by K.N. Lee
During his time in the kingdom, Shadow didn’t learn just how to be a fighter. But how to be an ambassador, behave how he’d want others to act. That would be the right decision.
Shadow gasped for air, his inhales wheezing. “What did you do to me?”
Carver sniggered and wiped his busted lip with the back of his hand. “You’re a moron. I poisoned you and you’re dying. You probably have a few minutes left. Thank fuck.”
That earlier fire rekindled in Shadows chest. Screw being an ambassador. He was sticking to his original plan and ripping Carver in half.
Shadow cracked his neck and curled his fists. “You said the wrong thing.” He stepped closer.
Carver’s face paled. He whirled on the spot and darted away so fast into the night, Shadow had barely taken a step forward.
But Carver’s scream ended as abruptly as it started.
Shadow’s sight blurred. He rubbed his eyes and staggered forward, swearing his body felt stiffer. Several feet forward, he found Carver impaled into a broken branch that had recently been snapped in half.
“Fucking hell!” Either it was the worst freak accident, or the universe was paying it forward.
His body slumped over to the side, gurgling, crying for help.
Shadow rushed forward, but his legs gave out and he crashed face first into the ground. His vision faded. He rolled onto his side, panic clawing at his chest. This couldn’t be how he died. Not without seeing Zana one last time. Not without making up for staying away from Klurt for so long.
Blackness closed in around his mind, and his world fell away.
Chapter 12
“Someone release me!” Zana’s words boomed.
Her gaze darted around the field. She pulled against the straps on her wrist still tying her to the pole. The last few goblins scattered away from the arena, and voices floated on the breeze. Povian had chased after Shadow the moment he left the arena. Even the attendees in the circle had departed. Not a fucking soul had looked her way. She was officially invisible in this community.
Desperation to escape squeezed her heart. She throttled against her restraints, the cord cutting into her flesh.
“Please. I need to help Shadow.” Her vision grew fuzzy with tears.
He had chased after Carver, and both vanished into the forest. Of course, most other goblins had turned a blind eye and returned to festivities, while others searched for the lunar flower to complete the ceremony. Don’t mess in a goblin’s pond was a common saying, and she loathed it.
Shadow’s eyes had been wild, and it terrified her to think what he was capable of if he caught Carver.
Sure, Carver was an asshole, but Shadow had gone berserk. Anger drove goblins to moments of madness. Mistakes were made in seconds; regrets stayed an eternity.
She screamed, “Get me down!”
“Hey,” a female said from behind Zana, the voice sounding young. “I’ll help you.”
“Thank the goddess.”
Her savior fiddled with the ties. “Halt your squirming.” Even without seeing her face, Zana heard the quivering in her tone.
“Shadow is going to kill that goblin, isn’t he?”
“Don’t know.”
“Anyway,” the girl said, “had to let you know that when I grow up, I want to be like you. You don’t care what others think. Plus, I plan to select a fighter as my mate, too.”
Zana’s response vanished. The whole time, she’d assumed everyone barely tolerated her. She’d accepted that living on the fringes was her life. It never occurred to her that sticking it out showcased to the new generation the strength to fight against the norm.
“Done,” the girl said.
Zana pulled away, rubbing her sore wrists. She turned to the goblin, who was only sixteen, maybe seventeen, years of age. She wore jeans and a pressed shirt. Several feet away stood her mom with a youngster.
“Thank you,” Zana called out, waving to the mom.
“Come. We have to leave now,” the mother said, and the young girl smiled at Zana before running away.
If Zana’s actions had changed one goblin, she was ecstatic. It took a single person to change mindsets.
But those thoughts faded, because her head was messed up, inside and out. She whirled and sprinted across the field where Shadow had gone, squeezed between two poles, and then ran at full bolt. Her feet flew over the ground. Branches snagged on her hair, tugging out strands. She kept slipping over the moss-covered rocks. Nothing stopped her.
