Page 38 of Bartered by the Shadow Prince (Bargain with the Shadow Prince #3)

Mate

DAMIEN

“ W hat took you so long?” Eloise whispers into my ear. Her voice is pitifully weak, and her body sags in my arms.

I leap over one of the many bodies of elves I killed to reach her.

Their dark-blue blood splatters every wall, but I feel no remorse for the slaughter.

Not after what I saw in that room when I found Eloise.

“Little bird, I met an unfortunate adversary and ended up unconscious for a few days. I came as quickly as I could. Is this blood all yours?” It’s everywhere.

In her hair, down her limbs. My hand holding her feels the still-tacky remains of it on her arm.

“Yes.”

I growl and move faster toward the door that leads to the room with the balcony. “Do you need me to stop?”

“No. I’m not bleeding anymore. I’ll be okay.”

“Good. Because we don’t have long before—” A door behind us slams open, and sunlight pours into the hall from behind me, scorching the parts of her that aren’t blocked by my body.

She screams and tucks herself into a ball, tighter against my chest. I fly through the doorway and kick it shut behind us, locking it quickly. It won’t hold them for long, but I don’t need long. In three strides, I am through the glass doors that lead to the balcony.

“Hang on.” I rearrange her in my arms so that she’s clinging to me, arms and legs wrapped around my torso. “Don’t let go.”

We’re on the fourth floor. She looks over the edge at the huge drop.

The chasm between us and the trees is much too far to jump.

Tucking her face into the side of my neck, she nods that she’s ready.

Considering what she’s been through—considering how long it took me to get to her—her trust in me is something I do not take for granted.

A boom comes from behind me, someone attempting to break down the door. I don’t waste another second. Bounding over the edge, I shoot my shadows toward the highest tree branches. Hooked on, we drop, then swing toward the forest.

A beam of light collides with one of my shadows, and we fall. Eloise screams. But another shadow catches us the moment we are outside the beam of light. We barrel into the shelter of the trees just as elven soldiers pour from the palace.

If I could shadoweave with Eloise in my arms, we’d easily outrun them, but she can’t transition to shadow like a shade can. “Can you run?” I ask her.

She nods. “I think so, but I’m weak. I’m not sure how far.”

“We only need to make it to Borus. He waits for us at the edge of the wood.” I swing her legs down, and we both run for it.

Daylight arrows cut through the darkness, landing painfully close, but she bravely remains as silent as death.

The only clue she’s afraid is her widened eyes.

I lead her through the trees, cutting left, then right, and cloaking us in darkness.

We veer behind a tree, dodging an arrow that plunges into the forest floor near my foot.

“Damien, I…” She’s bracing herself on her knees, and the skin of her face is pale.

Her feet look like someone’s dipped them in boiling oil, and there’s a red mark along the side of her face.

Fuck, that blast of sunlight that hit us on the way to the balcony injured her worse than I suspected.

Goddess, by the amount of blood in that room, I’m surprised we’ve gotten as far as we have.

“Come, little bird. I have you.” I lift her into my arms again.

I can’t hear the elves behind us, but I know they’re coming, hunting us on silent feet, from tree branches and forest floor alike.

If I am going to save Eloise, I have to move like the night itself.

I draw the shadows to me and wrap them around us, cloaking us, and then I run.

I partially shift, everything but the part of me carrying her.

This half state is unnatural and drains my energy, but it works.

My shadow self glides through the forest. Arrows fly, but we’re a hard target.

They miss. Soon, they fall short by feet and then yards, and then we see none at all. We’ve outrun them, for now.

I groan with the effort of pulling myself together when we reach Borus.

I set her in front of me in the saddle. Thank the goddess; I’m not sure I could have sustained the partial shift much longer.

She sags against me, her eyes closing in a way that makes me sick with worry.

I kick Borus into a gallop and race for Dimhollow.

Catarina meets us at the border, but she stops us from crossing with a lifted hand. A crystal tied to the saddle of her rabble beast is glowing red, and she’s shaking her head. “Stop!”

“She’s very weak. She needs help.”

The witch dismounts and comes to our side, cupping Eloise’s sleeping cheek. “She’s tagged with a tracking spell. I was afraid of this. I can remove it, but she must drink.” Catarina returns to dig into her saddlebag.

I pat the side of Eloise’s cheek and reposition her in my arms. Her skin is so cold and her complexion ashen. “Wake up. You have to drink something.”

She moans but doesn’t open her eyes. Catarina returns with a vial of black sludge. I get a whiff of it as she reaches up to hold it to Eloise’s lips and recoil at the stench.

“Are you sure about this?” I ask Catarina.

“She drinks it, or she doesn’t enter Dimhollow. Already, she puts us all at risk.”

I reposition Eloise in my arms. “Drink, my mate. Now.”

She whimpers but obeys. Although she never opens her eyes, she swallows it down. Immediately, she starts to gag as if she’s going to be sick.

“That’s all right,” Catarina says. “That’s what we want. She must bring it up.”

Eloise’s lids flip open, and for a single moment, she looks at me as if I’ve betrayed her. Then, she throws her torso to the left and retches a fountain of blood onto the snow. I grip her waist and hips, holding her to me as the vomiting grows ever more violent. How can she survive this?

It stops just as abruptly as it began.

