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“Jinx!” I shot upright, and the cat yowled, back flipping through the air and landing on the windowsill. Her back arched, fur spiking along the length of her spine as I pressed a hand to my pounding heart. The two of us looked at each other for a long moment, the cat glaring balefully while I stared at her in shock.
“Is this real?” I finally said. “You… you’re not a figment of my imagination?”
The cat promptly turned her back on me, then lifted her tail to show me her asshole.
Well, that definitely seems like something Jinx would do.She was my shadow familiar—an animal I’d created using my own shadow magic when I was only seven years old. I’d been jealous of Vaya and her wolf familiar, and since I wasn’t Ferae, I’d decided to create one of my own using magic. My mother had expected Jinx to fade after a few hours since shadow constructs were temporary, but for reasons no one really understood, Jinx had stuck around. She’d been my faithful companion throughout my life, right up until Sebastian had locked me away.
Hesitantly, I swung my legs over the side of the bed, then approached her. The cat sat down on her haunches and began grooming one of her paws, ignoring me. I sighed as I sank to my knees, reaching out for her.
“Oh, come on,” I said a little crossly when she shifted away from my hand. “I didn’t mean to send you flying. And besides,you knew waking me up like that would freak me out, especially since you’ve been gone so long. You did that on purpose!”
Jinx lifted her head at that, her paw falling back down. A tiny growl rumbled in her chest as if she were chastising me, and then, as if deciding that was punishment enough, she stretched her neck out and butted her forehead against my nose.
Tears welled in my eyes, and I ran my hand down the sleek length of her back. Jinx purred, nuzzling harder, and I scooped her into my arms, cuddling her against my chest. She might have been made of shadows, but she felt real and solid in my arms, and I held her tight, finally giving into my need for physical touch. My tears soaked her fur, but she didn’t seem to mind. She just tucked herself against my chest and allowed me to take what I needed.
Finally, once the tears had stopped coming, and my trembling eased, she butted the top of her head against the underside of my chin, asking me to release her. As soon as I did, she scampered toward the door, then started meowing insistently.
I frowned, getting to my feet. “Hang on. I can’t go anywhere like this.” I glanced down at the nightgown I was wearing. Apparently, I’d been out long—and hard—enough that someone had undressed and tucked me into bed. Reaching up, I pulled on the cord attached to the crystal chandelier, and a soft, yellow glow illuminated the room, allowing me to see the clock on the wall.
“Ten a.m.” I walked over to the closet and pushed it open. To my surprise, a different set of outfits awaited, all in varying shades of blue and black, with Maximillian’s house crest stitched on the breasts and lapels.
“You’ll need to blend in if you plan to stay here,”Nyra had told me as she’d escorted me back to my room last night.“Running around dressed like a vampire hunter will only attract the same kind of trouble you ran into last night. I’ll have your closet outfitted with garments appropriate for a human thrall in Lord Starclaw’s service.”
Well. Either she’d made quick work of that, or I’d been out longer than I thought.
I riffled through the outfits and eventually settled on a pair of black trousers and a blouse with a ruffled collar. A few jackets also hung on the rack, but I ignored them in favor of my duster. I didn’t care if it wasn’t typical—the fabric was reinforced with amurel thread—a rare silkworm found exclusively in the Vale of Mists whose threads could be spun into a stab and slash-proof fabric. An absolute necessity around vampires, as far as I was concerned.
I slipped four stakes into the pockets, shoved my feet into a pair of soft black boots, then followed Jinx out the door. But I paused again at the sight of a covered basket sitting on the low table in the room, and my stomach growled at the delicious scent wafting from it.
The basket turned out to be filled with fresh bread rolls. They smelled of potatoes rather than wheat flour, but they were soft and buttery when I bit into them. My stomach didn’t revolt the same way it did when I’d eaten the veggie mash, so I tucked one roll into my pocket, then slowly munched on another while I followed Jinx out into the hall.
