Sir Killian turned to run—to actually try to run from her. From her wrath, her fury, her shadows. But they caught him around the ankles, tendrils of darkness crawling up his legs, sending him tumbling to the ground. He fought it, sparks of starlight shooting from his fingers, but it was no match for the darkness that was consuming him.
Nilsa stepped forward over Finnegan’s body. The shadows were around Killian’s waist now, crawling up his chest to his neck, his throat, into his mouth, choking him, stealing any last words he might have wanted to speak. She knelt at his side and put a hand on his head, slicking back the blood-soaked hair.
He squirmed, but the darkness held him tight.
“What happens to the souls when they are reaped by the Host?” she asked, not expecting an answer. She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and drew him close. “Will the Lord of Stars be forced to linger for an eternity in the shadows? It is more than he deserves.”
He was begging her with his eyes, but she would not be swayed. His soul came to her, a thread of light winding its way out of him and into her hands, where it disappeared, consumed by the shadows. The white band around her wrist cracked and clattered to the stone pavers.
She was the only one left, and even then, she did not own her own soul. It belonged to the captain, even now, even in death. Crawling back to him, she draped herself over him, mindless of the blood and the shattered glass. She’d been stupid to leave him, stupid to let him push her away. The life she’d known before was gone, had been lost to her the moment he leaned down and whispered into her ear: You are mine.
Now she was stuck again, a mortal in a faerie body with a useless power. She could steal a soul, but she couldn’t give one back.
Could she?
Tears leaked down her cheeks and soaked his shirt, mingling with the red blood and his own sweat.
“I’m yours,” she breathed against his motionless chest. “I’m yours.”
Chapter Eleven
Eberlyn stopped on the edge of the forest and turned her jacket inside out before slipping it back on. No one went to the clearing anymore, especially not at night. No one except for her. So there was no one to make fun of her for her caution, not that they would. Not after what had happened to her sister.
The yellow hair ribbons marking the path were tattered with age, some of them missing or trampled. But she didn’t need them anymore. She knew the trail by heart.
The circle of stones still stood where it had been erected thousands of years ago and would still be long after she was gone. And in the middle stood a figure in black leathers, black wings arcing over its back.
Nilsa turned, caught her eye, and smiled.
It had taken Eberlyn a long time to accept that this creature actually was her sister. Nilsa had always been sharp and narrow, but becoming fae had exaggerated her features. She was beautiful, but in a cruel, hard way.
“I’m leaving Aramore,” Eberlyn announced before she could chicken out.
Nilsa cocked her head at her, an animal’s gesture. “Where are you going?”
Eberlyn got the distinct impression that Nilsa heard things that she couldn’t, though her sister never talked about it. She never told her what lived in the darkness, what sorts of things she could see that Eberlyn couldn’t.
“I was accepted into Edolinns,” she said, naming the famed academy of the arcane.
“Eberlyn, that’s amazing,” Nilsa said, clasping her sister’s hands between her own. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Come with me.”
Nilsa smiled, though her eyes were still sad. “That’s not the place for me.”
“What is the place for you?” Eberlyn asked hurriedly. She could feel their time was running out as the twilight faded and night descended over the circle.
“I am of the air and the shadows. You live in the light for both of us, and I will watch you from the darkness.”
He appeared then, just as he had done the first night, materializing from the inky blackness of the night. She still wasn’t used to his presence being a welcome thing. And he wasn’t really the captain anymore, was he? Nilsa had freed him by giving herself to him willingly. She told Eberlyn to call him Finnegan, but to her, he would always be the captain, the one who had stolen Nilsa from her. The one who had sacrificed himself to save them. She hated him and she loved him.
He took Nilsa’s hand in his. “Ready?”
Nilsa stepped to his side as if drawn to him. “Yes.”
They were gone in the blink of an eye, and Nilsa was alone in the clearing. It was only when she emerged from the edge of the forest and turned her eyes to the sky that she saw the two winged figures pass in front of the crescent moon, and then fade into the darkness.
THE END
About the Author
Cassidy Taylor is a fantasy author who studied English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where once upon a time, she won the Bill Hooks Award for Young Adult Fiction. She lives in beautiful North Carolina with two kids, three dogs, and one cat who thinks he’s a dog. She’s been known to write in karate waiting rooms, on soccer fields, and at the dog park.
http://cassidytaylor.net/join-the-fight
https://facebook.com/cassidytaylorauthor
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01NACSGHD
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/cassidy-taylor
Join Us
Would you like to join our exclusive
Fantasy Book Lovers Newsletter?
Sign up here to receive weekly emails from us with everything from book reviews, to exclusive fantasy giveaways, to free fantasy novels.
http://dragonstormpress.com/fantasy
Dreams of Darkness Page 36
