Page 15

Chapter fifteen

Storms Rumble

“ M adame, if you would come with me.” The chirping sound preceded a slap of wings hitting my face. “Madame, please, wake up.”

I blinked hard. The room was dark and my eyes were gritty. I had not slept very long. Before me, Jamison Harold Crocus Marcus Delaney the Third dive-bombed me again. I waved him back and sat up. “I’m awake. I’m awake.” Thunder shook the walls of my room, dust slipped between the cracks of the ceiling and fell in waves, and I startled out of the bed.

“Come now, we must go deeper into the manor.”

“What’s happening?”

He fluttered to the doorway. “This way, Madame.”

I grabbed a black silken robe and followed him into the hall. A menagerie of animals—those of the day and of the night—filled the halls as they traveled down the stairs to the lower levels. “Jamison, what is going on?” I asked as we entered the fray of the creatures running down the stairwell.

“The prince, Madame. He has returned.”

I stopped in my tracks, earning several angry hisses and squawks from the animals that suddenly had to detour around me .

“He’s here?”

The bat rolled in the air and flew to my face, baring his tiny teeth. “Nearby. He wouldn’t fight so close to the master.”

“Where is the Shade?”

“Protecting us, of course.” His eyes bounced to the ceiling.

I tilted my chin up the stairwell, biting my thumb as I considered his words. “Fighting and storming, you mean.”

“I said what I mean, Madame. Now come with me!” He grasped a bit of my hair with his feet, but I brushed him aside and turned around, racing up the stairwell while dodging the animals running down. I had to see what was happening. The prince was here. Was he here for me? I was still angry at him…but what if he came to apologize? He wouldn’t be able to get close enough to apologize if this madman of a shadow monster didn’t stop battering the prince and his soldiers with his magic.

Inexplicable pain flared up within my chest and left leg. I paused for a moment, then continued to run. Jamison screeched irritably behind me, his grumpy murmurs constant in my mind. I glanced out a window to see bursts of shadow coming from above. Passing the third floor, I climbed the stairs leading to the tower and pushed open the door. The room was small; its furniture dark and sparse. A stand with a water pitcher and glasses stood beside a tall chair in the center. Four enormous windows opened in each direction, and the Shade sat facing the eastern opening. The floor billowed with smoke, and I stepped uneasily. My eyes told me that the floor was moving, but my shoes landed securely on the wood planks.

Pain dragged at my arms as the shadows outside the tower whipped forward, battering back a blazing ball of fire that erupted from the other side of the canyon. The Shade was panting, his hands moving before him, twisting and ripping the air with curled fingers. Shadows poured from him and through the windows. His magic further blackened the dark early morning sky.

I peered over his shoulder. On the other side of the canyon, the prince and seven galers moved in formation, sending fire from the prince’s palm billowing toward the castle. One flame surged at the tower and nearly licked it before the Shade stood and pushed both palms downward toward the floor. The night fell upon the flame and doused it, knocking back three of the galers. Even the prince stumbled.

The Shade collapsed back into the chair, one hand shakily held before him, holding a wall of shadow before us. He turned an icy glare over his shoulder, his voice lower and more dangerous than I had ever heard it before. “What are you doing here?”

“I…” What was I doing? Stopping him? Helping him? Waiting to hear Leon’s apology? “I don’t know.”

The Shade scoffed, and his other hand swept across, thwarting another attack. “Your lover returns.”

A grimace escaped before I could school it. “He’s not my lover.”

“He’s intent on rescuing you.”

Raising a brow, I stepped beside him. “Do I need rescuing?”

He chuckled darkly as he shoved his body forward, sending a burst of black energy at the men.

“What does Leon want?”

“The prince hasn’t said yet. He’s more of an ‘attack now, consider the consequences later’ type, wouldn’t you agree?”

I didn’t want to admit that I did agree. “What if he’s here to apologize? To make things right?” I backpedaled at the Shade’s look of skepticism. “Or not.”

The two enemies sent more volleys between them as the sky rippled in black thunder. Acid rain pelted down, obscuring the view .

My belly clenched uneasily at the show of power. “Could you kill them?”

His green eyes flashed to mine, then ahead again. “Yes.”

“Will you kill them?” My heart clenched as I waited.

