AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She looked back at Ames, eager for his instruction, but he was more concerned with the tiny vial of beguiler essence now clutched in his hand. Tenah’s throat tightened as she watched him dip a needle into the swirling iridescent contents before pricking his finger.
Instantly, his silvery, translucent form soaked up a moonlit complexion. His chin-length hair took on a shade of ashy brown. Sea-glass blue washed through his irises, circling the developing pupil. His specks of visible magic blinked out of existence. Hidden but never gone.
Rage tugged against the fragile leash Tenah held on her emotions. She hated that he felt the need to alter his appearance to keep from unsettling shadows like her—inhumans blessed with an affinity for elemental magic. It wasn’t as if Ashens weren’t common to the Kandar Isles. They’d immigrated here through the Void from a world called Sathus Morr centuries ago when all portals were still in operation.
Other than a ghostly form and their unique mental abilities, they weren’t any different from shadowkind. But the last devastating war had been fought against a wrathful Ashen queen. Until those wounds healed, Ames felt the need to conceal his true nature, more concerned with putting others at ease than remaining true to himself.
When his transformation was complete, he nodded to her. “Manners, Tenah.”
Teeth clenched, she stormed from the cramped study and down the main corridor of the behemoth, green-wallpapered corridor. Staff was limited in her family’s manor, but the shadows that remained loyal knew better than to answer the door.
She opened it just wide enough to fit her body. The king’s elite stepped back. His narrowed, dark eyes snapped to her hands. Assured she wasn’t holding a weapon, he took in her ragged tunic, baggy pants, and worn leather boots as if her attire was more egregious than if she’d been caught holding a battle axe.
Tenah flicked a tendril of smoke-colored hair over her shoulder. Elementals, capital folk were so dramatic.
Sometimes during her rare evening strolls through Firesteep, she couldn’t help but wish suffering upon them, swimming in their crystal pools by the palace and dining on sweet rolls and grilled kabobs from the eclectic, lively markets.
No one talked about the victims of war like her father, decaying in solitude.
No one cared to understand the dark magic infecting him and so many others.
The elite cleared his throat. “Is the lord of the house present?”
“Is it any of your business?” Tenah countered.
He blinked, confused by the steel cut of her tone. After a pause, he retrieved an envelope with a gold wax seal. “I have a message for Lord Kherathi—”
Tenah snatched the envelope. “I’m his daughter. I’ll pass it on.”
So polite, Ames said.
Do you ever get tired of being a nuisance?she asked butpushed thanks through bared teeth before slamming the door in the elite’s face and sliding the deadbolts home.
Leaned against the door, she clutched the envelope tight against her chest. The urge to tear into it was strong, but such an act could set her father off, spiraling him into another wave of madness.
Instead, she cut for the attic stairs. Muffled shouts from behind the door at the landing halted her ascent. The air took on a heady stench of copper, coating her tongue and the back of her throat. Whispers coiled around her, dragging along her sweaty skin like the invisible claws of demons.
Anyone who believed hell was below them was a fool. Hell was right here, wearing the shell of her father.
Vessel, the magic whispered in her ear.
The lump in her throat grew painfully large. Of all the magic she’d studied, none of them had ever spoken to her. Whatever had sunk its teeth into her father, whatever disease he’d brought back from Adra, it was evil incarnate. It shouldn’t exist. The moment their king or the High Court found out about it, her father would be sentenced to death, and everyone else in the manor would stand to be punished for their involvement.
The door to the attic swung open, and Tenah startled in the middle of the staircase. Ames shut the door behind him promptly, sealing away visibility of the silhouette behind the desk, but not before she witnessed the malevolent eddy of black, smoky magic.
Sweep him under the rug, she couldn’t help but think as she charged back down the stairs.
Ames followed, the scent of dark magic clinging to the fibers of his gray shirt and straight-legged pants. It was enough to twist her stomach into knots. “Do you expect to manage the Delemor affairs with that attitude?”
“I don’t expect to manage anything,” she retorted, her brows furrowing as Ames’s gaze drifted, his attention caught by a storm of unfavorable thoughts. What had he been discussing with her father? Something he had discerned from the elite’s mind?
“We’ve had a good run, Tenah. You’ve progressed far but—”
She winced. “But now you doubt me. You don’t think I can fix him. Does he think so too?”
Years. They’d sacrificed years chasing Ames’s promise that she would find a cure. That she was capable. That she’d inherited her mother’s ability to heal, if only she could find a source of that rare magic in the Void. She’d never had to search for her flames, certain she’d been born with fire in her veins.
Infuriating tears stung her eyes as crimson embers licked at her fingers. She snuffed them out but not before they singed the edges of the envelope she held out to him. “Here.”
