re not.”
“Then you’ll die.” Glittering, ink-black blades formed around Calem in the same, heated fashion he’d displayed in the mist. Scales continued to appear and recede along his arms, never fully taking shape but not disappearing, either.
A horrifying, too-wide grin split the Lost’s face as he targeted Calem. “That’s it. Try harder. Show me your power so I can take it.”
“We have to run,” Kost croaked against my back. “The rip in the realm…” His voice died off as he slumped against me. My throat tightened with worry, and I forced a single, shadow snake to slither up the saddle and constrict around us. If he slipped off now, I feared the Lost would kill him without a second thought.
But the Lost had gone impossibly still. “What did you say?”
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” I called. Because I didn’t. But I also didn’t like how Calem stiffened with awareness beside me. His lips twitched.