“No.” His thought echoed in my mind. “Not today.”

“Why not?”

With a roar, he stood again. A surge of shadow and power rushed through the room and burst out all four windows as he whirled toward me. “Because I am not a monster! I am not the creature you think I am! I am not evil, nor am I Death.” I scurried backward through the whirling shadows, but he pursued me. My shoulders hit the stone walls, and he towered over me. The mark on my neck throbbed and burned.

The Shade put a hand by my head, still breathing heavily, and a bead of sweat trickled down his temple. “I am not a monster…I am just a man.”

“But your magic is killing the queen,” I whispered.

He hissed and whipped a hand toward the east…toward the prince. “His magic burns the land. His greed poisons the earth.” He turned and pointed two fingers toward the sky, cutting them downward and dousing a thin blast of flame the prince was forming. “Him and that usurping king regent, Aelia. The leaders that somehow you still venerate!”

“He’s my…our…prince.”

“Are you so blinded by your upbringing and rote venerations of the king? You were not always this way. You were always bright and kind. Not this fake nice garbage. Think, Aelia. Think.” He scoffed. “Being in that castle ruined you.” He stumbled back to the chair and sat heavily, resting his elbows on his knees. Pain blossomed again in my gut and my left leg…pain that I didn’t think was mine. “He doesn’t de serve your attention or your respect. He showed you who he was. He demonstrated that his father dictates all his actions, even over your supposed friendship. Cut him off at the root, Aelia. He showed you his fruit—it’s poison.”

I opened my mouth to retort in defense of our friendship when Leon called out from afar.

“I’m coming for you, Aelia!” he shouted. My soul twisted, filled with dread, tempted by hope that he might be truly sorry. He continued, “I will save you from this nightmare and welcome you back into my grace! We can still save the queen! We can still save our nation!” I walked toward the window to get a better view. The prince and his galers were backing away. “I forgive you for running away!”

I froze and shut my mouth with a clack of teeth. He forgives me ? There was no apology, no acknowledgment of wrongdoing, no plea to the years we had spent together. Disappointment and embarrassment burned hot on my cheeks. All the hope that I had for Leon to realize what he’d done and come for me burned to ash. My eyes prickled, and I begged the tears to remain in place. I refused to turn at the low rumble of the Shade’s voice as he approached to stand beside me.

“Forgiveness. What a perversion of the word.” The Shade scoffed. He outstretched one palm before him, ready to fight back, until the men drifted out of sight. Then he slumped his shoulders and dropped his hand. Shadows swirled slowly on the floor as they withdrew from outside. Distantly, the bright light of the castle tower shone, but despite the settling of the Shade’s magic, the sky still rumbled with darkness. Thick black clouds belched toward the castle—clouds the Shade wasn’t making.

“Those aren’t yours?” I asked quietly, gesturing to the acid-dripping sky.

“No. ”

“But…where do they come from?”

“The mines, Madame, obviously,” Jamison chided. “The work in the mines makes the clouds. Sometimes, within the tunnels, fire magic sets something ablaze within the earth. They let it burn through since there is no real way to stop the burning even with all the washers of the kingdom. The metal workers also produce smoke by smelting the ore of the mountains. The smoke is toxic, and the rain drops it on the mountains. The prince manufactures the battles himself. It’s easier to blame the Master than take responsibility.”

I blinked in horror. The Shade plodded back and sat heavily in his chair. I felt a wave of fatigue.

“But the queen suffers because the land is sick, and I couldn’t find or grow more racerbristles.”

“It’s always harder on those with more power and sensitivity.” Jamison, who had perched high in the rafters, fluttered over to grab the water flask and brought it to the Shade.

“ Thank you,” the Shade said to our minds.

After taking a deep drink, he turned to me. “What is the queen’s magic, Aelia?”

“She’s a…” I pursed my lips. “Well, of course, she’s got…um…” Why couldn’t I remember what the queen’s magic was? In all the years since I moved to the castle, she’d never been well enough to use it.

The Shade rubbed his forehead, dabbing the sweat with a handkerchief and leaning his head back against the sooty wood of the chair. While his eyes were closed, I studied him. A dark shadow of day-old stubble defined every sharp corner of his jaw, and thick black lashes rested on angular cheekbones. His black hair was longer on top and the most unkempt I’d ever seen it, as if his fingers had repeatedly run through it .

