My chest warmed once more and hummed, the eather inside me—the embers of life—vibrating in response to the wave of pure, unfettered power. A silver, crackling light suddenly filled the woods, so bright and iridescent that, for the briefest second, I saw the swirling, circling Shades above me. And then they were simply…gone.
That kind of power was unthinkable.
Spitting, hissing energy swept over the Shade above me, filling the newly formed veins with burning white light as it threw the Shade into the air, and it shattered into utterly nothing.
I lay there, hand still raised as the intense, silvery light receded and faded, and the world turned gray and almost lifeless once more.
Above and among the warped branches, the silver hawk called out softly and then lifted into the air. My heart thundering, I watched it spread its wings and disappear from view.
Not even the fierce predator wanted to hang around.
“Seraphena.”
My chest seized at the hard, cold voice that had to be conjured from the darkest hours of the night. What I’d done to the Shade fell to the wayside, replaced by the knowledge that I should’ve seen this coming. He had my blood in him—lots of it now. He would’ve felt the extreme burst of fear, even if it had been brief—just as he had in the courtyard earlier. Maybe it wasn’t even the blood as much as the Primal ember inside me that had once belonged to him. Who knew? None of that mattered at the moment. What did was the fact that I couldn’t just lay here, wishing I could sink into the ground. My heart still hammering away, I slowly rose to my feet. Pressure clamped down on my chest as I faced him.
Nyktos stood several feet from me, appearing every bit the Primal ruler of the Shadowlands he was. He cut a striking figure in a deep gray tunic, his hair swept back. The lines of his face were harder and colder than I’d ever seen them.
And his skin…it was thin.
The longer I stared, the more I saw the shadows gathering beneath his flesh. His eyes were swirling, silver orbs. I didn’t need his talent to read emotions to know that he was beyond furious.
The reality hit me with the speed of an out-of-control wagon. I wasn’t going anywhere. My true destiny wouldn’t be fulfilled. Nyktos would never let me out of his sight now. I would be trapped here, with all the people who would likely die because of me. The pressure on my chest and in my throat ramped up. The tightening became unbearable, and I did something I had never done before.
I turned and ran. I ran as fast and as hard as I could, racing through the twisted and bent trees, ignoring the sharp slices of pain as bare, low-hanging branches reached toward me like bony fingers, snagging my cloak and hair and nicking my skin.
The pressure in my chest was cool and thick, leaving little room for control or rationale. Like when Tavius had pinned me down, and I couldn’t breathe. I’d reacted like a wild animal then, and I was that animal again.
He would burn through the Shadowlands.
Damp, clammy sweat broke out across my forehead as the wound left behind by the Shade ached. The gray, bare limbs of the trees were a blurred maze of twisted, gnarled, bone-like branches. My boots pounded over rocks and uneven ground as I kept running, not even knowing where I was running to. But I knew why. Desperation. Foolish, idiotic desperation propelled me forward, each step putting distance between me and the nightmares that were sure to become a horrific reality. I would never have a chance to reach Kolis. I would be nothing more than a bull’s-eye, guiding Kolis right to everyone—to Nyktos.
Kolis has done all manner of things to him.
I couldn’t stop the Rot. I wouldn’t be able to stop Kolis. I had no duty—no higher purpose. I would die. And, worse yet, I would be the cause of untold horror. I was nothing but—
A rush of citrus and fresh air was my only warning. Nyktos’s weight suddenly crashed into me, hard and solid. The ground raced up to me as his arm folded across my waist. He twisted, and then all I could see was the twinkling of stars between a spiderweb of bare branches.
Nyktos hit the ground first, and…gods, that must have hurt. He absorbed the impact of my weight against the rocky surface with a grunt. The back of my head bounced off the wall of his chest, momentarily stunning me. There was nothing but our ragged breathing for a beat and then…
“Did you seriously just try to run?” Nyktos’s breath stirred the hair on the top of my head. “From me? Why? Why would you do that?”
“Why not?” I shot back, cringing at how utterly childish that sounded.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” he snarled. A tremor ran through me as I strained against his hold. “You fled the safety of the palace and ran straight into the second place I warned you never to enter. Was my very short list of rules that confusing? Or are you just that incapable of following rules meant to save your life?”
“Fuck your rules,” I spat, tremors skating through me.
“And my sanity right along with them,” he bit out. “Do you even understand how close you were to death, Sera? Even if you killed the Shade above you, there were at least a dozen more waiting. If I hadn’t felt you and intervened—yet again, if I might add—”
“No, you may not.”
“You would be dead,” he seethed. “They would’ve torn into you, and no amount of my blood would’ve saved you. There would’ve been nothing left of you to even bury. For me to even—” He cut himself off as the fury backing his words punched into the air around us in a wave of icy-hot energy. My eyes went wide as the ripple hit the trees above, shattering them into ash.
Holy shit. My throat dried as I watched what was left of the trees fall to the ground like snow.
“What were you thinking, Sera?” He shook me.
What had I been thinking? That I could actually escape the Shadowlands—escape him? Somehow make it to Kolis alive?
“Answer me.” I realized he wasn’t shaking me. It was his body. It shook under mine. “Why were you running from me?”
I tried to sit up, but his arm shifted, holding me flat against him. Even in the chaos of my mind, I realized that he’d trapped my left hand against my stomach. Not my right hand. Not the one that held the dagger. That was a purposeful choice. No accident. The dagger may not be able to kill him, but it had hurt him before. A skilled warrior such as he would’ve removed the threat of a dagger first and foremost. It was what I would do. But he’d chosen not to. “I wasn’t running from you.”
“Then what were you doing? Striving to be the most difficult person I’ve ever crossed paths with?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly it. Not that I was actually trying to save you, you jackass!”
Nyktos went completely still and silent, and I realized my mistake right then. His chest rose sharply against my back. “You couldn’t have—no, Sera. No.”
I felt the moment the shock hit him. His arm loosened around my waist, and I knew it was my chance—my last chance.
Digging the heels of my boots into the ground, I launched myself upward, breaking his hold. I was free for a heartbeat before Nyktos caught my left forearm. Cursing, I twisted as he moved to sit up, clamping my knees onto his hips. He caught the thick braid hanging over my shoulder as I thrust the dagger down.
Nyktos’s eyes went wide as I pressed the edge of the blade under his chin. My hand didn’t shake. No part of me on the outside did. The inside was a different story—everything in there trembled.