Catarina uses a stick to prod something glowing from the puddle of blood. It looks like a gumdrop. “There it is. It must be destroyed.”

“That’s the translation spell Nevina fed me,” Eloise says weakly, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. I don’t miss that she says it in English.

“What’s she saying?” Catarina asks.

“Nevina told her it was a translation spell.”

With a scattering of herbs and the strike of a match, the gumdrop goes up in flames. “It may have been, but it was also a tracker spell,” Catarina says. “The queen has known your mate’s precise location since she ate it.”

Fuck . So that’s how the hunters found us.

Eloise is asleep again, but thankfully, the crystal that glowed red before on Catarina’s saddle fades to clear with the dying fire. She gives me a curt nod. “It is done. Now, we may cross. Come. I’ve placated the dead to allow you through without a fight.”

“Placated? That’s a funny word for lifting a protection spell.”

She turns her steed around, and we all begin riding toward the village.

“Oh, no. It’s not a spell that can be lifted.

The wraiths are former witches who chose to protect Dimhollow before they died.

Now they inhabit their bones when need be.

They are former warriors of our kind who will spend their eternity defending their homeland.

I can’t just douse them like a fire. I have to summon them with mead and sweetmeats and explain that you’re invited. ”

“I hope to never encounter one uninvited again,” I mumble.

Catarina gives a short laugh. “I’d be surprised if any intelligent warrior would.” Her expression grows somber. “What did they do to her?” She points her chin at Eloise, scowling at the blood.

“Tortured her. I don’t know exactly. They must have given her something to slow her healing. You should have seen the room she was in. You were right, by the way, about her location. Thank you for that.”

She nods. “My raven sees what he sees. Let’s get her back to the cottage. I’ll heal her there.”

Eloise feels cold in my arms by the time we arrive, and I rush her inside to the cot beside the fire. Catarina scurries off, mumbling something about a tea, but I know she needs blood. I shake her by the shoulder. “Little bird, it’s time for you to feed.”

Her lashes flutter, but her eyes remain closed.

I don’t like how listless she is. Panic rises in my chest, and I score my own wrist, bringing it to her mouth.

My blood pools on her tongue until her throat reflexively swallows.

Another passive swallow and instinct takes over.

Her fingers wrap around my forearm, holding me to her mouth as she drinks from me.

Drinks until my head spins. I brace myself and let her take what she needs, grinding my teeth.

“Eloise, stop! You’re killing him.”

I hadn’t even heard Catarina enter the room. Eloise opens her eyes at the command. She can’t understand Catarina’s language, but she seems to realize what she’s done. She lifts a hand to my cheek. “Why did you allow me to take so much? I might have killed you.”

I move to sit in the chair beside the cot and accept the tea Catarina hands me. “Don’t worry about me, little bird. You’re safe. That’s what matters.”

Catarina rolls her eyes. “Mates.” Catarina holds out a square of what looks like chocolate. “A new translator spell. One without a curse attached to it.”

“Thank you,” I tell her, taking the candy and holding it out to Eloise. She looks at it, puzzled. “To replace Nevina’s translation spell. This will help you understand again,” I say in her language.

She nods and swallows it down.

“Thank you,” Eloise says to Catarina in Aediadic.

“Already working,” the witch says brightly. “That’s a record, even for me.” She hands Eloise a cup of tea then pours another for me. “This tea accelerates healing in your kind and, I hope, hers. Lucky I made a full pot because now you both need it.”

Eloise stares at Catarina, studying her face. “You look like Aurora.”

“I am Catarina, her daughter.” The witch curtsies.

“I met Aurora not long ago. She was an incredible witch.”

“How could you have met my mother? She’s been dead for a century.”

“It’s a long story,” I interject. “She was on a magical plane.”

Catarina looks confused.

“In any case, thank you for helping us,” Eloise says. She takes a sip, closing her eyes as it washes down her throat. “I sense you are as powerful as your mother. I hope so anyway, because I have a favor to ask.”

“Little bird?” I don’t like the tone of her voice. For her to be asking for something right now, when she hasn’t even had time to heal, it has to be something grave.

She shifts her gaze to me. “I know now why my magic won’t work and what we have to do for me to get it back.”

“You figured this out while you were imprisoned in Blackspire?”

She swallows. “Remember how I told you about meeting Tobias in Chicago and that it was his brother Nathaniel’s blood that gave my parents their power?

Nathaniel came to me in Blackspire when I was very near death.

” She grabs her head. “Shit. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.

He wasn’t supposed to be on this planet. You have to keep it a secret.”

“A dragon came to visit you, in the room where I found you?” There were no other windows or doors in that room, and when I found her, she was wild-eyed and disoriented.

“Yes. He had a pipe and opened a portal. He knows things. Things about the gods and my power. He couldn’t stay long because he works for a kingdom on another planet—Paragon—and his actions could start a war with the elves.”

I furrow my brow. I’ve heard of Paragon. We buy some goods from the kingdom via the shipping passages off Aendor. “What did he tell you about your power?”

“My spirit magic won’t work here because Thanesia has closed the door on my ancestors. I don’t have her permission to access the Darklands like I did with Earth’s underworld.”

“So, we ask permission of Thanesia. A sacrifice?—”

“No. He said I need to ask her in person.” Eloise turns her head to meet Catarina’s eyes again. “I need a way to die and walk the shadowpath so I can face Thanesia at her door.”