Page 7

THIRTEEN YEARS OLD

A s it turns out, Zion and Annelise did allow me to increase the amount of time I was training with the king’s army.

Instead of once-a-month travel to Akra, they agreed to allow me to travel every other week to train in the academy if I would continue my studies in Siraleth as well.

The trip often left me exhausted, not wanting to spend any extra time studying and simply falling into bed by the time I returned to the cottage.

I was losing at least three days to travel each time I went, if not more.

I slowly increased the amount of time spent at the academy training in Akra versus studying at home in Siraleth. But I wasn’t concerned, and neither were my parents. I needed to nurture my superior intelligence, both scholastically and magically.

The only nights I didn’t fall into bed exhausted were the nights that I would meet up with Malec. I had met him during our training sessions for the army in the academy at the palace. He was two years older than me, which had all the other girls in my class jealous.

He had luscious black hair that he wore tied at the nape of his neck.

His skin was tanned and honed, evident of all the long hours spent in the training rooms and on the practice fields.

He lived in Prins and traveled to and from the castle, just as I did.

We often made the journey together. When he turned sixteen and graduated from the academy, he would move to Akra full time.

I had no intention of being so far away from him.

I planned to move to Akra full time this next year.

It wasn’t as if there was anything for me at the cottage, anyway.

I would sneak out of the window at the back of the cottage, dropping the six feet down to the ground.

I would meet Malec halfway between Siraleth and Prins at one of the bodies of water there, nestled between the trees.

It was a small lake, and the setting was quite romantic beneath the high Siraleth moon.

Zion and Annelise had no idea I had been sneaking out. This had to be the third week in a row I had slipped out and avoided their notice. I followed the moon as my guide to the alcove of trees where we met, and sure enough, he was already there waiting for me.

I rushed into his arms and he scooped me up, spinning me. He pulled back enough to gaze into my eyes.

“Ocean blue,” he murmured.

My eyes had darkened more significantly in the last year, but they still weren’t black like Cirilla and Persephone’s had been. He placed a chaste kiss against my cheek, but I was craving more. I grasped the back of his head, pulling his mouth down toward mine.

Malec had been my first kiss.

The other girls in class were jealous I had an older boyfriend to begin with, and it didn’t help that he was handsome and at the top of our class. He was a Stormshade, and while I initially had my reservations about that, he had proved to be quite powerful.

He made for a great sparring partner.

He responded to my urgency eagerly, pulling me across his lap as he sat atop a fallen tree that spilled over the water’s edge.

With only the moonlight shining down on us, I couldn’t help but think about the future for us.

If we might get married one day. He slipped his arm around my back, pulling my body against his.

I let him, falling into him as the kiss deepened.

When his other hand slipped under the hem of my tunic, running up my bare stomach, I tensed. His fingers ran over the trim of my bra.

He had never touched me like this before.

We had a couple of heated make out sessions, and though I was more advanced in every other area for my age…

I wasn’t sure I was ready for this yet. When his hand slipped beneath the hem of my bra, I tried to pull away.

I shook my head back and forth, but he pulled me back against him, capturing my mouth once more with his.

The butterflies that had been bouncing in my stomach moments ago turned sour, and I pressed my hands against his shoulders, pushing him back harder this time.

“Donika?” He strained back enough to peer down at me, a question in his eyes.

He didn’t remove the hand from under my shirt. Quite the opposite in fact. He pushed that hand farther up, grazing my hardened nipple with his thumb.

I reared back, slapping his hand away. I narrowed my eyes at him as he gripped my wrist, pulling me closer once more.

“STOP!” I cried, my shadows snaking out, grasping his hand and wrenching it behind his back.

“Donika, stop! That hurts!”

“I’m supposed to stop when you ask? What about when I ask?” I cried, stepping further away from him into the shadows of the trees.

I could take care of myself, I knew that. But why hadn’t he respected when I had pulled away? Shaken my head? Pulled against him, begging him with my body language to stop? Had I somehow… given him the wrong idea?

“Malec, what is wrong with you?” I asked, pulling my shadows back toward myself. They released his arm at once and he wrung it out, rubbing the red and blistered skin on his wrist where they had grasped him.

“Wrong with me ?” he asked, his voice hiking up a notch. My brow furrowed in confusion. “Why did you stop me?”

“Why did I stop you? When you wouldn’t let me pull away, I had to force you to stop. I’m…I’m not ready for that yet.”

He shook his head, running a hand through his midnight hair. “This is what I get for dating a lovesick thirteen-year-old. I should have listened to them, found a girl my own age.”

I stepped back, confusion swimming in my gaze. I had wanted to be pressed close to him only moments ago. But now, all I wanted was to put distance between us.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“What am I talking about?” he asked, anger rising in his voice. He stalked toward me angrily.

