Page 25 of Shardless (Tempris #1)

-An excerpt from the imperial scrivener’s collection of unclaimed letters from the Shade Rebellion, housed at the Arylaan Archive

Dearest sister,

If you can spare your son, I have need of a healer. To my great surprise and most ardent joy, Abel returned from the front last month. However, I have noticed a change in him. At first, I believed that, given time, he would be able to move past the horrors of the front, but now, I fear it may be something else. From the smell, I suspect a lingering infection.

All our village’s earth mages have been called to the front line, and our menders aren’t able to diagnose him. They have prescribed a draught to help him sleep, but it hasn’t helped. He never sleeps, he barely eats, and he has begun to lapse into fits of delirium. Occasionally, he’ll come back to himself and speak a few words. In those brief moments of clarity, I’ve been able to make him eat a few bites of food, perhaps lie down to rest, but these instances are becoming more and more rare.

I pray this letter reaches you. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I love my husband, but sometimes when I catch him looking at me, I start to wonder if something else came back in his place.

All my love,

Abigail

Taly lay on her back watching the slow creep of sunrise brighten the dome of the library with a smoky glow. It was still raining outside, and behind the film of streaked raindrops painting the glass overhead, she could just spy the faint blush of dawn peeking through the clouds. Petal pinks, inky blues, the warm glow of tangerine—a palette of soft hues painted against a backdrop of gray.

Having grown tired of poring through the endless stacks of books, Taly had retreated to an old couch she’d found tucked away in a forgotten corner. The aged and cracked leather creaked every time she shifted, the only other sound besides the patter of raindrops and the crash of thunder to penetrate the silence of the library. Her fingers nervously toyed with the pendant at her neck, and she’d pressed her feet between the cushions to keep from fidgeting. She took deep, calming breaths, but her heart continued to beat a sharp, staccato rhythm in her chest: what now, what now, what now…

Kato . When he grabbed her, she had felt a stabbing swell of pain rush through her—like a whip cracking against the skin of her arm. He’d thought his own magical discharge had caused her to flinch away, but he’d been wrong. Something inside her, possibly one of those strange spells inscribed on her arm, had snapped.

What now, what now, what now…

This thing inside her was becoming impatient, straining against an invisible wall. Taly could feel that wall now. She could see it in her mind’s eye, a vast expanse of black marble streaked with violet veins of glittering energy. It was crumbling—brick by brick, stone by stone—and there were large, gaping holes all up and down the barricade, places where she had forcibly broken through in a desperate attempt to tap into that hidden well of power.

She could even sense a bit of Skye along the magical barricade—faint wisps of his aether still clung to the edges of one of the smallest gaps. He had unintentionally removed the first brick that day in the sparring ring nearly a year ago. She was sure of it.

What now, what now, what now…

Taly closed her eyes against the relentless doubt clouding her mind. Her magic seemed to be sensitive to strong emotions, so she needed to remain calm. Two more of those strange spells had severed before she’d figured out how to shove the flood of power back behind the wall, stoppering up the gaps with will alone.

Without Aiden here, she had no one to talk to, no way to figure out just what was happening to her, and no allies. That left her with only one option. She needed to tell Skye.

He was going to be angry (well, furious), hurt, confused... He may even decide that this lie she had repeatedly told him over the past year, that she was nothing more than human, was unforgivable. That being a time mage was unforgivable. But he would know what to do. Even if he hated her, he would still help her get back to Ryme and Aiden and safety. He would never betray her.

“There you are.”

Although Taly didn’t jump, her heart started beating faster as she heard footsteps approaching. Skye —would it make her a terrible person if she let him kiss her one more time before telling him that she was a time mage? Would he be disgusted when she told him? What if he was already disgusted? What if it really had been an accident, a fluke, and he was repulsed by the very idea of having kissed a human?

Opening one eye, she saw Skye staring down at her as he leaned over the back of the couch. The sincere, open affection in his expression left her slightly breathless.

“Oh look, you’re back.” She turned onto her side when she felt her cheeks start to warm. “I already sent your brother to bed.”

“Ah… so you figured that out?” Skye asked somewhat sheepishly. She didn’t need to look up to know that he was raking a nervous hand through his hair.

“When were you planning on telling me?”

