AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A cold, hard knot formed in my stomach, spreading icy dread through my veins. Throughout the attack, I’d had nothing on my mind but my amulet. I hadn’t given a single thought to how this place might look after, the ground speckled with blood and feathers, the air disgustingly sweet. So this was what war looked and smelled like…
I hated it.
Despised it.
“Come on, sweetheart.” He turned me toward the northern gate. “Let’s get out of here. At some point, we need to get some shadowthread into your dresses so we can practice your shifts.”
“We should head through the gate by the port.”
He shook his head and continued on, broken shields and weapons littering the ground here and there. “No, we shouldn’t.”
“But it’s faster. We could take the stairs—”
“Do not go there, Galantia.” His command was sharp, but his gaze immediately softened when it met mine. “Not for a few days, do you understand?”
The stench of smoke hung heavy in the air, filling my nostrils and turning my stomach. “It’s where you put the bodies.”
The way his jaws tightened was answer enough. “How’s that void of yours feeling, hmm?”
“Strange.” My fingers lifted, mindlessly stroking over that aching hole right beneath my chest. “You know the feeling when you didn’t eat all day?”
“All too well.”
“Like that, but three times worse, like a constant churning in the belly that sends a cramp through my stomach every now and then,” I explained. “Except, it’s in my chest. It seems to be getting worse, too.”
“Because it is,” he said on a sigh, glancing around the white landscape before he stopped, took my hand, and turned me toward him. “Your void is drawn to shadows, sweetheart, butparticularly,Malyr’s. That discomfort in your chest? It’ll get worse the closer you get to him while you’re unbonded, especially while your void is starved like it is, so let’s fix that real quick. Be a good girl for me and close your eyes.”
I did as I was told. “What are you doing?”
“Giving you some of my shadows.” He let our fingers intertwine and stepped closer, lowering his forehead against mine before he whispered in the space between us, “I’m not a deathweaver, sweet thing, but whatever I have to offer is yours.”
Something fluttered in my chest. “How do I absorb?”
“You already are,” he crooned. “It’s not so much that you have to learn how to absorb them, but when and how to stop. If you’re not able to wield them and absorb too much, they’ll kill you from the inside, do you understand?”
A sigh slipped from my lips, my body melting into his as if drawn by an unseen force. His strong arms wrapped around me, lending me support as I swayed, the pain in my chest easing, if only slightly.
Sebian nuzzled my temple. “Alright, I need you to stop now.”
Languid heat flooded my veins, turning me sluggish. “How?”
“By closing your void,” he said. “This is how my grandmother once explained it to me, okay? Imagine it’s a container of sorts. It can be anything you want, as long as it can hold shadows. You got something?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“What kind? Tell me.”
I focused on the rendering before the black backdrop of my mind. “A box.”
“What box? Wood? Metal? Color? You need toseeit. Truly, see it.”
“It’s glass.” Sparkling in shades of white, silver, and the lightest blue. “Translucent glass.”
“Close it.”
I focused on the box, trying to close it, but gods… It felt so good, how his shadows filled that sense of emptiness I’d carried for years. All my damn life! I wanted more. Needed more of—
“Alright, I need you… I need you to stop, or you’ll drain me empty,” Sebian ground out. “Close your glass box, sweetheart.”
