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Chapter
Twenty-Four
KAI
The darkness is so thick, it’s practically impossible to see through. It echoes the darkness inside me, the memories of my past that torture me in my nightmares. Everything about this darkness should be terrifying and make me scream in terror, but it’s almost . . . comforting, as if these shadows are darkness incarnate and also home. I want to wrap them around me like a blanket.
Lost in my panic, I did not hesitate to take the hand, a lifeline that was offered to me. I was drowning, gasping for air, and someone threw me a line. I did not pause to question it or wonder whom that hand belonged to. I was only prompted to take it. Something in my chest urged me to before I completely toppled into the darkness. The moment I took that hand, the darkness in my chest began to clear, but the shadows remain around me.
At first, I don’t see him, but I can feel the hand enveloping mine. The shadows begin to swirl and fade, bleeding into the ground and leaving him before me in all his glory. His eyes are what strike me first. Initially blank in their whiteness within the shadows, the glow fades and reveals eyes as yellow as thefruit I used to collect back in the Shadow Lands. He’s tall, far taller than even Dade who stands well above me. This being is massive, imposing in his stature alone, and it makes me gasp at the realization that this is a monster.
His skin is a deep gray mottled with shadows. He’s both terrifying and magnificent, and my skin both crawls and erupts with goosebumps. I stare up into his face and his lips part, revealing pristine, sharp teeth that could easily rip my throat out. Sharp, pointed ears peek from his messy black hair, making me want to reach up and brush it aside.
As if I could ever reach.
“Hello, my little phosphene,” he says, and his voice makes me shiver. It’s deep and dark, just like his shadows. It almost echoes in the darkness, as if his voice is so powerful, it has no choice but to repeat itself. “My little oblivion.”
My hand still rests in his.
Weyland, Kaito, and Dade all stand as still as statues to the side, their eyes wide in horror. A monster that frightens other monsters stands before me, holding my hand. Such a monster pulled me from my darkness and brought me back into the light. I should be equally as terrified of this monster who studies me so, his large hand swallowing mine, but something in me calls to him, as if we are the same and we wear the same kind of pain.
It’s strange to feel so accepted and yet be afraid of it.
“What are you?” I rasp, watching him carefully in case he lunges forward. I won’t be able to stop him should he attack, but I’m wary enough of him to think I can or that the others will be faster.
His shadows swirl beneath our feet, dancing and tickling. When they brush along my flesh, they leave behind a sweet coolness that begs me to lie down and let them cover me. It’s like the fog Cora and I used to play in as children, providing the feeling of being blind and enjoying it while water dropletsaccumulate on your skin. His shadows feel like that, and it both haunts me with my past and makes me want to bask in the nostalgia. How curious.
He smiles, but it’s more of a baring of teeth than anything else. It should be sinister, but I find the attempt endearing. “I am the darkness that dances in the forest. I am the shadows that kiss your feet. If you dive deep into your nightmares, you will find me there.”
“I . . .” I snap my mouth shut. I had indeed found him in my nightmares, lost within the memories that haunt me, triggered by the hand of someone who will never hurt me.
“The boogeyman,” Dade rasps, and I glance over at him.
The new monster follows my gaze, taking in the warhorse with curious eyes. “Yes, I have been called so many times.”
“A story,” Weyland murmurs. “A legend.”
“Clearly not,” Kaito points out, his eyes wide with fear as he focuses on where I still hold this new monster’s hand. “Because he’s standing right in front of us.”
“Do you have a name?” the shadow monster asks me, focusing entirely on me and dismissing the others as if they are not a threat.
I hesitate at first, afraid that by giving him my name, he will keep it, but that seems like a silly notion when he just pulled me from my horrors. “Kai,” I offer meekly, and the small sound makes me angry. Have I not grown bigger than my fear? Am I not holding the hand of a monster who frightens other monsters? Yet I still sound weak. “Kai,” I say strongly, as if I’m proving to both myself and this new monster that I’m strong enough to face him. “I’m Kai.”
“Kai,” he repeats, voicing it like he’s tasting the sound between his lips. “Kai, phosphene, oblivion.” He leans down and peers into my eyes as if he were peering into my soul. “Kai, wielder of darkness, I am Rook.”
Rook. It suits him, as if the name is as dark as his shadows.
The more I stare at him, the more his warmth seeps through the flesh of my hand and the angrier I grow until I’m seething and it begins to spill out of me. My heart beats wildly in my chest, fear making it faster, and my anger only amplifies that. Despite the casual nature of our conversation and knowing the others are here, that same fear consumes me from the inside out. When will it take me completely? Will I ever truly heal?
My fury turns to something else, something more potent. I am the darkness just as he said. I’m sick of being afraid. I’m sick of the nightmares that plague me whether I am awake or asleep. I move to jerk my hand from Rook’s, but he holds fast, his large fingers tightening on my smaller ones.
“Let go,” I hiss, fury spitting from behind my teeth.
“You’re letting your darkness control you, little oblivion. You must control it in return,” Rook says, still refusing to let go.
“You know nothing about me!” I jerk again and this time, the others see my struggle and take a step forward.
Rook shoots them a glare that freezes them for a mere second before they collect themselves and stalk forward.
