Page 42 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow (The Ravaged Kingdom #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

T he blood-glow of dusk coaxed me awake, the light bleeding through my aching eyelids. A damp breeze wafted over me, carrying a spicy, unfamiliar aroma that reminded me of balsam trees.

Reluctantly, I peeled my eyes open and stared around the room. The walls were painted a rusty orange that offset the bone-white stone floor. An arched window stood open to the elements — the wind rustling gossamer curtains that played in the fragrant breeze.

I was lying in a huge four-poster bed that looked as though it had been carved from driftwood. It was piled with cream-colored linens that smelled as if they’d been hung to dry in the sun. Beside my bed was a nightstand made of the same gnarled wood, laden with creams and ointments.

My gaze traveled to the figure slouched in a chair by the window.

He was sprawled on top of a dark blanket, which blended in with his black fighting leathers.

His raven hair was disheveled, as though he’d been running his hands through it, and there were dark circles under his eyes.

He sat with his head resting on the back of the chair, snoring lightly.

From this angle, the long tanned column of his throat was exposed — an undeniable temptation. My hands itched for my daggers, but when I reached for them, my palms slid over an airy linen fabric.

I sat bolt upright in bed and stared down at my attire.

Someone had stripped me of my weapons, and my leathers had been replaced by a thin sleeveless nightdress. Staring down at my arms, I saw that my skin was covered with raised silver scars that had once been gaping wounds.

How long had I been asleep?

“Easy,” came a familiar voice, and I whipped my heard toward the window.

Kaden was sitting upright in the chair, those stormy gray eyes fixed on me. His posture was too casual to be natural, and I knew that if I made any sudden movements, he’d been on me in a flash.

The blanket draped over his chair twitched, and I realized it wasn’t a blanket at all, but rather his batlike wings.

Not faerie wings — demon wings.

I sucked in a breath as the memories came rushing back.

The brand of Kaden’s scorching-hot lips as he kissed me in his bedroom.

The demons.

Silas.

Imogen — dead.

The wings that had carried me through the void.

The stone in Kaden’s pocket .

My gaze traveled from those wings to his face, which was twisted in an odd mask of relief and devastation.

Kaden had lied to me all this time — used me to retrieve the cipher. But for what? He hadn’t gone to all that trouble to dispatch Silas. He could have killed him on his own.

The door to the bedroom creaked open, and my insides clenched with terror when I saw who was standing in the doorway.

The Morkahlf.

“What are you —” The demon broke off, his gaze jerking from Kaden sitting by the window to me.

“You,” I breathed, recoiling on the bed as if that bit of extra distance would make any difference. I was unarmed and outnumbered in a strange place. Kaden had lied to me, and —

The Morkahlf ’s features turned stony.

“Not helping,” Kaden muttered, shooting him an exasperated look.

“I’ll just . . .”

The Morkahlf didn’t finish the sentence. He merely backed out of the room and snapped the door shut behind him. It was such a disarmingly human gesture that I turned to Kaden in bewilderment.

“You’ve been working with them all this time,” I said in an accusatory voice.

“No.”

I jerked my head back toward the door through which the Morkahlf had disappeared.

“Adriel’s not with them,” said Kaden dismissively. “He’s . . . He works for me.”

“He’s a demon. ”

“Not exactly.” A grim smirk ghosted across his face. “What Adriel is isn’t relevant.”

“Isn’t relevant ?” My voice shook with the force of my anger as I slipped off the bed. My hands balled into fists at my sides, and I mentally cursed him for disarming me.

Then, without warning, I launched myself past Kaden — clambering for the open window.

I didn’t have a plan, even as I scrambled over the smooth stone sill. I just knew I needed to get away.

I might have been fast, but Kaden was faster. His arm shot out, wrapping around my waist. But any notion of escape drained out of me the instant I caught sight of the sun-faded landscape four stories below.

A wide river wound along a flat bank lined with laurel trees — the source of the spicy scent. The last golden rays of dusk glittered over the water, and beyond the river, just over the horizon, beckoned nothing but darkness.

It wasn’t the peaceful dark of nightfall, I realized. The river flowed toward oblivion.

We weren’t in the mortal realm.

Horrified, I jerked out of Kaden’s grip and backed away from the window.

I didn’t understand. If he wanted me dead, why bother saving me from those demons? Even if they hadn’t shown up, I’d been so badly wounded in the fight against Silas that I probably would have died anyway.

Kaden had saved my life — again. And if the creams and tinctures were any indication, he’d gone to a lot of trouble to do it.