Aether crystals set at intervals along the wall bathed the corridor in their ambient glow, revealing a series of doors. Interspersed between them were paintings showcasing a variety of landscapes—some from the human realm, others from Noxalis. I paused beside a striking painting of a woman atop a golden steed, racing across an open plain. Her red hair streamed out like a banner behind her, the war paint on her cheeks highlighting the beautiful savagery of her face. Other riders galloped in the distance, outracing the setting sun as it dipped beneath the horizon and sent ribbons of purple, red, and violet streaking across the sky behind them.
A lump rose in my chest as old memories surfaced. These were the Equinox—one of the three tribes of Ferae, also known as the animagi. Blessed with the power to command animals, each tribe had its own special affinity. My mother and I had spent most of my childhood living amongst the Ferae tribes, and we’d visited the Equinox on several occasions, usually to treat some poor rider who’d suffered a fall from horseback. It was amongst the Ferae that I’d learned the basics of healing and potion making, and those were some of the happiest years of my life.
Jinx meowed insistently, and I tore my gaze from the painting and followed her into a common area. The space was far more expansive than the tiny sitting room in my chambers, scattered with plush seating areas, a fireplace large enough to stand in, and a cabinet that appeared to be filled with a variety of knickknacks and curios. A half-finished game of chess sat at a table beneath a window, and the pillows on one of the couches were askew, telling me that someone had been here recently.
I wanted to investigate the curio cabinet, but Jinx led me to a bookshelf that sat between two armchairs. She leaped onto the fourth shelf and pawed at a slim volume with a red leather cover.
“A book?” I hooked my finger around the top edge of the spine and pulled. But instead of coming off, the book hinged forward,then caught on the edge of the shelf. A soft click fractured the silence, and the shelf slid sideways, revealing a secret stairwell.
The cat jumped down and into the stairwell, her tail curling in a ‘come hither’ gesture. “How do you always find these places?” I called as I hurried after her. The bookcase slid shut behind me, plunging us into pitch darkness, but a second later, another set of crystals flared to life along the wall.
Shaking my head, I followed Jinx down the spiral staircase. My shadow cat had a knack for finding hidden entrances and secret passages, which had come in handy on numerous occasions during my hunts. We passed several sets of doors before she finally stopped at one that saw less use than the others. I paused to wipe the cobwebs off the doorknob, then grasped the handle and carefully pushed the door open.
Moonlight streamed through tall windows, casting ethereal beams that danced across rows upon rows of bookshelves. It took me a moment to realize that I was standing on the second floor of a library, and a shock of surprised delight hit me as the scents of leather and aged paper teased my nostrils.
Stepping away from the bookshelf I’d just emerged from, I approached the balcony railing and looked up, then down. One more level spanned above me, and another sprawled below me. Wrought metal spiral staircases connected the levels on opposite corners, and I spotted an array of study tables topped with crystal lamps along the far end of the first floor.
“All right,” I said down to Jinx, who was staring at me expectantly. “What did you bring me here to find?”
The cat responded by winding her way through my legs with a rumbling purr… and then disappearing in a poof of shadow.
I rolled my eyes.Typical.Like most cats, Jinx was as capricious as the ocean’s tides, popping in and out as her whims dictated. Trying not to betooannoyed, I descended the staircase, then approached the counter by the entrance. No librarian manned the desk, but there was a lengthy row of drawer cabinets, each labeled with its own alphabet sticker, that contained an extensive card catalogue system.
Even though Jinx hadn’t left me any instructions—she never did, since she couldn’t speak—it didn’t take a genius to figure out why she’d sent me here. She had a habit of leading me to people and places whenever I was searching for answers, and what better place to search for answers about what had happened to the world while I’d been gone than in the royal library?
It took me about thirty minutes of rifling through the card catalogue, and another hour or so of traipsing through shelves and climbing up ladders, but eventually I ended up at one of the study tables with a stack of books and an armful of scrolls.
