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One tremor and everything would fall.
A warm, humid breeze whistled through the trees. Loose waves of hair tickled her bare shoulders and swished the tulle of her champagne-tinted ballgown. She licked her lips, scanning the forest. No sign of movement.
Why was she so keyed up? Her nerves were drawn taut like a fragile string.
She turned to the glass wall of the manor’s grand library, her favorite room. Now it was overburdened with shadows clad in fine suits and glistening dresses, conversing and dancing in utter, blissful ignorance of the horrific world they lived in.
You’re supposed to be inside. Ames appeared behind her, pumped full of his rare, deceiving essence and dressed in an impeccable, gray three-piece suit.I’m surprised you’re still upright, what with all the wine you’ve snuck.
Tenah rolled her eyes, failing to hide her devious grin. Ames was always on the receiving end of her childish behavior because she knew he could handle it. “This gathering is stupid, and so are they for stirring shit up.”
He tipped his head up to the starry indigo sky, smooth like velvet this evening. His shoulders drooped. “Neshar and Lorr, be good to me. Please help dear Tenah keep her flamesandher sharp tongue in check tonight.”
“I’m always on my best behavior,” she muttered, kicking at a dried weed peeking through the cobblestones with her boot.
Ames shook his head, then leaned in to press an icy kiss to her temple. “That’s precisely why I must pray to my gods.”
She tried disheveling his hair, but he ducked out of reach.
“Don’t mess with perfection.” A warm smile transformed his face as he offered his arm. This was why she loved Ames. No matter how mad she drove him, he always stuck around. That was more than she could say about the woman who had given her life.
Tenah looped her arm through his but not before one more peek back at the wall of trees. Just to make sure her instincts were wrong.
Together, they navigated the stream of well-dressed shadows in the manor corridor. She wrinkled her nose, struck with the concoction of sweet, acrid, and herbal magic mingled with thick perfume. It was overwhelming but not so much as the sheer volume of shadows crammed into the library, the only room in the manor large enough to host such an event.
She paused at the double doors. Harrowing notes from a string quartet floated out, thankfully lulling her tumultuous magic back into slumber. Greenery cascaded from the walls of towering bookshelves and half-moon balconies, woven with violets and thorns. The decadent chandeliers brought in by the king’s staff to replace the tarnished ones reminded her of constellations, far too blinding for the crowded space.
The lump in her throat grew painfully large. Something about too many bodies in one room made her skin clammy and her pulse quicken.
Just breathe, Ames said.I’m going to check in on our reclusive host. Go socialize. Be young. Be lively. I’m sure you’ll find you’re a natural at it.
Tenah snorted. Left to her own devices, she snatched a glass of champagne—her third one—off a passing serving tray. She planned to drink herself into oblivion tonight. As she pressed her back against the interior wall of bookshelves, she sipped at the bubbly drink and studied the grotesque mural on the ceiling.
Fear has a way of mutating into brutality,her father had explained when she’d questioned his commissioning of the war at Roan’s Wake as a child. This library was her sanctuary, and he’d gone and messed it up. The blazing orange eyes of the feingrot—otherworldly monsters that had slipped into their world through the Void—haunted her anywhere she hunkered down for study sessions. No amount of flaky pastries or lemon tea could make her forget them.
She understood her father’s lesson though. Vozar’s shadows, parading about with lithe movements, feasting and conversing in tight-knit circles, feared her father. And when shadows were afraid of something, they pulverized it.
Lazily, her gaze slid over to the tapestry Ames had hung in the nearest corner. Not because he particularly cared about the Greater Elementals—he worshipped higher gods—but to teach her about the origins of her magic. Stitched into the colorful fabric was a four-pointed star, each arm containing one of the Greater Elementals, beings that had emerged from the Void to imbue knowledge of magic to shadowkind as a means of protection against anything else that managed to leak into the world. Renix, engulfed in flames and magma. Sakkren, the shapeshifting horror that manipulated the air around her. Honestly,terrifying. Felnor, with his elegant vines and roots, wrapped in ribbons of healing water.
And then there was Xith, the fallen elemental. His all-black eyes, dark clouds, and lightning didn’t exactly prompt the desire to bow down in reverence. He was the first known elemental on Daathmorr to lash out against shadowkind, believed to be sent here by sinister gods.
While Tenah appreciated Ames’s efforts, none of that knowledge had done shit to help her access the magic needed to save her father.
Am I not worthy?A question she’d pushed out into the universe almost daily.
She’d considered seeking answers outside of Ames’s training and her precious tomes. Far outside Vozar, even. In the hidden vaults of the northern kingdom protected by the Embassy, an infamous organization of assassins, or etched in the rings of Hathrowyn’s massive, ancient trees where the High Court imbued sacred knowledge.
Ames swore these quests were futile, but just because he read minds didn’t mean he knew everything.
Booming laughter drew her attention to the wall of windows, where King Sardoth sat at a round table with his band of elite. It was hard to understand why Firesteep adored him. Behind his threatening stature and his hawkish eyes, he exuded an air of needing absolute control.
You left me to the wolves,Tenah whined.
No response from Ames. She pursed her lips.
Wine glass empty but mind still not comfortably numb, she dared traverse the hordes in search of food or more alcohol. Anything to ease her discomfort. Anything to drown out their murmurings.
Whispers followed, prodding at her magic.
