Page 2 of Shadows and Flames (Twin Blades #2)

Chapter Two

ELIáN

Ten months after her

I do not even know why I let them drag me in here.

I clutched my glass in my hand, and I was halfway toward needing to refill it for the fourth time.

This common room was unofficially designated for the more seasoned Shadows staying at the Well, and though they didn’t live here as much as I did, it seemed that Tomás and Noruh were determined to embarrass me.

They said I’d been punishing myself enough, which was completely incorrect—I just had no desire to be around my siblings when we weren’t training.

In my other hand, I held a set of old, peeling cards. “Your turn, Nogón ,” Tomás drawled across the table. He’d roped me into playing a game, but I hadn’t been paying attention when he explained the rules. I plucked a card at random from my hand and threw it down at the middle of the table.

Noruh sat to my right, hunched over and staring at her hand intently. She threw her pale blonde hair over her shoulder before sighing and throwing down two cards atop mine. She crossed her arms and slumped back in her seat.

Tomás grinned evilly over his cards and placed one on the table. “I win.”

“Bullshit,” Noruh hissed and glared down at the pile of cards. I rolled my eyes and drained the rest of my drink.

“No bullshit, love. Believe you both will be working my acolyte training shifts this next moon. Split them amongst yourselves.” He fluttered his deep brown fingers at us, and I shrugged as I stood.

There wasn’t much else for me to do anyway.

I still had two months left of my punishment for killing Jones, and there were far worse things than training the potential Shadows.

My brother, though, despised that part of our responsibilities.

The common room was particularly busy tonight, what with the swearing in of a new Shadow upon us tomorrow. We didn’t replenish our ranks very often, as The Killings had definitely taken a toll on our numbers. There were seven in this room, and it already felt like a quarter of us.

The Well was primarily a quiet place, one of solitude and purpose.

I reached the long table, stocked with multiple kinds of drink, at the far wall of the dim room.

A large hearth sat beside it, and the heat settled some of the tightness in my lungs.

Once my glass was full again, I turned back to retake my seat.

A few of my Shadow siblings eyed me warily, but I paid them no mind.

The Elder Shadows didn’t often have to reprimand us.

We were trained assassins—our moral compass allowed for many deeds.

But killing another member wasn’t something that occurred frequently.

We were widespread and mostly respected one another, even if we didn’t always get along.

Still, I had no regrets about hunting Jones down and killing him. I would do it again if I could.

Danner was sitting with Zafina on one of the low leather sofas, and he tried to make eye contact with me as I sat back down with Tomás and Noruh.

“Up for another game?” Tomás winked at us, and the glint in his light brown eyes was reflected by the shining silver hoop through his right nostril and his bright, white teeth.

Noruh snorted into her own glass of wine. “You must be joking.” She pointed a finger at him. “I know you and your trickster ways. We barely even know the rules of the game!”

He scoffed and clutched a hand to his chest. “You wound me! I am just trying to have a fun evening with my oldest and dearest friends.” But I knew that look in his eye just as well as Noruh did.

His nimble fingers, also dressed in silver rings, shuffled the old card deck with an expert quickness.

Tomás had been hustling and stealing long before he’d become a Shadow.

If he wanted to, Noruh and I would be tricked into shouldering his duties until the end of time.

“You are a dirty cheat, that’s what you are.” Noruh looked at me expectantly when Tomás scoffed and feigned more offense. I just cocked a brow at her and threw back more of my drink.

“All right, fine . We don’t have to play another game. Wouldn’t want you to punish me, too.” His eyes cut toward her.

Noruh’s blue-green stare narrowed at Tomás, then at me.

She’d been chosen by the last group of Elders to take over another’s seat when their term ended.

She was the first of us to serve the position, as we had just reached the seniority threshold to be chosen.

Though I’d told Tomás I supsected Noruh had argued for me to have a lesser punishment for my offense, he hadn’t relented in teasing her about it.

“And you think that’s my fault?” she shot at him.

He shrugged. “Well, it’s one-seventh your fault. Look at him!” Tomás shot his hand out at me, but I just scratched at my bearded cheek. “He’s been stuck at the Well for months getting worse , and he’s even quieter than before.”