Skye sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. Kato caught me off guard yesterday in the courtyard. I had no idea he was on the island, much less a part of the Gate Watchers, and I didn’t want to say anything until I got a chance to talk to him—figure out just what he’s up to. I meant to tell you last night, but…”

She heard him shift his weight, heard the low tap of his boot on the marble tile.

“Let’s just say I got distracted .” A pause and then, “You see, there was this beautiful woman. We were interrupted before I could get a chance to properly kiss her, but then when she practically threw herself into my bed, well—"

“You know, I’m starting to see the family resemblance.” Taly still refused to look at him. If her face got any redder, she might actually combust.

“My brother and I look nothing alike.”

“Says you.” Sitting up, Taly mustered her best glare. Skye had been just as much of an eager participant in that kiss as she had. Why should she be embarrassed? “You’re both shameless flirts, for one.”

Skye shrugged, a wide, toothy grin splitting his face when her eyes found his. “I like to think I’m a little more discerning than my brother,” he said as he pulled a hand out from behind the couch and presented her with a fresh cup of coffee.

With a mumbled “thanks,” Taly accepted the mug, relishing the warmth of the white ceramic against her chilled skin.

There wasn’t a shred of uncertainty or doubt in his countenance as Skye casually strode around the couch and sat down beside her. But when he didn’t move to place his arm around her, just like he had done a thousand times over the years, she recognized the gesture for what it was—a question. Is this okay?

She hadn’t given him an answer before—when he had practically laid his heart at her feet. If she moved away, they would forget what happened that morning and move on. That conversation he had confidently declared on hold would be closed—forgotten—and that invisible boundary between them would be fortified, never to be crossed again. They really would be just friends, from here until the day she died.

Something about that made her feel hollow inside. This was Skye —the one constant in her life. The boy who’d found her in a pile of cindered rubble. The man that had proven time and time again that he would do anything to stay by her side. They’d never been just anything, and she’d be a fool if she tried to convince herself otherwise.

When Skye shifted, putting a little more distance between them, something inside her cracked.

Could she really do this? After trying to push him away so many times, was she really capable of doing it again? Yes, he might very well reject her when she told him her secret. And yes, she was still going to have to figure out a way to articulate her very confusing feelings when they inevitably picked up their conversation from earlier—even confess that she had been planning to leave him again. And of course, if they made it through all of that, then they could start to consider the logistics of what a relationship between a human and a fey noble would actually look like. So many questions to answer. So many hurdles to overcome.

Defeat began to creep into Skye’s expression, just around the edges, and Taly felt that crack inside her widen into a gaping breach when he looked away, his shoulders slumping forward almost imperceptibly.

The questions and confessions could wait. For now…

“And second,” Taly said, wriggling awkwardly as she tried to lean into him. As soon as she began to close the now conspicuous distance, Skye blew out a sharp breath, and his arm immediately encircled her waist, pulling her across the couch and tucking her into his side.

“Second?” Skye prompted a little unsteadily when Taly lapsed into silence, her hand resting on his chest. She’d gotten distracted by the rapid pounding of his heart that she could feel just beneath her fingertips. “My brother and I are both shameless flirts, and?”

“Um… oh, right. Second,” she stammered, finally relaxing in his arms as she sipped at her coffee, “you and Kato both do the same little eyebrow waggle when you think you’re being cute. It’s a little eerie.”

“Wait,” Skye said, one eyebrow shooting up, “you think I’m cute?”

“See, you just did it.” Taly poked at the offensive brow, her finger tracing the inhuman arch. Everything about his face was too carved, too sculpted, too fey to be human.

Catching her wrist, Skye placed a tender kiss on the palm of her hand. That soft brush of his lips sent a visible shudder down her spine. “I take it since you’re over here, that means you gave up on digging through thousands of years of shadow magic regulations?”

“Um…” Taly’s mind went blank when she felt his tongue dart out, his fingers already pulling at the cuff of her sleeve as he continued to place soft bu tterfly kisses on the skin of her palm. At the very least, she could safely say he wasn’t disgusted by the idea of kissing a human. For a moment, she let herself get lost in the cascade of unfamiliar feelings that washed over her, allowing Skye to pull her close enough that she had to hook one of her legs over his.

