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“Well, we can’t have that.” But his smile widened. “I believe I’m not the only one with magic tricks up their sleeve. You pulled a very interesting one in the Summit Hall a few days ago.”
I laughed a little, shaking my head. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten that I’d used shadow magic to grab his balls in the middle of a summit session. “That wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t gotten all weird and jealous.”
“Oh, I’m not complaining,” he said, his thumb tracing patterns along my ribcage as we danced. “I’m looking forward to seeing what else you and your little shadow friends can do.”
But despite the sexually charged banter between us, neither of us made any move to leave the dance floor. We couldn’t—not when we had worked so hard for this moment, when we were mere minutes from everything falling into place. So we simply danced, losing ourselves in the music drifting through the midnight air, in the feeling of being in each other’s arms, two separate universes that were never meant to collide connecting.
But all too soon, the moment came to an end. Maximillian’s gaze slid over my shoulder to where Vladimir sat. A cool determination slid over his face, wiping away all traces of tenderness.
“It’s time,” he murmured.
I nodded as he stepped past me, and drifted over to one of the pillars near the windows, stepping into the pool of shadows behind it. The plan was for Maximillian to beg a private audience with the emperor. There was a private room just across the hall with an adjoining chamber, so all I had to do was enter the next room, then wait until the right moment to walk in through the connecting doors. We had agreed to do it later in the evening, when most of the simpering courtiers that gathered around Vladimir to curry favor finally dissipated to join the festivities, and were drunk enough on bloodwine that they were least likely to kick up a fuss or notice anything amiss.
I watched from the darkness as Maximillian bowed before the emperor, then requested the audience. The emperor frowned, probably annoyed at the idea of being pulled from the festivities, but whatever Maximillian said must have convinced him. He got to his feet, and Maximillian followed along with three guards.
I waited until they had disappeared, then waited a little while more before stepping out from behind the pillar to follow. Itmight raise suspicion if I was seen leaving immediately after they did. But I only made it a few steps before that familiar tug started up in my chest again—only this time, it was a vicious sensation, as if someone had reached into my guts and was now trying to yank them out of my abdomen. It was so painful that I nearly doubled over in agony, and I had to clutch a nearby table to stay upright.
What in the ever-loving hells is going on?
I swept the ballroom for any sign of Casimir, who was the only possible source for this pain. I didn’t see him anywhere, but the excruciating tug pointed me to a window in the far corner that turned out to be a set of double doors leading onto a stone balcony. I didn’t want to go out there, not when Maximillian was waiting for me with the emperor, but as I moved toward the door, I noticed that the pain lessened with each step I took.
Muttering every foul curse I knew under my breath, I opened the double doors and slipped out into the freezing night that I was absolutely not dressed for. A wide veranda stretched the length of the ballroom, but although there were a few couples out here sharing glasses of bloodwine or necking like young lovers, none of them were the crown prince.
I’m going to murder him when I find him,I swore, descending a set of steps that led from the veranda to the stone garden on the south side of the Iron Spire. I’d briefly explored them on my second day here—it was a beautiful place that, as the name suggested, was carved entirely from stone. Sculpted trees, their branches frozen in an eternal dance, lined the pathways, stone benches nestled among carved flowers and grasses, and a central fountain, its water replaced by swirling stone waves, stood in the center. The moonlight played off the polished surfaces, creating the illusion of movement, and I wondered if, before the EternalNight, there had been a living garden here that looked like this one.
Casimir stood by the fountain, his hands braced against the stone basin, chest heaving as though he were about to vomit into it. He stiffened at my approach, and the pulsing in my chest grew stronger, pulling me toward him with a force I was powerless to resist.
His head snapped up as I approached, and I sucked in a breath as our eyes clashed. His irises were a strange silvery white, no trace of their usual citrine color to be seen.
“What in the hells are you doing here?” he barked, baring his fangs at me. “Didn’t I tell you to stay the fuck away from me?”
“I would if it wasn’t literally killing me not to!” I snapped back, all the anger I’d built up toward him finally boiling over. I was fucking sick of this shit, sick of him constantly snapping at me as if this strange thing between us wasmyfault, whenhewas the one out here messing up all my carefully laid plans. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on either, but I’m ending this. Right now.”
Casimir’s eyes widened as I closed the distance between us. “No, wait—” he started, but I pressed my hand against the center of his chest, right where I felt the tug in mine. The action was guided by pure instinct, but as soon as I touched him, the nagging sensation vanished, and I felt a distinctclick, like a deadbolt sliding free.
But whatever relief I felt was not echoed by Casimir. The flesh under my hand grew burning hot, and he gasped as light began to pulse at the center of his chest. As the light brushed againstmy skin, I felt a familiar, welcoming warmth, like the kiss of moonlight on my face. Or the blessing of my goddess.
The realization of what was happening crashed into me with such force, I nearly fell to my knees.
“Casimir!” I grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look at me. “We need to get you out of here. Is there someplace we can go to, a wooded area or a hidden field, where nobody lives?”
“There’s the Bramblewood Forest,” Casimir panted, pointing northwest. “But it’s miles from here. I don’t think I can walk more than five paces.”
Fuck.The light in his chest grew brighter with every pulse, spreading across his skin in increments. It was only a matter of time before that power unleashed itself, and when it did, there wasn’t a single person around for miles who wouldn’t see it.
“I don’t understand this,” Casimir groaned, clutching his chest. “What is happening to me? Why am I burning up on the inside?”
Gods dammit! There was no time. “Don’t make me regret this,” I snarled, tightening my grip on him.
Casimir looked up just in time to see a wave of shadow ribbons explode out of me. He roared in confusion as they wrapped us in a cocoon of darkness, but my shadows held him fast, defying his immortal strength. Shutting out his enraged shouts, I squeezed my eyes shut and visualized the forest Casimir had mentioned, willing the world to dissolve around us. I hadn’t attempted to shadow travel since the night Sebastian had imprisoned me, but I had to get Casimir away from this place before someone saw him.
As I focused on our destination, the pressure of gravity vanished, replaced by the eerie weightlessness that always accompanied shadow travel, as if we were no longer on the continent, but drifting between the stars. The shadow cocoon warbled around us as we traveled through time and space, and then with a sudden jolt, gravity reclaimed us.
The shadow ribbons unraveled around us to reveal the skeletal branches of a dead forest.
And not a moment too soon.
“Fuck!” Casimir screamed, collapsing to his knees as he went supernova. I threw up a shadow shield between us, pouring every scrap of magical energy I had left to protect myself from the tempestuous storm of light he unleashed. The lunar energy tore through the forest like a cataclysmic wave, disintegrating the trees around us and annihilating any animals who had tried to scrape out an existence in this deadened wood. Even through the shield, I could feel the searing heat, and I hissed as my exposed flesh stung beneath the onslaught.
