“Gladly,” said the Shadow’s voice.
It was the first time the killer had spoken. Her voice was a stunning revelation, so unexpected that I wobbled and nearly fell over.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“You?” I whispered.
I didn’t know if my words were taken by the wind, but the figure didn’t react, not at first.
“Me,” she said at last, as the world stopped.
I took a step forward and lowered my shoulders, preparing to fight. The wellspring of my magic was a burning blaze, no longer contained inside me but crawling all over my body.
Kayka must have noticed, because she took a step back, the first time the Shadow had retreated from a fight. I wished I knew whether Colly was coming to help.
“I never would’ve suspected you,” I stammered.
Kayka reached up and pushed her hood off.
“Why not? Because I was so nice?” She laughed coldly.
She looked different now, the angles of her face sharper and her eyes almost rolling in her head. Her jaw rotated and ground together and her hair flew with the wind.
“I guess I just thought it must be somebody with more backing,” I said. “Stronger, faster. All of that.”
But then I thought about it. Kayka had been one of the strongest all year. She often won competitions. She dove off the waterfall with ease. She’d been friends with Vayvin, too.
“How could you do that to Vayvin?” I asked.
Kayka made a face as if she was pretending to be sad. “Oh, yes. Oh, dear. How very foolish she was to suspect me. But she mentioned it to me, laughing as she said it, as if it couldn’t possibly be true that I was the killer. Well, it was. She found that out the hard way. What you don’t understand is that this kingdom will crumble. With the future dead, the present will rule.”
“How can you think that?” I shot back.
Kayka looked away as if she was tempted to tell me we weren’t going to talk right now. But she clearly thought she was going to kill me, so we might as well have a chat first.
“My mother was from Greenleaf,” she explained. “Her brother Dooryn is still there. He’s working with rebels and fighting on the border. I was just a child when my mother was murdered. This kingdom wanted to kill me as well, much like they want to kill you for being a bastard. Instead of fighting, you snivel and grovel and do whatever the king says. Well, not me.”
“So you’re better than me and the rest of us? Therefore Vayvin had to die?” I asked.
“They killed my mother! Not my father, though. Oh, no. He was too big and important to be murdered like that. Just my mother was expendable. You think I would forget that? Forgive? No, no I certainly wouldn’t.
“Now my uncle is fighting on the border, and this kingdom will fall. I’ve spent my whole life training for this moment, to infiltrate this academy and bring this kingdom to its knees. And I have succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings.” She jutted her chin and lifted her head. Her eyes were liquid fire.
“So others know about you?” I asked.
“Of course. My uncle’s entire network knows about me. He didn’t realize I had this plan until I was executing it, but he knew it was me immediately. He recognized heat for heat. We have similar values. Family usually does. I’m certain that my mother would have been proud of me as well,” she said, as fire started to dance around her arms and the shadows that engulfed her body started to strengthen and sway.
She was preparing for another attack.
“I might never have known my mother, but I don’t think she would have been proud of me for being a killer,” I told Kayka.
“You don’t know your mother as well as you think you do. Your mother would want you to see this kingdom for what it is. She lost her life saving you, didn’t she? Doesn’t that mean anything to you? She lost her life and you just appear and do nothing,” Kayka ranted.
“It isn’t the fault of my fellow students that she was killed. She also wasn’t even killed in this kingdom,” I said.
I wasn’t certain that was true, but Kayka wasn’t paying attention anymore anyhow. She had started to advance on me.
“I’m afraid I have to get out of here,” she said. “Sorry about Vayvin.”
She brought her hands up and slammed magic out of herself. I stumbled and tried to get out of the way, but I was too late. For one moment she was standing away from me, then magic wings appeared on her back and she lunged forward again, her hands outstretched.
She hit my chest and we both fell backwards, then she wrapped her fingers around my throat and we went tumbling over the waterfall. I tried to do anything I could think of to throw her off me. I tried to get my own magic wings to appear, but I had to endure one shock after another.
The freezing cold water was the first shock, the feeling of falling was the second. You couldn’t just dive over this waterfall, you had to plan to jump perfectly.
We were tumbling through the air now, and the uncontrolled fall would surely kill us.
Desperately I went for my wellspring of magic. I tried to slam the wings out of my back, but the action felt too foreign to me; I wished I’d had a chance to practice. Anyhow, I was already doing too much, sustaining too much; my energy would soon be gone.
I put my hands around Kayka’s wrist and twisted. She screamed. Then, while she was out of commission for a moment, I managed to roll over so that she was below me, wings flapping frantically.
I had just enough time to execute my next move perfectly, to throw her off just as I jumped. I would aim for the black water below. All I could do was pray to the gods that my aim was good enough.
“Just die,” Kayka hissed.
Now.
As I threw myself free, Kayka’s scream was quickly swallowed by the night. I tucked my arms against my body and lowered my head, needing a perfect dive.
I closed my eyes as I slammed into the water, then pushed myself to the surface as quickly as I could. I had just executed a perfect waterfall dive.
When I broke through I looked around frantically for Kayka. It wasn’t hard to see her. She was still in the air with her magic wings, but she was no longer alone.
