Page 16 of Soul of Shadow #1

“Perhaps.” Elias stuck out a shadowed hand.

A long sword made of the same darkness materialized, as if it were just an extension of his body.

“It wouldn’t be difficult. And the fear that humans experience in the final moments before death…

” He drew the sword up, holding it so that its wispy tip hovered only an inch from her throat.

“That alone can fuel a mare for months.”

Eyes on the flickering sword, Charlie felt her pulse rise, the blood pound in her ears.

“I can already taste it,” he whispered. “Can feel its presence on my tongue.”

I’m going to die , she realized. I’m going to die, and it’s all because I was stupid enough to follow a suspicious person into a creepy old house.

“The only question is…” He leaned even closer, and Charlie’s stomach rose in her throat. She was going to throw up. She was going to throw up, and then she was going to die, and her mom would never even know why.

And then —

Like a fisherman reluctantly tossing his catch back into the water, Elias released her. He stepped away, lowering the shadowy sword to his side. His chest seemed to rise and fall with heavy breath, even though a creature like him couldn’t possibly have lungs.

“The only question is,” he said, “might you still be of use to me?”

Charlie exhaled. The air rushed from her lungs, pent-up terror she didn’t even know she’d been holding in.

Elias reached out and grabbed hold of her arm again. She felt another flash of sheer horror, as if his touch were filled with every darkest nightmare she had ever dreamed.

She supposed it was.

“You discovered my secret.” Elias dragged her down the hallway toward the dining room. “Nosey little thing that you are. And even though I’d have preferred that my secret remain a secret, there is one benefit to having someone else in on it.”

“What’s that?”

Elias reached the doorway to the dining room. He shoved Charlie forward with his freakish strength. She toppled to the floor, nearly landing atop Elias’s limp human body.

“I am in this town to carry out a mission.” His shadow form leaned against the doorway, blocking any hope she had of escape. “And two sets of eyes are better than one.”

Charlie blinked. This was the last thing she had expected. “You want my help?”

“I do.” It was so strange to watch his mouth move and see only darkness within. “Like I said before, I didn’t kill those boys, and I didn’t make the markings on those trees. I’m here to find out who did. ”

“You want to… rescue them?”

“Good gods, no.” He snorted. “I don’t give a damn about those boys.

I’m here for one reason and one reason alone, and that is to find the creature making those markings on the trees.

And if I happen to find the boys along the way, fine.

All the better, really, because I’m sure they’ll be almost dead with fright.

But no, I’m not looking for them. I don’t concern myself with fragile human life. Not anymore.”

Her eyes looked past his shadowy figure, at the empty hallway beyond. “And if I say no?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s very simple,” he said. “If you say no, you die.”

She looked up at his face, which was stretched into a dark-tinted smile. He appeared quite serious, and quite happy about it, too.

“How do you know,” she asked, “that, if you let me go, I won’t just run to the police and tell them exactly what you are?”

Elias laughed, a sound like thunder rumbling in the distance. “Who would believe you?” he asked. “But, very well—if you need extra incentive, I have it for you: keep my secret, or I’ll drain the life out of every person you love.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he said cheerfully. “If you say a word about what you saw here tonight, I will come for everyone you love in this town. I will come for them one by one, and I will murder them in their sleep. Understood?”

The deal was easy to understand—she would give him that. And she didn’t really think that she had any choice in the matter. So.

“If I agree to the deal,” she said, “will you let me go unharmed?”

“Of course.” He swept out an arm, as if welcoming her to walk by .

She stayed on the floor for several more heartbeats.

She looked at Elias’s body, wondered what he could possibly want from her, what a weak mortal girl could do to assist an otherworldly being.

A thousand questions burbled within her, questions she couldn’t even believe she was entertaining, and yet what choice did she have?

How could she deny what had taken place right before her very eyes?

One thing was clear: Elias Everhart was not to be trusted. He might have said he’d let her go without hurting her, but how could she know he wasn’t lying?

She would have to play this very carefully.

“I’ll agree to your terms,” she said, “under one condition.”

“And what is that?”

“I want proof.”

“Proof?”

“Yes. That what you’re saying is true. That all the Nordic myth stuff is real. I want proof.”

He tilted his head. “Seeing me walk through a wall isn’t proof enough?”

“No,” she said. “It’s proof that you’re not… human. Not fully human, anyway. But it doesn’t mean that anything else you’ve said is true.”

Elias stared at her for a long time. It was hard to read his expression, given that he was made of shadow, but he seemed to be searching her face, as if debating whether or not she deserved to know.

“Fine,” he said at last. “But are you sure you want to do this? Because once you see, you cannot unsee.”

“Once I see what? ”

“I can’t really explain.” Elias pushed himself off the doorway. “But I can show you.”

Charlie tracked Elias as his shadow form stepped over his real body, crossing the dining room toward the fireplace.

Once he stood before the hearth, the fire disappeared and he stooped over, brushing aside the pile of ashes within to reveal a small black box.

He lifted it from the stone floor and turned around.

“Inside this box,” he said, walking slowly toward Charlie, “is a fruit called eyaerberry . It doesn’t grow here. It must be harvested on Jotunheim, one of the other seven realms, which makes it exceedingly rare. I don’t give this to you lightly.”

Jotunheim? Realms? What kind of gibberish was he spewing? How was she supposed to take any of this seriously?

“If this berry thing is so rare,” Charlie asked, eyeing the box, “why give it to me? Why not save it?”

“I don’t need it,” said Elias. “I’m a creature of Asgard. I can already see.”

A creature of Asgard? This was getting ridiculous. What he was saying made it sound like they were living in a storybook. She should push the box away. Should tell him there was no way in hell she was taking whatever kind of drugs were inside that box.

And yet …

And yet she couldn’t deny what she had seen him become. She couldn’t deny that his presence, standing before her as a man made of shadow, defied every known law of nature. He was bending reality for her, making her desperate for answers, for the truth.

She pushed herself up to a seated position. “See what?”

He bent over, bringing the box down to eye level where Charlie sat on the floor. Slowly, he lifted its lid, revealing five shiny purple cherry-shaped fruits. They glinted in the flickering candles. “You’ll know soon enough.”

She stared at the purple eyaerberries. They seemed to hum within the box. To call to her. She lifted a hand to reach for one, but Elias shook his head.

“Not here,” he said. “Wait until we go outside.”

“Why?”

“You’ll understand when you take it.” He straightened, closing the box’s lid and tucking it under one arm.

“ If you take it. You see, Charlotte, what you must understand is that after you eat this berry, your entire life will change. Everything you thought you knew about reality—it will go out the window.” He watched her seriously. “Are you ready for that?”

Charlie hesitated. Was what he was saying true?

Or was he just trying to scare her off? And if what he was saying was true, did she really want that?

Up until this moment, she had lived a small, safe life, never straying too far from Silver Shores, never seeking anything beyond the very immediate.

Did she really want to shake loose all the screws that had kept her tightly bound life in place? A large part of her said no.

But an even larger part…

Had she not once dreamed of a world beyond her own?

Had she, Sophie, and Lou not spent hours imagining a universe that contained witches and mermaids, fairies and goblins?

What if some percentage of that—even a fraction —was true?

Could she stomach the rest of her life knowing she had let it all slip past?

Slowly, Charlie stood, raising herself from the floor like a skeleton emerging from the grave. When at last she stood tall, she looked at Elias and said, “I’m ready.”

She was pretty sure she wasn’t.