The night’s cloak smothered Zana. She leaped over a dead log. With no sign of anyone, she halted, hands pressed to her thighs, filling her starved lungs, and listened.
Voices—faint and from her right. About time she caught a break.
She swung past oaks, getting closer, and, sure enough, the voices grew louder. A bobbing light stabbed into the night in that direction.
When she burst into an open area near a gurgling stream, she paused. Three goblins stared at her with wide eyes like startled owls. Povian’s guards.
Carver was slumped over next to a tree, unmoving and sporting a massive hole in the middle of his stomach. Blood everywhere. What the hell? Her gaze swept the location and landed on Povian lifting himself up from Shadow’s side.
Shadow remained on his back, his chest and hands stained in blood.
“Goddess, no.” She dashed to his side and prodded his arm. “Shadow.” Ice gripped her insides.
Her throat choked as she stared into a face void of life. Shadow couldn’t be dead. She’d lost her parents, then Klurt, and now the goblin she’d fallen for. Whether she had admitted it to herself or not, reality crashed into her. Shadow had crawled into her heart, and imagining a life without him stabbed at her soul. Everything she loved always got taken from her.
She rubbed a hand down the side of his face, which was clammy to the touch.
Shadow’s eyelids twitched.
“He’s alive!” she cried out, her body buzzing with urgency to shake him awake.
A hand appeared on her shoulder, and she glanced up at Povian.
“He’s been poisoned. We found him lying here. Carver was impaled into a branch and is dead.” Povian lifted his hand, holding a syringe. A smidgen of green liquid sat in the bottom of the barrel. “I found this in Carver’s pocket. I suspect he injected it into Shadow.”
She’d seen needles before, terrifying things, brought into Tapestry from Earth. Though she never understood what humans used them for.
“How do we save Shadow? What do we do?” Her voice trembled.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Those few words struck with such ferocity, Zana lost her breaths. She looked down at Shadow, remembering the way he’d stared at her. His caring touch, the determination to find who’d murdered Klurt, his kind words at the ceremony. And his resolve to fight Carver to keep her safe. He never gave up.
“There has to be a solution. I won’t let Shadow die.”
When Povian looked away, she climbed to her feet and marched after him, grabbing his arm. “For goddess’s sake, please! Shadow is dying. You help the sick. There has to be a cure. Anything.” Her grip tightened, and she couldn’t take another breath as she waited for Povian to respond.
“He doesn’t have long. His breathing is slow, and he’s twitching less.” He lifted the syringe. “I’ve seen this toxin before. Someone imported it from the human world and tried to sell it at the Wart Market, until I found out and banned the substance. It’s curare and will kill goblins.”
“And?”
“There’s one cure I’m aware off. Ingesting calabar beans. It works as an inhibitor, but they’re only available in the human world. We don’t have them in Tapestry.”
“Calabar beans? Are you sure?” Her body buzzed with anticipation. “I feed them to glowworms at my place.” The worms chewed on those things like nobody’s business. But time was running out for Shadow. “Keep him alive somehow, please. I can get some.”
Without waitin
g for an answer, she sprinted. It was Shadow’s salvation, and she wouldn’t let him down. The evergreens tugged at the hems of her pants, and the low-hanging branches smacked her in the face. The forest seemed to blur past as she leapt forward. Soon, she rounded the meadow where the arena was, but she kept going.
After what seemed an eternity, Zana skidded to a stop beneath the enormous oak in front of her house. Hungry for air, she panted, unable to fill her lungs. She dashed inside, into her kitchen, and seized the bag from near her stove. Only a few beans left.
“This has to work.”
She broke into a run again. She’d make sure Shadow survived, or die of exhaustion from trying!
When she returned, she rushed to Povian and shoved the bag at him, drowning in her own sweat. Her chest heaved, lungs contracting. Leaning against a tree, she inhaled through parted lips, drawing in tiny gasps.