She was facing off against Colly. His jaw was tight and his face was a mask of icy fury.
I had thought earlier that they were evenly matched, but I had been wrong. He was stronger. They were flying over the rock in the middle of the lake where Prince Reidar and I had sheltered. Now I knew that it had been Kayka who attacked us that day.
Colly glanced at me as I broke to the surface. His eyes were filled with concern as he opened his mouth to say something, but his inattention was another near-fatal mistake. I saw Kayka start to move.
I yelled at Colly to watch out, but it was too late. Kayka brought up a crossbow and shot him in the shoulder. He cried out and fell to the rock below, landing with a sickening thud that sent shudders through me.
There would be no negotiation now. I closed my eyes and demanded my magic wings. This time my back erupted in pain, but there they were.
I shot out of the water and aimed for Kayka. She was pointing the crossbow again, this time at Colly’s heart. I slammed into her and grabbed the crossbow, knocking the wind out of her. Then I pushed the crossbow around so that it was pointing at Kayka.
It wasn’t aimed directly at her chest, but it was close enough, and it plunged through her magic wing. For a moment she hung motionless, her eyes wide, then she screamed in blood-curdling pain as she plummeted into the icy black abyss.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The night pounded around me as I lay motionless on the grass. The moon cast a silver glow, and I could hear the crashing of the waterfall nearby. My mind told me to find Colly and see if he was okay, but my body was having none of it. The pain wasn’t as bad as it had been on the day I’d sparred with Prince Orlando, but it was still considerable.
When I finally forced myself to stand and stumble forward, desperate to find Colly, my muscles screamed in pro
test and my head started to pound. The moonlight was lovely, but there was barely enough of it to see by. At first I couldn’t see any sign of Colly, but as I headed for the water’s edge I saw a shape lying still on the grassy embankment. I fell to my knees and wrapped my arms around him, stunned to find that he was not only alive, but conscious.
If barely.
“Come on,” I murmured. “We can do this.
Heavy as he was, I struggled to pull him free of the water’s murky clutches.
He panted and murmured one word–”Resting”–as he tried to get his own feet under him to help me move him.
“I see your strength wasn’t impacted by the battle,” he gasped.
“It was Kayka! How could it have been her? I found . . .” I trailed off.
“What did you find?” he murmured as he slung one heavy arm around my shoulders.
I explained that on my first day at the academy I had found a paper with “101” written on it, and nothing else.
“Maybe it was from the swimming class she was helping teach,” he said. Now that I knew who the Shadow was, that made sense. But it didn’t matter any longer; it hadn’t turned out to be a useful clue, and now the Shadow was dead
I dragged Colly to the grass and lowered him carefully to the ground, then collapsed next to him.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine. Are you?”
“She’s dead,” I told him.
“Good. She was the Shadow. She killed plenty of students, including our friends. She tried to kill more. Now she’s dead? Good,” he said again.
My throat was tight. “Did you have any idea?”
“I suspected that it was a student, to be honest,” he said. “The Shadow was in too many places that would have been conspicuous for anyone but a student. Did I suspect Kayka in particular? No, definitely not. She was always nice, and it seemed genuine.”
“That’s why I don’t intend to be nice. Someone might get the wrong idea about me,” I told him.
“What? Like you aren’t a murderer?” he murmured.
Those intense violet eyes were staring at me again. Purple mixed with moonlight: romantic, if we hadn’t just cheated death.
Then I shook myself awake. He was a prince’s guard and I was a recovering former prisoner, in no position to start a relationship, especially not with a good friend.
“Do you think the castle is safe now? And Prince Reidar?” I asked.
Colly was quiet for a long time. “For now. The prince will continue to be a target his whole life.”
“That’s why he’s been studying abroad all these years, isn’t it? To keep him safe,” I said.
“Yes. His mother wanted him sent away from the rising violence. She was unhappy when he was called to return this year, but it was time,” said Colly.
“I’m just surprised that more wasn’t done for his protection,” I said.
“What do you mean?” said Colly.
“More guards, less exposure around other students. Maybe more magic,” I mused.
“Something else was done for his protection. I would say that the results are mixed,” said Colly. He was sitting on the ground as calm as could be, but I could now see that there was a long, nasty slash down his leg. He didn’t seem inclined to get it tended to any time soon.
I frowned into the darkness. “What are you talking about?” I asked.
He opened his mouth to say something, then his eyes slid past me.
I spun around to see three figures sprinting across the dark landscape. Batham’s hair was flying out behind him, glinting white in the moonlight.
I thought of my own blondish silver locks. We by no means had the same hair color, and I liked mine better, but what did it look like now? What did Colly think of it?
“Are you okay?” Batham sank down next to Colly.
“How could you have been so stupid?” Prince Reidar spat out. He wasn’t speaking to me but to his guard. When Colly ignored him, he continued. “You idiot! You’ll be caged and chained and forgotten at the bottom of a dark, festering hole.”
Now that I saw him up close, I realized that Batham was furious, his eyes streaked with flashes that reminded me of lightning in a black sky. As soon as he’d confirmed that Colly wasn’t close to death, he started to swear.