She jerked her hand away when her scar began to peek out from underneath her cuff. “Stop that,” she said sternly. Skye looked unrepentant as he leaned back into the couch. “I stopped looking because I found the answer.” Reaching over him, she dug a hand between the cushions of the couch, retrieving the book she had stashed there earlier and waving it in his face.

“Why’d you put it down there?” he asked, taking the book and opening it to the page she had dog-eared.

“Out of sight, out of mind,” Taly replied with a shrug.

Skye leaned forward as he started reading the entries she’d marked, releasing Taly as he frantically turned the page. “No,” he whispered. “That’s not possible.”

“It fits,” Taly said softly. She stared into the mug, watching the swirling eddies of cream blend with the light sprinkle of cinnamon clinging to the surface. Where Skye had managed to find cinnamon, she didn’t know. Even when they weren’t in the middle of the end of the world, the human spice was always hard to come by this close to the Aion Gate connection.

“I suspected…” Skye hung his head. “Shit, I should’ve seen this sooner.”

“I wouldn’t take it personally,” Taly said, sinking further into the couch as she thought over what she’d found earlier that morning. “Ivain’s the only one on the island old enough to remember it first-hand.”

Skye threw the book off to the side. “Of all the million and one awful things we could be dealing with, why did it have to be shades?”

Taly shuddered. She had only heard Ivain talk about the Shade Rebellion—the civil war that had nearly destroyed the Fey Imperium—a handful of times. When the Myridan rebels started losing the war, they had taken their fallen and found a way to piece them back together—harnessed the power of the dead’s own souls, their anima, to put them back on their feet.

“No,” Skye said, still refusing to believe it. “In every account that I’ve read of the Shade Rebellion, the shades were almost indistinguishable from the living. Those things we fought yesterday looked very, very dead. I also don’t remember there being anything about them eating flesh.”

“I think I have an explanation for that.” Taly reached between the cushions and produced another book. Handing it to Skye, she said, “That’s one of House Myridan’s lab journals from the Rebellion. Although both the Time Guild and the Infinity Queen sided with House Ghislain during the war, there were a few dissenters.”

Skye opened the book, reading over the bookmarked entry. “They were using a time magic enchantment built into their armor to slow the decay rate.” The book slammed shut, and Skye hung his head. “Of course. With no time magic, the corpse is still going to decay unless it can feed on aether—which would explain why those things seemed so… hungry. ”

“But even feeding on aether doesn’t completely stop the decay. Not like time magic,” Taly whispered, the mug in her hands forgotten. “The things in the square looked old, but some of the shades that attacked me were… fresher, I think. Granted, I can’t be sure since his face was all messed up, but I think I recognized one of them, Skye.”

“What?” he breathed, his eyes wide.

Taly stared up at the brightening sky outside the dome of the library. “I didn’t know him well. I just saw him at Dimas’ table a few times buying scouting notes. His name was Femy. From what I heard, he never checked in after his last job a few months ago.”

“The people that have gone missing… all those mortals?” Skye went still as he came to the same conclusion that Taly had reached earlier. Not only had there been someone on the island abducting people and turning them into undead foot soldiers, but they might also end up fighting their own people before this was over. “Shit.”

“No one really thinks twice if a mortal goes missing,” Taly supplied. “And since people already tend to vanish prior to the Aion Gate connection, it made the sheer number of disappearances easy to justify. Whoever is behind this chose their moment well.”

“Maybe…” Skye hesitated, then shook his head. “No—this is bigger than that. Just look at the number of shades that attacked us yesterday. There were so many. This goes beyond just a few disappearances. The man, woman, thing that created those shades has been planning their attack for a very long time.” Pushing himself off the broken-down couch, Skye began pacing anxiously. “And that still doesn’t explain where that abomination fits into all of this. I don’t remember anything about shades being able to remake themselves—change their forms.”