She rolled her eyes. “And you think saying that and making him do your chores are what’s going to get him to speak to you more?

Besides, not everyone dislikes living here or training the acolytes.

Did you ever think that some of us like it?

” I hadn’t asked her to defend me, and I knew it was likely guilt about being part of my punishment that motivated her.

But she was right. I did enjoy teaching the acolytes.

It wasn’t one of my few duties that I disliked, anyway.

And though I had homes in a few of the busier cities throughout the realm—it made it easier to take contracts when I had a residence to stay in—I was one of the few that stayed at the Well for the majority of the year.

Noruh and Tomás were the opposite—they mostly came here for the few Shadow ceremonies we were all called to attend or when they had to train or meet with the others.

“Nor, you cannot be serious.” He lowered his voice since we were drawing the eyes of the others in the room. “You know that Jones deserved it.”

Noruh snorted. “I know. That’s why I did the best I could to talk the rest of them down from a harsher sentence, you lout.”

“Ugh.” He turned back to me and looked at my empty glass. “And you? Want to play another round?”

It took me a moment to follow my brother’s bouncing train of thought. “No. Like she said, I barely know the rules. And I teach the acolytes enough.” I took another sip of the liquor and felt the slight warming of it in my chest.

“Then what, we drink ourselves into a stupor?”

I glared over the table at him. “Exactly,” I said as I threw back the rest and slammed the empty glass on the table. Tomás didn’t abstain from alcohol, but he barely ever drank to excess. I could count on one hand the amount of times I’d seen him drunk in the past two hundred and thirty years.

“Back me up, here!” He looked back to Noruh, apparently wanting her on his side again.

My gaze cut to her, daring her to speak, and the concern on her face made my eyes narrow even more.

“I’m leaving,” I said quietly and stood. Neither of them tried to follow me, but I felt their eyes on my back as I grabbed one of the bottles at the back of the room and left.

My steps were silent and steady—it would take a lot more for my mind to descend into a stupor—as I made my way down the dark corridor.

The black walls were bare aside from the lamps placed intermittently so that the place wasn’t in total darkness.

Though it was cool here, my mind flashed memories of warm Temple halls decorated with intricate tapestries.

I raised the bottle to my mouth and took a swig. A drop of flame lit on my other hand, and I juggled it between my knuckles as I walked.

“Elián,” a deep voice called behind me, and I held back a wince. But I stopped, and turned around to face the one who had followed me out of the common room. I extinguished the flame.

I’d hoped he would grow uninterested, but Danner seemed determined to get me in his bed again.

“Danner,” I greeted. His pale skin was lightly flushed, and his light hair was almost as long as mine now was.

His deep chocolate eyes almost reminded me of hers , and I ground my teeth at the realization.

He was dressed in an easy, white tunic and tight leather trousers, and perhaps it was the alcohol or the months since I’d returned, but I could remember why I’d been drawn to him throughout the years. He was just slightly shorter than me, his lean but strong frame eager to take anything I gave him.

But I hadn’t touched anyone else since her , and I had barely even felt my own hand. It all felt so pointless and empty.

Even now with heat plain in his stare as he stopped very close in front of me, I felt no desire whatsoever.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention, if you haven’t noticed.” He smirked at me, point of his right fang showing, and I let him inch another step closer.

“I know,” I said as I looked down at him.

He smelled of grass fields and fresh-tilled earth.

It was once a smell that reminded me of a place not far from my father’s home.

When Papá, Leandro, and I would leave the Well to stay at his house, we would sometimes take a basket of food to eat in the sprawling meadow.

My twin brother and I used to catch the grasshoppers and examine them before they jumped out of our palms.

Danner stepped closer to me, and my head tilted, considering. Maybe it was time to feel this again. The physical exertion of teaching and training on my own did distract me for that stretch of time. But even the liquor didn’t adequately quiet my thoughts, the ruminating.

He raised a hand and rested it on my chest. I’d actually dressed in something besides training clothing or leathers, and the embroidered, high-collared Zonoran vest left most of my torso bare.

Danner’s hand was callused and dry on my skin, but it was almost as warm as my own.

He applied a bit of pressure, and I let him push me back into the wall of the corridor.