I backed away from him further.

“I’m talking about you being a total tease. I only showed you a lick of attention because of how powerful you are. The army’s little pet. The general’s favorite.” The words were mocking, bordering on cruel.

I took another step backward, and he took another step forward.

“I thought…I thought you liked me.” The words were a croak out of my mouth.

He laughed. Really laughed.

He threw his head back and I could see the dimple in his cheek, the line of perfect white teeth beneath the moon.

“ Like you? No. I don’t like you. I wanted you. There’s a difference.”

Wanted. Past tense.

“I’m dating Evelyn. You thought we were truly dating ? Didn’t you wonder why I never hung out with you back at the academy? Why we always had to sneak out to see each other?”

Dating Evelyn. Not me.

I could sense my magic rising within me without my bidding, pressing against my skin, begging to be released.

I pressed my eyes closed and when I opened them again, my shadows were slinking across the cold ground toward Malec.

I watched as if they weren’t a part of me at all, but rather their own entity. Sentient.

Before they could reach him, I saw his eyes darken. His expression changed into something…different. Something unrecognizable. He moved forward quickly. I barely registered what he was doing before he wound back his hand and I saw more than felt his palm as he slapped me across the cheek.

I reeled back in surprise, my own hand reaching for my now stinging cheek.

As I stood there cradling the pink smarted skin, my emotions turned from hurt, scared, and shocked…to reeling. Who the hell did he think he was, forcing his hand up my shirt, and when I didn’t comply, striking me?

I was ten times more powerful than him.

Twenty.

“Tenebrae consumunt te.” The incantation was leaving my lips before I had even truly given it any thought.

Almost as if on instinct.

This time, he did not step forward, mirroring my movements. He did not close the distance between us.

This time…it was Malec who took a step back.

I took another step forward.

“Tenebrae consumunt te .”

“What are you doing?” he asked, his hands out in front of him as if he could stop me. As if he had the power. As if he could ever stand against me.

I cocked my head to the side, a smile crossing my lips as I spoke the incantation again.

Darkness consumes you.

When the final words had left my lips and I stepped back, I smiled at him.

A laugh bubbled to my lips as I watched him.

The spell wouldn’t curse him immediately.

No, it would work its way into his blood over time, and he would regret the day he ever thought he could take advantage of me.

Hurt me . He would pay for using me. For tricking me.

“Your…your eyes.” The words left his lips in a strained exhale, as if they were pulled from the base of his throat.

I cocked my head to the side, narrowing those eyes at him. “What about them?”

But I already knew.

They had changed from glacial to cerulean to the color of the ocean once before. But now…

“They’re black…” His words trailed off, the night swallowing them.

“Is that so?” I replied, amused.

Of course they were.

Darkness hadn’t only consumed Malec this night.

And as if it were a cure to the emotions that had threatened to tear me apart mere moments ago, I now felt nothing .

I had been studying the dark spells for years now, and they had become a part of me in the process.

They had me tight in their grip, and they were never going to let me go.

And I relished in it. The more I practiced my spells, the stronger I became. One day, I would be so strong and numb that nobody could ever hurt me or stand against me ever again.

His hand flew to his chest, his fingers splayed against the material there. As if something physical was changing within his heart.

Good .

Maybe he would think twice before laying hands on another girl when she said no. Maybe he would think twice about striking one. Stormshades were so…egotistical. So fucking selfish. Were they all the same? I hadn’t been deterred at first, but now I saw him for what he truly was.

He was just like my mother.

Just like the Stormshade that had murdered Emil in cold blood, simply because they could . They possessed the magic of the sky, and it made them arrogant .

I had grown stronger in these past years, but not strong enough, apparently. Not strong enough that a Stormshade would still dare to stand against me. He was lucky Osiris even let him be a part of the army with his tainted blood.

We hadn’t known it at the time, but the presence of Stormshades in the army and at the academy was short-lived. Osiris began hunting Stormshades that same month, before the next full moon waxed and waned.

And I loved a chase.

I was hungry for it. It filled the holes of the injustices done to me.

Filled the holes of a mother who was absent my entire life.

Filled the hole of a boyfriend who thought I was merely a pawn, my mere existence serving the only purpose of pleasing him.

Filled the hole of losing Cirilla, the only person who ever tried to better me.

I trained harder, and harder, and harder.

I was going to become the strongest Nightshade in the entire realm. Stronger than Osiris, even.

I could sit on the throne someday. I would sit on the throne someday.

I would be the most powerful Shade Istmere had ever seen.

A pang shot through me at the thought that my mother's little Stormshade whelp was technically the bloodline heir to the throne. She was Osiris’ daughter. His only heir.

That simply wouldn’t do at all.

I would need to do something about that.

And soon.