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Damn him.
If one of us had to die, then why couldn’t it have been me? I didn’t fear death, and he was so much better than he believed. I had faith that if anyone could retain all of Raina’s divinity, it would be him. Lorian’s comment hadn’t gone unnoticed. This was his destiny.
“I’d have thought she’d learned her lesson not to tangle with mortals. You have her nose,”he had said.
Once Raina had fallen and become mortal, she was rumored to have lived her own life hidden among the people. I prayed she found a partner worthy of her love. They might have had children, who then had children of their own.
“Jude is Raina’s true descendant, isn’t he?” Jake asked, reading my thoughts.
I gave him a curt nod. “Lorian confirmed as much.”
The note in my hand was wrinkled and creased, as though the owner had balled it into a fist one too many times. Proceeding to unfurl the page with great care, I brought it to my eyes and squinted at the scrawled message.
Kiara,
I’d always planned on giving you this note. I need you to be careful and trust no one. There are enemies everywhere, and not just those that lie in the cursed lands. The palace crawls with evil, and the man upon the throne is the worst of them all. If I am dead and you are reading this now, know you were the one who gave me hope of becoming a better man. I would’ve liked to have been that for you one day. Maybe in another life.
Forever your brooding commander,
Jude
It took great effort to keep hold of the letter.
My hands trembled as unwanted tears welled in my eyes. The page blurred into one song of heartbreak, his words ringing through my thoughts on an endless loop I couldn’t turn off.
I turned the letter over, finding another scrawl, one that didn’t belong to Jude.
It simply said:
Kill the girl and the other recruits in the field of Midnight Blooms. Bring me the weapon.
Slick sweat pooled at my lower back, a shrill ringing of alarm sounding in my ears.
The Godslayer.That’s the weapon the writer had referred to. Whoever wrote this had wanted me dead—the missing piece of Raina inside me be damned.
Which meant…they didn’t want the sun to come back at all.
“Cirian,” I murmured. He’d been after something else, all along.
Jake peeked over my shoulder, reading. Jude answered to only one person. “It seems our king never wanted us to succeed after all.”
He just wanted the dagger. One that could killgods.
Jude had held onto this note the entire time. An order to kill me once the mission was through. And yet… This was his way of saying goodbye, while also warning me of unknown threats lurking.
I had a price on my head.
“You do realize the king will capture us the second we cross back into Asidia,” Jake said, running his hands through his hair. They trembled. “He has guards posted everywhere, and if that command indeed came from the king and he wants us and the dagger, then he will post his guards all around the kingdom. We won’t stand a chance.”
Rising to my feet, I gripped my friend by the shoulders, my voice unwavering. Tendrils of black slithered from my fingertips, dancing down Jake’s chest. Gold flickered within the smoke, shining through the murky onyx.
“Oh, Jake. Don’t you know I like it when the odds are against me?” My smile was grim. “It makes winning that much more fun.”
Besides, no one could kill a shadow.
Epilogue
Jude
