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A dozen feet separated us, yet I reached out my hands as though to catch him. My shadows swept forward with the movement, spiraling, wrapping around his lifeless figure. But, try as I might, I couldn’t get my magic to turn solid enoughto secure him—to stop him from meeting the same fate as the sword.

The ground shook, rolling him forward, swallowing him up.

Gone.

Just like that, he wasgone,leaving only a trail of blood and bits of broken shadows in his wake.

The few people who hadn’t fled were staring at me, horrified. Everything was spinning. Unraveling.I felt out of control, out of options, out of ideas. I turned away from the widening chasm…

And I ran.

Shadows followed.Destructionfollowed. Wherever I went, darkness flailed alongside me, occasionally catching on living things and draining them, felling bodies, cutting swaths of grey through what had once been lush courtyards.

I ran faster. Faster, faster,faster,until, finally, I stood alone atop the highest hill overlooking Rose Point. Gasping for breath, I gazed back at my home, trying to make sense of what had happened.

I willed myself not to be afraid.

Death, after all, took many forms to me.

But the day I watched the future King of Light murder my father was the first day Death’s shadows tookmyform, wrapping me in a merciless embrace, turning me into a vessel of lethal darkness.

And it would not be the last time my shadows raged out of control, seeking both solace and vengeance, but finding neither.

Chapter One

Seven Years Later

After months of searching,I’d finally found it: Acrimsonlithtree. One in full bloom, heavy with the fruits that contained the last ingredient our spell needed.Now, all I had to do was steal one of these fruits, carry it back, and let Orin work his magic with the seeds inside.

And then I would finally be ready to die.

I’d been told, over and over, that these trees no longer existed in the southern region of the Valorian Empire. Yet, here one was, standing tall right in the middle of Lord Roderic’s home, kept in a glass-covered atrium flooded with light and all manner of other rare plants, just mere feet away from my spirit-self.

If only my spirit-self could have collected them right then and there...this mission could have been over in minutes.

Still, this was a start.

Having successfully located my target, I released the tethering spell I’d been using to guide my ghostly shade, sending it snapping back toward my physical self. It was a useful trick for spying and seeking—though not so much forstealing; one needed a corporeal body capable of holding objects for that.

Minor details, you know.

Absently, my fingers closed around one of the four bracelets I constantly wore. As my thumb traced black, rose-shaped beads, I bowed my head and closed my eyes, waiting for my dizziness to subside. I’d grown quite skilled at projecting shades of myself around, but putting my pieces back together would likely always be a jarring experience.

A chill brushed over my hand—Phantom, rubbing his nose against my fingers and letting me know he still stood by my dazed body, watching over me.

Spirit-walking could be dangerous magic to wield—leaving the wielder in varying states of inebriation or outright oblivion—but I always took care to hide my body, and I never feared as long as Phantom stayed close to that body.

He kept most stray passersby away by his frightening appearance, alone, and he’d done this enough times to become something of a legend around here; the haunting, spectral beast of the once-royal city of Luscerna. When appearances alone didn’t work, he could also exert a terrifying energy that left his targets feeling ghastly ill—a rather useful power he’d gained after dying.

Or mostlydying.

I saymostlybecause, thanks to my magic, he wasn’t as dead as he should have been.

Three years ago, Phantom had fallen ill and passed away. But I hadn’t been ready to let him go. He was the only family I had left, and so, without thinking, I’d unleashed my shadows and given them free rein in a way I never had before, hoping they might pull him back to me…a desperate attempt that had actuallyworked.

Sort of.

To this day, I still didn’t fully know how I’d kept him with me—or how long the spell would last.