Page 327
Story: Dawnbringer
Shit, Aiden thought. She was coming this way. It wasn’t too late to turn around, start running. Sure, he would look like a coward, but there were worse things.
Skye clapped a hand on his shoulder, as if he could sense the urge to run. And Aiden stood there, heart pounding as Mina pushed through the last of the crowd.
She stopped a foot in front of them, pulling back her hood so that he could see her fully. She looked beautiful. Her black hair was woven with jewels. Beneath a dark cloak, she wore a traditional festival gown in rich colors.
“Hi,” she said softly.
“Hi,” Aiden echoed a bit lamely.
“Wow, this is awkward,” Skye observed. Aiden shot him a glare, but Skye only grinned, his devil’s smile a match to the one on Taly’s face. “Would you like us to leave?”
“I don’t want to leave,” Taly said. “This looks like it has the potential to be fun.” Aiden cast a scathing glance at his cousin. “Not for you. For me.” She popped another piece of sugar floss in her mouth, human gray eyes wide and sparkling with mischief.
“Get out of here,” Aiden said. The last thing he needed were witnesses to his shame.
Thankfully, Skye had never craved blood the way that Taly did. He showed mercy. “Alright, Taly, come on. How about you show me up at the archery range?”
“You two kids have fun!” she shouted, grinning as he hauled her off. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Which is actually not a lot, so maybe ignore that advice.”
The crowd swallowed them as they disappeared around the corner.
Aiden looked at Mina. She stared back, a long moment passing between them. “Look, I—” he began just as she said, “I’m glad—”
They both laughed before lapsing into another long moment of silence.
“Me first?” she asked. He nodded, relieved. “I guess I should say… that is, I’ve been wanting to apologize.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
She huffed a soft laugh, murmuring, “If only that were true.”
Aiden had known about the Curse long before any of the other healers. His hands were tied, though—he couldn’t say a word until his uncle informed the public. Day in, day out, he watched his colleagues, his fellow soldiers in the trenches, grieve for the patients they couldn’t save, unable to tell them the truth: that their efforts had been doomed from the start.
Mina had known something was off. When she finally cornered him, he was already on edge.
The lanterns’ glow gilded her skin in soft golds and reds. It caught in her hair, glinting like molten bronze against the inky strands as she lifted her eyes to his. “I pushed you for information, even when it became clear that you weren’t going to give it to me. And I’m sorry. Once I stopped being angry and made myself think about it, I… I get it. You were under orders.”
It was a nice sentiment. He wanted it to be true, except— “Mina, you lost two patients the week leading up to the town hall. If you’d known it was a Curse—”
“I still would’ve lost them,” she said, and he knew it was true. “Let’s be honest, Aiden, this”—she spread her arms wide, waving at the festival around them—“is a lie. Shades are still attacking, people are dying, and our only hope is a Gate that still has months to open. Everyone here, on some level, is expecting to die, and your uncle has the unfortunate task of making sure we don’t rip each other apart in the meantime. So, yeah—I get it, and I’m sorry. I can’t imagine that information was easy to hold on to, especially considering what we do every day.”
A tightness in his chest eased, and for the first time in weeks, Aiden felt like he could breathe. “Thank you. I—” Someone ran squarely into his shoulder, and he barely suppressed a growl.
They were standing in the middle of the aisle, people streaming by on either side.
“I’ve never been to anything like this before,” Mina said. They were both being jostled now. “I saw some food stalls one street over. Or maybe we could play a game?”
“They’re—” He was going to say rigged, but stopped himself, glancing over his shoulder to where Taly and Skye had disappeared. Pains in the ass—both of them. But maybe they had a point. He could afford to remove the stick. Occasionally.
So, turning back to Mina, Aiden said, “Sure,” gesturing for her to follow. “C’mon. I know a trick to this one.”
Taly found the archery range, and for all Skye’s complaining, he didn’t put up much of a fight when she went to buy tokens. Even started collecting bets and hyping her up when a crowd began to gather.