“Where are we?” I rasped. “Why did you bring me here? ”

“Let me explain.” Kaden’s voice was quiet, but there was an edge to his tone.

“Where are we?” I demanded again. I was tired of his lies.

Kaden’s shoulders sagged, and there was no mischief or amusement in his eyes.

My gaze drifted down his hard, muscular chest to the sharp talons that tipped his wings. Would Kaden rip me apart with those talons if I tried to flee?

“This place goes by many names. Every civilization throughout history has had its own mythology surrounding it. To those who dwell here, it’s known as Adraeis.”

Adraeis. Adraeis.

The name pinged around in my head. I’d heard it before, though I couldn’t think where. Then that fragrant river breeze wafted up again, stealing all the air from my lungs as the realization clanged through me.

“That’s the Adraeis River?” I choked. The river to the Otherworld.

Kaden swallowed, a muscle working in his jaw. Then he gave a brief nod.

Panic and confusion swamped me as I stared out at the river, which gleamed white and gold in the dying sun.

The land of eternal twilight.

Adraeis was the place that connected the mortal world to the Otherworld. It wasn’t a void between realms, but rather a bridge from one to the next.

“Am I . . . dead ?”

The question sounded ridiculous even as I voiced it aloud, but no one passed through Adraeis unless their soul had already departed the mortal realm .

“No. Not technically.” A haunted look came into his eyes. “You were close when I flew you out of that house.”

Kaden’s dark power pulsed around me, stronger and more menacing than it had felt with the stone concealing his demon magic. I fought back a shudder.

“I could . . . feel you fading. You’d lost too much blood, and that demon . . .” Kaden swallowed. “I didn’t know how else to save you.”

Horror twisted my insides as his words washed over me. I wasn’t dead, but I wasn’t alive either — not if I was trapped on the banks of Adraeis.

“Time passes differently here,” he explained. “Your wounds were bad, Lyra. I knew I could heal them, but I needed more time. That’s why I brought you here.”

He took a step forward as though he meant to reach for me, but I staggered back. A crease appeared between his brows.

“The river flows both ways,” he said, correctly interpreting my panicked expression. “I can take you back.”

“How?” I asked, my voice like a whip. “Only the Taker of Souls can give a soul ba?—”

Kaden flinched as I broke off. Fragments of the demons’ conversation in Silas’s basement echoed in my head, and suddenly, I understood.

“You’re him ,” I whispered as fresh horror clanged through me. “The Dark Prince, Taker of Souls. Son of Semphrys, the Demon King.”

Kaden grimaced. “I don’t particularly care for any of the monikers I’ve been given over the centuries.”

“You lied to me,” I growled. He’d lied about so many things, but this lie was the worst one of all.

“I never lied about being fae. Ironically, it’s the faerie blood on my mother’s side that prevents it. I’m half demon, half fae. That’s why I needed the stone — to conceal my demon blood.”

A ragged sigh escaped me as the pieces clicked into place. “That’s why you were at Julian’s shop that night. He really did have the stone.”

Kaden shook his head. “ I had the stone. You are the reason I sought it out.”

I frowned.

“For centuries, the Dark King has been hunting Coranthe witches. He scours the minds of mortals living among supernaturals, since their mental defenses are weaker than those with magical blood. He saw you in Julian’s mind. He saw the blade you carried and recognized the markings as Coranthe runes.”

Although I’d already put it together, hearing Kaden confirm that Semphrys was his father was almost more than I could bear. But something else he’d said gave made pause.

The Demon King had been hunting witches. Had he tracked down my mother?

My mind spun. What did I really know about her death? I’d been staying at a friend’s house when it happened. I only knew what the social worker had put in my file — that she’d been passing through the Quarter after having dinner with a friend when she was attacked and killed by a vampire.

There was never any funeral. I’d never seen a body. She’d been left in the street to die, and I’d been shuffled into the foster system.

But what if everything I’d been told was a lie? What if Kaden’s father —

“He didn’t know how to get to you,” Kaden continued, drawing me back to the present.

“Just that you were living in the Quarter and that you sought the apokropos stone.” He dragged a hand through his silky hair, making it stick up even more.

“I hadn’t heard mention of that stone in centuries, but I knew where it was hidden.

I knew that if I found it, it would allow me to pass for a normal fae.

” He swallowed, not meeting my gaze. “I realized I could use the stone to . . . get close to you.”

Cheeks burning, I ground my back molars together.