“I think that’s a side effect of not having time magic to stabilize them,” Taly explained. “From what I can piece together, the more they decay, the harder they are to control. If they got out from underneath their creator’s thrall… well, I couldn’t find anything about what would happen to an unleashed shade. House Myridan’s shadow mages theorized but—"

“Their time mages would just patch up the ones that started to get out-of-hand, reverse the decay, restore their anima. A complete reset. Which means that, without time magic, we’re dealing with something completely new. Something untested,” Skye finished quietly. He stood there, his hands clasped behind his back, staring at the gray sky overhead as he attempted to collect his thoughts. “I suppose,” he said after a long pause, “at the very least, we should be thankful that we can tell the living from the dead—that we know just who it is we’re supposed to fight. If they had time mages on their side, I don’t know what we’d do. The entirety of the Fey Imperium came together to try to fight House Myridan and their army of shades, and they just barely managed to win that fight before our entire civilization collapsed.”

“There’s one more thing, Em,” Taly whispered, her hand grasping at the pendant around her neck. “One more thing that might change the calculus.”

Her—the human time mage. The freak . She was a problem .

Skye sank back down beside her. “Shards, there’s more?”

“That passage about the time magic enchantment…” Taly paused, thinking better of what she was about to say. “No, not here.” There were too many shadow mages in the compound, too many listening ears. “It’s too public.”

“There’s no one else in the library.” Skye’s head tilted to the side, and his nostrils flared. “Or outside. No one that can hear us, at least.”

“I take it you got your magic back?”

“Yes,” he said, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. “I swung by to see the healer on my way back from talking to Eula. That’s why it took so long. So out with it. What’s the big secret?”

“Um…” Taly’s mouth suddenly felt dry. “Well, it has to do with why I left last year.”

She felt Skye’s body go rigid beside her.

“Go on,” he said carefully.

Taly took a deep breath, then downed the rest of her coffee in a few gulps, wishing it was whiskey. She could do this. Aiden had been telling her she needed to fess up ever since she came back to the manor. And now it had finally reached a point where it was more dangerous for Skye not to know what she was. “That day in the training yard, when you discharged the dagger in my hand, that was when I figured out… well, not figured out. That’s not the right word. That’s when… that’s when it started.”

Skye’s face fell, and he held up a finger to her lips, shushing her. “I just can’t catch a break today,” he muttered. “Eula’s on the first floor looking for me.”

“Why?” Taly mumbled, her lips still pressed against his finger .

Skye cocked his head, listening. “She says ‘tell Taly hi’ and that she managed to track down the rest of the leadership and convinced them to meet early.

“Eula.” He paused, snorting in reply to something only he could hear. “Can you give me a minute? Keep the library clear? Thank you.” Looking back at Taly, he gave her an encouraging nod. “You were saying?”

Taly opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

“C’mon, Tink. Don’t freeze up on me now.” There was a hint of desperation in his voice as he tangled his hands in her hair, pulling her eyes back to his. “If you’re not ready to tell me that’s okay, but… please .”

Shaking her head, Taly said, “Not here. It’s just not a good idea. I’ll tell you tonight in the room. It’s warded against those pesky shadow senses.”

Skye gave her a reluctant smile as he pressed his forehead to hers. “That’s not what that spell is called, but fair enough. After this meeting, I’m probably not going to get a moment alone. If you can believe it, finding out we’re dealing with shades is only the second-worst news I’ve received this morning.” His hands moved down to cradle her neck. “I only have one request if you’re going to keep me in suspense all day long.”

“What’s that?” The movement of her lips drew his eyes down.

“Let me kiss you again?”

That voice, breathy and low, set Taly’s heart racing. His lips twitched at the corners—he could hear it. Now that he could use his magic, he knew exactly the kind of effect he was having on her. But he didn’t move. He waited.

Her choice. She set the pace.

Taking a shaky breath, she jerked her head. Yes .

Although she braced herself, he didn’t kiss her immediately. Not like she expected. First, he placed a gentle kiss on her brow, then both cheeks, even the tip of her nose before ghosting his lips across hers, teasing. All she needed to do was lean forward, but she didn’t. She let him play his game.

A low, muttered curse was the only warning he gave before he abruptly tipped her back and pressed his mouth against hers in a kiss that, though brief, would be forever burned into her memory. It was bruising, branding. It dared her to try to continue to see him as only a friend, to try to paint this as an accident or a fluke.

When he broke away, she was trembling, still pinned in place by the intensity of that vibrant emerald gaze, by the fathomless depth of affection shining from deep within. It made her head spin, her already ragged breathing quicken, and when he slid off the couch and yanked her to her feet, her knees buckled as soon as her feet hit the floor.