What would it feel like if I did that? I clenched my fist to refocus. I followed the line of his temple and was startled to find his bright green eyes on mine. A wry eyebrow rose, and my cheeks flushed.

He closed his eyes again with an amused huff. “She’s a loamer.”

It took me a moment to recall who he was talking about. “The queen has earth magic? Like my father?”

The Shade grunted. “Even so. When did you come to the castle again?”

“I was just about to turn seven.”

The Shade nodded. “And how did you find the gardens?”

“They were enormous. They took up much of the castle grounds, like they had once been grand, but they were unkept and dry.”

“Exactly.”

Exactly? My mind was sluggish, and the confusion was frustrating. “Exactly what? My father is a fair loamer, but he—well, he isn’t well, but he isn’t dying.” Earth magic was uncommon but not that rare in the world. Just…rare here.

“Well, he’s surrounded by potions, isn’t he?” Jamison hissed the accusation, and I immediately rallied in defense of my father before I started to wonder if it could possibly be true. My father wouldn’t steal from Her Majesty, would he?

The Shade pushed himself up out of the chair with effort and spoke to Jamison. “Please inform the others they can return to bed if they’d like. Or if they prefer, they can stay and rest below. It’s been an adventurous week.”

“As you wish.” Jamison eyed me suspiciously before ducking out the door.

“Can’t you just tell them with your mind?” I asked, unable to keep a tinge of sauciness out of my tone. He was so invasive in mine, already.

He chuckled darkly. “Of course, I can.”

“So why didn’t you?”

He struggled toward the door and limped down the stairs, holding tightly to the banister. “For one, I’m tired.” It was probably my bleeding heart because I swore my legs ached with his.

I skittered after him, the tower suddenly darker without him. “And for two?”

“The only thoughts I am interested in right now are yours.”

I froze wide-eyed; his chuckle echoed through the stairwell. “Come on, Aelia. Let’s see what the cats dragged in for breakfast.”

As we entered the kitchen, an extremely fluffy, spotted, enormous gray cat was—in fact—dragging a small deer onto the large wooden kitchen island. The Shade scratched the cat’s ears and whispered something I couldn’t hear. As he reached for a knife, a screeching, human-sounding yowl came from behind us.

“Put that down right now, young man, before the wind pushes you over and you cut off your own hand!”

I whirled to the door. An ancient man bustled past me, his knobby finger pointing at the Shade as his thick, wiry eyebrows partially covered his black eyes. The man’s head barely rose to the Shade’s chest. “You know better than to push me—me, in my decrepit state, just a toe away from the edge of the grave!”

I froze in place. One: because a human being I didn’t know lived here was standing before me. And two: the way he was scolding the Shade—scourge that he was—was liable to get us killed.

But the Shade just laughed. He set the knife down, and the older man beamed in a self-satisfied way. In a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for an elder, he began to masterfully prepare the meat.

The Shade’s eyes glimmered with amusement and he settled himself onto a stool as I stood gawking .

As the older man worked, he glanced up and waved his knife as sharply as he did his finger between us. “Well, son, you gonna introduce me to the fine woman, or do I need to do it myself?”

“Uncle, meet Aelia. Aelia, meet my Uncle Koll. Entertainer, animal tamer, and—”

“The only reason you can cook at all.”

The Shade’s grin grew. “Not untrue.”

The Shade can cook?

“Not today, he can’t,” Uncle Koll muttered. “Not when he is partially b—”

“Uncle.” The Shade glared at him.

“—that is, beat down from exerting all of his magic,” Uncle Koll finished. I frowned, tilting my head as my gaze flicked between them.

“Sit. Both of you.”

I shouldn’t have felt so frightened by someone half my weight, but something about the flint in his gaze and the butcher knife in his hand had me sitting immediately. The Shade rested his elbows beside me before he reached into a cabinet underneath and grabbed a small bottle. It was a lovely, familiar pink hue. He passed it to Uncle Koll, who took a quick drink.

“Ray, the berries!” Uncle Koll shouted.