“We need Shadow to ingest the beans.” Povian was squishing the life out of them and mashed them into a paste with his fingers. He added a handful of water to the bag from the creek.
Zana shoved against one of the goblins moving toward Shadow. “I’ll do it,” she said. Kneeling near Shadow, she tilted his head back and gently edged his chin downward to open his lips. Povian was there, dripping the watery concoction into Shadow’s mouth.
“Please let this work.” She ran a few fingers over his throat to coax him to swallow. When he did, she repeated the process until they’d gone through all the beans.
“What now?” She shuddered and prayed for good news.
Povian shrugged. “We wait and see.”
Zana was on her feet, her insides ready to snap. She marched in a tight circle. “This has to work. It has to.”
She returned to Shadow and crouched next to him, taking his hand in hers. Goddess, please don’t take Shadow from me. I promise to stop hiding in my house. I will join the community. Even if Shadow goes to the realm, you have my word, I will make a difference in Pryvale just like Klurt did.
She lowered her gaze, unsure what she would do if Shadow died. Blinking away the tears, she noticed a flower the size of her thumb, its petals iridescent with a purple sheen. A rainbow of colors seemed to change before her eyes.
“You’re kidding me,” she mumbled.
The lunar flower!
Chapter 13
A repetitive drum banged, loud and persistent. There were no other sounds—just the clanging inside Shadow’s skull. Reverberating. Annoying. Shut the fuck up.
Shadow rolled over, but his body weighed a ton. He slid open his eyes to a faint glow of light. White netting stretched overhead, and silhouettes twisted across the ceiling.
Zana’s bedroom.
“What am I doing here?”
Memories steamrolled through him. Klurt’s and Sivath’s deaths. The mating dance. Zana. Chasing Carver into the woods. Him implanting himself into a branch.
And, with that, came the heartbeat again, tapping like a ceremonial drum. Like his pulse knew something he didn’t.
He pushed himself up, but his elbows quivered and gave out. “Come on, damn it.”
Footsteps thumped from deeper in the house.
“Zana?” He craned his neck up.
She darted into the room, dressed in a flowing yellow dress that reminded him of the sun with the thinnest straps across her bronzed shoulders. Her amber hair draped over her shoulders, drawing attention to her huge smile. Was he dreaming?
“Shadow!” She tossed the netting aside and threw herself across his body, knocking the wind out of his lungs.
Her arms encircled his neck. “You’re alive.”
She nuzzled him just below his ear with soft kisses. Her warm lips grazed his mouth and tasted of peppermint. No time to react before she pressed her tongue forward. Her kiss was a promise of more to come, and damn if he wasn’t game.
He embraced her, his hands roaming across her back. His breathing quickened, and he moaned from the heat of her body crushing against his. Her intensity. Her passion.
When she pulled back, her eyes glistened. “I missed you these past three days. I didn’t think you’d wake up again.”
“Three days?” How could he have slept for so long?
Instead of answering, she kissed him again, fiery and demanding. Zana had done something to him in the best possible way. In those moments of inhaling her scent, adoring how perfect she fit against him, he knew where he belonged.
He cupped her face with one hand, wiping a tear with a thumb.
Tenderness filled her gaze before sparking into something else. She whacked his arm. “Never die on me again. I can’t go through losing you.”
“Think I would have remembered dying.”
“Carver poisoned you, and we fed you beans as an anti-toxin.”
“Beans?” Was she teasing him? Maybe they just needed to keep kissing. That made everything better.
She broke into laughter, the sound calming and reassuring. “I’ll explain later. Just know that you’ll be all right. And I’m here to make sure you heal.”
Yeah. Every inch of him ached, but what did that have to do with beans, and what about the mating dance? Last he remembered, Carver hurt, then his mind went blank. He stiffened.
“Did you see Carver?”
Zana propped herself up on the edge of the mattress, a hand softly sliding along his shoulder. She nodded. “Povian found you both in the forest.” There was hardness in her tone as if she’d practiced those words. The past week had been hell, and he didn’t need more shit coming his way.
