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Zorander fidgeted, too, a faint haze of shadow hovering around him, like the penumbra around the sun on an overcast day. His new magic, and if I squinted, I didn’t see stars but something darker, like small black dots spinning in the haze.
None of us spoke of last night, but there was an easiness to this morning, as if words weren’t as necessary, and every time Zor rubbed the mark on his arm, Raz jolted, while I felt phantom fingers gently stroke my side.
Strange.
Yet oddly comforting.
Being connected wasn’t all bad. I couldn’t say I minded it. I’d never had a family before, and the Shadow King had cheated me out of any kin when he burned the High Barrens. I tightened my hold on Raziel.
These two were my family now.
I was about to ask where we were when our horse startled, dancing sideways off the trail. The forest went still, as if every creature—even the smallest gnat—cowered in fear at something ancient and poisonous lurking within these trees.
Something older than time, crueler than nature, and when I caught a whiff of putrefied rot, my scalp prickled.
* * *
Fear turnedto rage the moment The Oracle skittered out from between the lichen-covered trunks, her bulky form blocking the narrow forest path.
This…monstrousthing, who played games with our lives was a fucking abomination. She’d manipulated us so cruelly and from the scheming look in her eyes, she wasn’t yet done.
Dappled sunlight danced across her, making a mockery of the calm, lush setting, as if poison seeped into every crevice of this ancient, untouched forest.
“You sent us to our deaths,” I hissed, leaning out around Raziel, who immediately shoved me back behind him with a curse. The Oracle’s answering grin sent a shiver of horror through me.
“The Reapers were a surprise, even to me, but Carex always has kept many tricks up his sleeve.” Her voice slithered through the trees, Raz and Zor closing ranks, forming a solid barrier between me and her.
There was no sense asking how she got here when she would only answer in riddles, but panic ripped through me at the cunning gleam in her eyes, as if everything she’d planned for so long was finally coming to fruition.
As if yesterday’s battle hadn’t gone terribly wrong at all.
“You should have killed your sire, child. That is a mistake that you will live to regret.”
I leaned my forehead into Raz’s back and closed my eyes. Hadn’t I asked myself that very same thing? Didn’t I know better than to leave such dangerous enemies alive?
But the magic had made the choice for me and I couldn’t go back in time.
Leaning around Raz again, I watched her creep through the thick ferns, crushing delicate moss and flowers beneath her feet. Why was she here? Had I failed her so miserably she would drag me back to Tempeste to finish the job on the king?
A tremor of fear went through me.
Or did she mean to turn me over to the Reapers? Oh gods, they’d turn me into a mindless drone, and the thought of being given to one of the Reapers, like Ember had been, chilled me to the bone.
It was one thing to die fighting, or even running so we could fight again later, but I’d been a sacrificial lamb once.
I wouldn’t be one again.
“What do you want, crone?” Zorander demanded, sword in his hand and his voice as cold as the stars in the night sky. “Those were my fucking men out there.My men,” he roared, fury bending the air around us, more of that odd, black mist swirling through the bracken.
“You sent us into a trap, promising vengeance and victory but giving us death.”
Her black smile was the epitome of evil. “Did I? I don’t recall promising you anything. You have defied me at every turn, spit on the gift I have given you, searched for ways to escape the inescapable fate that lies before you. This world will not survive unless it is bathed in blood.”
Ever so slowly, she swiveled her head to me, and I couldn’t breathe when she met my eyes. “I know what you did, Anaria. I know the games you play.”
She pointed her gnarled finger to the west.
“Bleed that army dry and restore the magic. Only then will you know peace.” That horrific smile widened, splitting her face in two. “If you refuse, this cursed force will march across the border and kill every single Fae in Solarys. Male, female, child. There will be no survivors, I will make sure.”