Ray, a large fluffy, something—“ Honey badger ,” the Shade said inside my mind—rude but helpful—bustled out of what must have been a pantry, dragging a basket behind him. He pushed it up to the Shade, who grasped the handle and set it before us. I reached forward for the cutting board and knife to help with the preparation, but before I could reach either, a spatula tapped on my hand.

“Ah-ah. My kitchen now.” Uncle Koll turned and poured cubes of venison into a boiling soup pot. “I got this. But Lady Aelia, won’t you be so kind as to tell us about yourself. ”

The words started slowly, but as Uncle Koll bustled around, chopping the herbs, I was reminded so much of Chef that my shoulders relaxed, and the words fell more easily. I spoke of her, of the staff, of my father, of the potions.

“You seem close to Chef.” Uncle Koll commented idly as he minced garlic.

“I am. I…was.” I squirmed in my chair. “When she came to the castle and saw me… floundering, she kind of took me under her wing. Though she wasn’t a lady, she taught me what I needed to know so as not to embarrass the king… king regent…at his table. My father could only teach so much.”

Uncle Koll dumped some vegetables into the pot. “And were you close to your mother?”

“My mother and I were two peas in a pod. When she died, my father almost did too, cursed by their soulbond.” The men shared a look. “I remember flashes from when we were together. Happy moments, until she got sick.”

“It’s not fair when a life ends too soon.” Uncle Koll’s words caught in my throat, so I just nodded my agreement. “My Lydia and I were bonded.” He pulled out his arm, and around his elbow, a band of leaves and swirls wrapped like a light brown tattoo. I frowned at it, uncomfortable with his frank vulnerability. “She was a gift from the heavens, my other half. When she left this world, I wondered if she took the best part of me.”

I grimaced. “You must have been devastated.”

His sigh was heavy as he stirred the ladle. “I was for a time. And certainly, moments are just as painful as before, but they trigger less and less often as your heart expands, time passes, and new love enters.” He ruffled the Shade’s hair. “My next love was for a black-haired waifish boy who got in more mischief than he could handle. ”

“Don’t you regret the bond?” I clamped my lips shut, regretting the words immediately. Who was I, and where did this unfiltered speech come from? “I mean. I’m sorry. That was rude.”

Uncle Koll smiled sadly, rubbing at his chest. “It certainly still hurts, at times. My heart will always have an ache for my Lydia. But all this grief is just love unshared. All the love that I have for her is now reflected in that memory—in the pain, certainly—but even more in the joyful memories of what was. This grief is a gift—the knowledge that she was here, and she mattered, and I loved her. I live every day trying to raise this young man in the way she would expect, and I work very hard to make her proud.”

“But you’ll never find that kind of love again…”

“Ha. Poppycock. I mean, perhaps the stars will only match me with Lydia, but you know as well as I how sometimes after a loss, a new bond can be formed. Not every marriage is a bond-match. Take the king and queen, for example, a love match, even if they weren’t bonded. Somehow the magic knows what we need. What I had with Lydia is special, but if the stars give me another love—bonded or not—that will be a gift as well. Love is not a piece of bread you cut smaller and smaller pieces from. It’s a living, growing thing that expands and changes as we grow and live our lives. There’s enough love in the world to expand to cover us all.”

I didn’t realize a tear had beaded on my lid until it dropped to my cheek. I hastily wiped it away with a pretend cough. How could this be? My mother died, and my father spared very little love for me after and would certainly never remarry. His whole existence was her, and as a result, he had become a shell of a human, sustained by his drink and his proud work.

But—my conscience sharply reminded me—of course, Queen Gemaline had nearly adopted me, even in her sick state. She had welcomed me in, combed my hair, listened to my rantings and ravings and smiled at me with such warmth. “I can perhaps see what you mean. The queen certainly demonstrated extraordinary kindness to me when we moved in. I do not presume to say she loved me, but I certainly began to love her. She already had a whole family and a whole people to love, but she let me in and cared for me as much as she could.”

Both men stopped moving when I mentioned the queen.

The Shade picked up a bread crumb and dropped it onto his plate. “And how is she?” His voice was low, and its huskiness made my brows pull together.