Skye caught her, one arm wrapping around her waist as he pulled her body up against his. “C’mon,” he said, grinning happily as he traced a finger over one of her rapidly reddening cheeks. “We have a meeting to get to.”

“We?” Taly winced at how breathy her voice sounded. At least her knees were working again, and she took a few steps back as soon as she regained her feet, trying to get some distance. Skye just gave her that stupid smirk, and she did her best to pretend that she couldn’t feel the tips of her ears starting to warm .

“Yes. I want you there,” he said as he stooped to pick up the discarded books.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Taly’s mind flashed to that hidden wall and the churning sea of power she could feel just on the other side. She had no desire to be in a room full of shadow mages with that pool of forbidden magic simmering just beneath the surface. “I mean,” she stammered when Skye gave her a questioning glance, “why is anyone there going to want to listen to a human?”

Skye rolled his eyes. “Human or not, you were the only one smart enough to notice that there were shadow crystals embedded in these things. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, you figured out in a few hours what 15 Ensigns couldn’t in an entire day. I think you could add some useful input, and if anyone in that room has a problem with that, they can take it up with me.”

Taly sighed, once again prodding at the barrier buried deep in her mind. It seemed stable enough for now, and if Skye thought she could help, then maybe she did need to go.

“Okay,” she finally acquiesced. Shrugging on her coat, a supple brown leather duster that tapered at the waist, she turned to follow Skye.

He gave her an encouraging smile as he ushered her towards the stairs. “We should hurry. Eula was in fine form this morning and” —he closed his eyes as he listened more closely— “apparently Kato managed to insert himself into this meeting as well.”

“This sounds like it’s going to be so much fun,” Taly said dryly. She had to practically jog to keep up with his long-legged strides.

“That’s not the word I would’ve chosen, but sure .” Ever the gentleman, Skye waited for her at the wide circular staircase, placing a hand on the small of her back as they began to descend. In a low voice, he said, “I shouldn’t have to say it, but I will. The leadership is gone, so most of the people in this meeting are going to be Marshals or Lt-Marshals. All of them are relatively new, and they’re all from the mainland. That means they’re power-hungry and stupid. They’ll think they’re better than you by virtue of their birth, but in reality, they’re all a bunch of weak-willed assholes. Don’t for one second be afraid to put them back in their place if need be. I can guarantee that you probably know more about the gates… hell, probably more about shadow magic than all of them put together.”

Taly snorted. “Way to make me not regret this decision. You know, now that I think about it, that couch up there is starting to look really nice. And I did have an early morning.”

The hand at her waist tightened. “The couch was a little small. And old. If you’d like, I can tell Eula to push the meeting back, and then I can take you back to bed and—”

Taly gave Skye a hard shove before he could finish that sentence. “Shards, you have a dirty mind.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” he said with a devilish laugh. Coming to an abrupt halt a few steps below her, he pressed his mouth to hers—soft and gentle but demanding. There was a faint whisper of that same fire from earlier, but he held it in check. Now wasn’t the time. Later, he seemed to say. He would make it up to her later.

“You didn’t ask permission that time,” she gasped when he pulled away. At some point, she had wrapped her arms around his neck, and her fingers had made a mess of his hair.

“Do I have to ask every time?” Skye sounded just as out-of-breath as she felt.

Taly pretended to think on the matter. “Yes,” she said, smiling when he gave her a good-natured pout. “That sounds like it could be fun for me.”

“You’re an evil woman.” Chuckling softly, Skye reached down and clasped her hand, giving her a tug as they proceeded down the stairs. “And the only thing keeping me going at this point. Never change.”

That soft, heartfelt confession had Taly stepping closer, lacing her fingers with his as they continued to descend.

As they stepped off the final stair and started crossing the public section of the first-floor library, Taly could just make out a group of people gathering outside the beveled glass doors on the other side of the wide vestibule. There was Eula and Kato, but also several fey that she hadn’t been expecting.

“Here we go,” Skye whispered, giving her a wink as he schooled his features into a mask that she was all too familiar with. For once, though, Taly didn’t find herself rolling her eyes at the sudden appearance of Lord Emrys, future Duke of Ghislain. No—for once, she couldn’t help but think that the authority suited him.

She didn’t know quite what to make of that.