Lewis, on the other hand, stood quietly, not saying a word.
“There’s blood on your tunic,” I said to him.
He pointed at Prince Reidar. “It’s his.”
Now I looked at the prince and realized that his shirt was heavily streaked with blood. Colly made a motion as if to get up, but the prince shook his head. “I’ll be fine. Is the charade over?”
Colly lapsed back onto the ground. “I didn’t have a chance to tell her yet.”
Since I was the only girl there, I had a pretty good idea of whom he was talking about.
“Tell me what?” I demanded.
When no one said anything, I glared at Lewis. I couldn’t understand what any of them were so worked up about. Colly was a guard. Of course he’d go after the Shadow. Why was the prince so upset?
“What charade?” I asked again, speaking into the night air.
Lewis raised his eyebrows. “You don’t know? She doesn’t know? I guessed a long time ago, but I thought it was best not to say anything.”
The prince was half slumped on the ground, still not saying a word.
“Someone better tell me what’s going on, or I’ll find some magic from somewhere and make all of you regret it,” I gritted out.
“One of you just has to say it,” said Batham quietly, looking at Reidar and Colly.
“I’m not a prince,” said the man I had thought was just that. “Prisoners weren’t the only decoys brought to the academy in an attempt to keep the Shadow at bay. Remember that saying? Nothing is as it seems. Trust me when I tell you it applies to everything.”
Air struggled into my lungs as I stared, unable to look away from his face.
“You’re not a prince? All year you’ve been putting yourself out as a prince and a potential heir to the throne, and you’re not? So is Prince Reidar already dead?” I demanded, incredulous.
My heart sank. The idea that one of Whessellond’s last hopes had already perished was suffocating. Not only that, but it made it more likely we’d be left to the mercy of Prince Orlando.
“No, he’s not dead. I was pretending to be him to protect him,” said Reidar patiently.
“So where is the coward? You would have made a good king,” I mourned. The loss felt physical. All year I’d been going along thinking that Prince Reidar was a good fae. Now I had no idea what to believe.
No one moved or spoke. Nothing at all happened. It seemed as if we were suspended forever in the darkness, sitting next to the lake.
Then the realizations dawned in a cascade. Prince Reidar had sometimes not done what he was supposed to, which was to run and hide. Instead he’d tried to protect Colly.
His actions hadn’t made any sense, because Colly was a bodyguard, supposedly expendable in the presence of the prince.
But now I saw those actions differently.
Slowly, I turned to Colly. He hadn’t moved from the ground, and he didn’t flinch away from my gaze.
“You’re the prince?” I breathed.
“Yes. I’m sorry to have lied to you, but it couldn’t be helped,” he explained. “There was too much risk involved in revealing my secret. So many have already put their lives on the line for me, I had to live up to their sacrifice.”
“We did a pretty good acting job, didn’t we?” Batham asked proudly.
“Acting? You mean lying to me! All year all four of you lied to me! I thought . . . I did . . . What are your real names, anyway?”
“I’m Jocko, at your service,” said the former Prince Reidar.
“Colly is a shortening of one of my mother’s middle names. You can still call me that,” said the new Prince Reidar.
I pushed myself upright.
My muscles still groaned in protest, but I ignored them. “I’m not going to call you anything at all. I don’t associate with liars,” I fumed.
And before any of them could see a tear trickling down my cheek, I rushed away.
Someone called out to me, but I kept running. By now more lights had come on in the castle, and teachers were starting to stream out the doors, shooting powerful flames into the air to light the way. Clouda tried to say something to me as we passed, but instead of replying I just pointed over my shoulder to where I had left the prince and his guards.
I stumbled back to the dorm, students streaming past me all the way. Esmerelda saw me in the hallway and ran over, taking in my disheveled appearance in a glance. Wet and covered with dirt, I looked like I’d gone sliding down the mountains.
“Are you all right? What’s happened? Someone said that the Shadow attacked Prince Reidar?”
I snorted. “I need to get cleaned up,” I said, scraping against the wall to get past her. She opened her mouth to say something more, but I didn’t give her a chance.
There was no one in the bathroom as I sank into the tub, my body feeling more bruised by the minute. Half of my brain was fogging over with tiredness, but the other half was wide awake. One shock had crashed over another tonight, and I wasn’t sure I could absorb all of them at once.
Then again, did I have a choice?
I told myself again, as if repetition would help it sink in: Kayka had been the killer. The more I thought of it the more sense it made. She was an expert in archery, water creatures, and magic. She had slipped among us with a smiling face. I had known all year that whoever the killer was, I could never live a lie like that and get away with it.
Little had I known how true the saying was: Nothing in Whessellond was as it seemed. Colly had been another reminder of that tonight. He was the real prince, and he had put his life in danger all year in order to hide his true identity, in an effort to avoid the danger of being targeted because he was a prince! I didn’t know if I would ever stop chewing on that paradox.
But more than that, Colly had lied, and that part I couldn’t seem to get over.
Noble Fae Academy: Year One Page 24