The sun beat through the window, but still a chill engulfed him.
“Carver was a sadistic son of a bitch,” Zana said. “Our world is better without him.”
“He’s dead?” His throat thickened as the reality of her words crashed into him. He wracked his brain—he’d thrown punch after punch into Carver’s face. Revenge had driven him like a raging bull to make him pay for Klurt and Sivath. “Carver ran into a broken branch and killed himself, thinking I was chasing him.”
Zana just stared at Shadow. “That dickhead butchered Klurt in cold blood. No remorse. He would have killed you and me if given the chance. You protected this community and me, just like the Guardians shield the kingdom. I bet they wouldn’t hesitate before taking down the enemy. They’d celebrate.”
“Carver murdered Sivath, too. I—”
“I know,” she blurted. “Povian and his guards visited Sivath’s house and found his body. Den and another goblin were digging a grave for him in the nearby woods, and both got busted. Dumbheads. Anyway, we’ve been holding off the funeral ceremony until you woke. It was too late for that, anyway, as he’d been dead for so long already.”
His head drowned in information overload. “All the fun stuff happens while I’m out of it.”
His attempt at humor came out flat. Instead, sorrow slammed into him. His friend and uncle were dead. Everyone had waited for Shadow to recover out of respect of his relationship with Sivath. But Shadow wasn’t ready to say farewell to another buddy.
Zana pulled him into her arms, showering him with kisses. “I’m so happy you’re back.”
When she broke their hold, he ran a thumb across her small chin, tracing the line of her jaw line.
She stared at him, her mouth partly open. He pictured himself leaning in, tasting her, drowning in her passion. The vein in her neck pulsed beneath his fingers. It reminded him that life was short. Spending it alone was punishment in and of itself.
The realm had been a fairytale lifestyle. Sure, he’d been spoiled to high heaven, but the draes always kept their distance. He had friends, but they were army personnel, and no drae female stayed longer than a few weeks. Perhaps that was why he craved his own community. His own future with someone like Zana.
She lay next to him, face-to-face. Her smile was contagious.
“I can’t undo history,” he said. “But, together, we can change what’s coming to this town.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “You’re
staying in Pryvale? What about becoming a Guardian?”
Shadow pulled her tighter so their bodies were plastered against each other. “I’m not going anywhere, and if you’ll have me, I’ll give you everything and much more. Besides, who said I can’t be a Guardian here for goblins? And someone else can play the ambassador. I have more important things to take care of at home.” Their foreheads touched. Her fruity smell flooded his senses.
She pulled back, her eyes wide. “Got to show you something.”
In a flurry, she rushed out of the room and returned in no time, holding something in her hand, a smile playing on her lips. Sitting on the bed, she unfurled her fingers.
Warmth flowed through Shadow, unable to stop himself from grinning. “The lunar flower? Where’d you get that?” The same flower said to give couples the goddess’s blessing.
She nodded, smiling so wide he couldn’t stop his lips curling upward. “Found it next to you when we found you poisoned in the woods. And you know what this means?” She cocked an eyebrow.
“You bet. Means, I’m never letting you out of my sights.”
She pressed in softly and kissed him. Warmth folded around him. He adored how she moaned against his mouth, and his world fell away. That was where his home was.
Zana rolled back from the desk in her wheeled chair. She pushed herself to her feet, patting her huge belly. Seriously, if she got any bigger, she’d explode. She throbbed with exhaustion, and it was only morning. Povian had instructed her to rest because the baby could arrive any day.
“Yeah right. A week later, and I’m still waiting.”
She waddled across the makeshift office. Two portraits adorned the wall near the doorway. One of Klurt, and another of Sivath. Both smiling. Each time she looked at Klurt’s image, her throat thickened. She blinked quickly to usher back the tears. She’d cried once already after seeing a fox in the woods, frolicking with her cubs.