“I’m worried for her.” A tightness crawled up my throat, squeezing my chest. “I search and struggle to find what she needs for the potions, but it doesn’t seem as effective as it once was. She used to be able to walk the halls or attend the balls and sit with the king, but lately…” I shrugged. “It doesn’t help that I can’t find enough racerbristles.” My eyes slid to the Shade, and I couldn’t stop the heat from their glare. He could save her.

The Shade flicked the bread across the room. “And who is bringing her racerbristles now?”

Guilt blossomed beside the anger in my chest. I didn’t feel guilty, but he should. I blinked a few times to clear the weird sensation. “Likely a servant. Leon knew where a bush was.” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat at the memory. “I’m sure someone has brought them.”

“Maybe we should make a deposit,” he murmured.

I fully turned in my seat. “A deposit?”

The Shade nodded as he started in on the fruit and Uncle Koll dropped off a plate of eggs and tomato. “You weren’t wrong. I do have plenty of racerbristles. ”

I studied his face for treachery or mischief. What was he thinking? A siege? A chance to rob the castle, disguised in an act of kindness? Would he go so low to betray us all?

Uncle Koll began to chop the vegetables aggressively, and I glanced up to see him smirking. The Shade growled, and the old man cut more normally.

The Shade’s face was flint, so I continued, “It would certainly help. The land is cracked and baked and struggling.”

The Shade reached for my hand, drawing it up to the table as our gazes linked. “Exactly.” Exactly what? But his gaze held me captive as time slowed. My hand heated beneath his and the mark on my neck tingled and prickled like goosebumps. A deep ache burned in my chest. I squeezed back, mesmerized by the sensation of his skin on mine.

Jamison fluttered through the doorway and flew between us, breaking our eye contact and snapping me out of the moment as he reached the cabinet. “All the animals are sorted and accounted for.”

“No losses?”

Jamison landed upside down near the hanging teacups. “None, sir. Just some grumpier than others.”

Like you , I thought as I grabbed a strawberry.

“I’m not grumpy. I’m direct,” Jamison chirped.

I froze, the berry halfway to my lips. “I didn’t say that.”

The bat fluffed his furry chest and stretched out a wing. “You don’t have to say anything. You think so loudly! We can all—”

“Enough,” the Shade interrupted, exhaustion dragging the word out and his shoulders down.

“But I didn’t think them at anyone,” I said.

Jamison said, “You don’t need to. You are throwing them around. You have no control.”

My eyes widened. “You can hear what I’m thinking all the time?”

“It’s horrible.” Jamison scrunched his fuzzy nose.

“And you too?” I pointed the strawberry between Uncle Koll and the Shade. “You’ve heard everything?” I couldn’t believe it.

“Believe it or not, my lady, your thoughts are as clear to us as speech.” Uncle Koll spoke quietly and not unkindly.

My thoughts whirled through the last hour—through the last five minutes. Through the Shade holding my hand.

Jamison chirped, “Yes, everything.”

My face burned red as I leapt away and off the stool. “How do I stop them? It’s…it’s an invasion!” I set my hands on my head. “I don’t want you in my head!”

The Shade’s lips tipped up on the side, his self-satisfied smirk somehow still more alluring than irritating. How could he? And how could he not tell me?

“Think what you will, Dayspring, but it has helped me to determine if you were actually sent here to kill me or mine.” The Shade returned to his meal and ignored my outraged squawk.

I tried to burn his handsome face with the fire in my glare. “And are you satisfied?”

His gaze darkened with a swirl of shadow as his eyes danced down my form. “Hardly.” Jamison laughed in a sort of chortle, and the Shade grinned. “Even so, I can teach you to let out only the thoughts you wish.”

Stepping to his side, I set my hand on his arm. “Please. Please, teach me. It’s the castle, isn’t it? The magic of the castle that helps me hear the thoughts and share my own?”

The Shade glanced at my neck before meeting my gaze. “It’s something like that.” He shrugged as Uncle Koll set out steaming bread and a vat of soft butter. “But Jamison is right. Well, you’re right too. It’s worth teaching you control. I’m sure the animals would like to keep their thoughts to themselves as well.”

He passed me a torn piece of bread and drizzled a bit of honey on the top, licking his thumb after he replaced the spoon. “But first, Dayspring, let’s make the queen her potion.”