“Alright, everyone, listen up!” he announced. “The Savior of Ebondrift herself is about to show you how it’s done. I’m calling out to anyone here who thinks they can outshoot her. Place your bets and prove your worth, if you dare.”
An hour later, Taly had a bag full of prizes, a pocket full of coin, and a smug smile on her face.
They found the bar cart, and with beers in hand, they started at one end of the food block and worked their way down. That had always been one advantage of attending festivals with shadow mages—they were bottomless pits, so even if she wanted to try one of everything, there was never any risk of food going to waste. But that appetite was a double-edged sword. With those quick fingers and even quicker reflexes, if she wanted more than a few bites of any one dish, she had to keep a heavy guard.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201
- Page 202
- Page 203
- Page 204
- Page 205
- Page 206
- Page 207
- Page 208
- Page 209
- Page 210
- Page 211
- Page 212
- Page 213
- Page 214
- Page 215
- Page 216
- Page 217
- Page 218
- Page 219
- Page 220
- Page 221
- Page 222
- Page 223
- Page 224
- Page 225
- Page 226
- Page 227
- Page 228
- Page 229
- Page 230
- Page 231
- Page 232
- Page 233
- Page 234
- Page 235
- Page 236
- Page 237
- Page 238
- Page 239
- Page 240
- Page 241
- Page 242
- Page 243
- Page 244
- Page 245
- Page 246
- Page 247
- Page 248
- Page 249
- Page 250
- Page 251
- Page 252
- Page 253
- Page 254
- Page 255
- Page 256
- Page 257
- Page 258
- Page 259
- Page 260
- Page 261
- Page 262
- Page 263
- Page 264
- Page 265
- Page 266
- Page 267
- Page 268
- Page 269
- Page 270
- Page 271
- Page 272
- Page 273
- Page 274
- Page 275
- Page 276
- Page 277
- Page 278
- Page 279
- Page 280
- Page 281
- Page 282
- Page 283
- Page 284
- Page 285
- Page 286
- Page 287
- Page 288
- Page 289
- Page 290
- Page 291
- Page 292
- Page 293
- Page 294
- Page 295
- Page 296
- Page 297
- Page 298
- Page 299
- Page 300
- Page 301
- Page 302
- Page 303
- Page 304
- Page 305
- Page 306
- Page 307
- Page 308
- Page 309
- Page 310
- Page 311
- Page 312
- Page 313
- Page 314
- Page 315
- Page 316
- Page 317
- Page 318
- Page 319
- Page 320
- Page 321
- Page 322
- Page 323
- Page 324
- Page 325
- Page 326
- Page 327 (Reading here)
- Page 328
- Page 329
- Page 330
- Page 331
- Page 332
- Page 333
- Page 334
- Page 335
- Page 336
- Page 337
- Page 338
- Page 339
- Page 340
- Page 341
- Page 342
- Page 343
- Page 344
- Page 345
- Page 346
- Page 347
- Page 348
- Page 349
- Page 350
- Page 351
- Page 352
- Page 353
- Page 354
- Page 355
- Page 356
- Page 357
- Page 358
- Page 359
- Page 360
- Page 361
- Page 362
- Page 363
- Page 364
- Page 365
- Page 366
- Page 367
- Page 368
- Page 369
- Page 370
- Page 371
- Page 372
- Page 373
- Page 374
- Page 375
- Page 376
- Page 377
- Page 378
- Page 379
- Page 380
- Page 381
- Page 382
- Page 383
- Page 384
- Page 385
- Page 386
- Page 387
- Page 388
- Page 389
- Page 390
- Page 391
- Page 392
- Page 393
- Page 394
- Page 395
- Page 396
- Page 397
- Page 398
- Page 399
- Page 400
- Page 401
- Page 402
- Page 403
- Page 404
- Page 405
- Page 406