Prince of Shadow and Ash

by Selina R. Gonzalez

  She nodded. “If he does as I asked, you should be in the clear. Hopefully.”

  “You nearly had me convinced.” He looked around and prodded Sieger forward. “We better get out of here. The rest of the hunting party might have heard you.”

  Other than a couple peasants out gathering firewood, who saw them, dropped their bundles of wood, and ran, they didn’t see anyone else. Regulus wondered what Carrick had made of his absence from Arrano; if Dresden had convinced Carrick that he and Adelaide hadn’t seen each other since the previous night when Carrick took her away. Would that coward of a hunter go to Arrano or the Drummond estate? What would Carrick make of the news Adelaide had been captured? And what about Gaius? Minerva?

  He looked over at Adelaide through his helm. “What about Minerva?”

  “What about—” She paled. “She doesn’t know I’m safe.” She said a string of what he was pretty sure were Khast curse words. Her shoulders slumped, and his heart ached. “What have I done? If that hunter goes to the Drummonds, she’ll think...” She straightened. “She will think it’s peculiar I told him to find you and Nolan.” A hopeful look came over her face. “She’s smart. She’ll realize I wouldn’t ask him for help. Hopefully.”

  “Maybe.” He tried to sound optimistic, but his voice sounded harsh in the helm.

  Night had fallen when they arrived at the tower. Adelaide gawked at the dead trees as they rode in the moonlight and shadow. His heart grew heavier as each hoof beat brought them closer to the sorcerer. The most dangerous man he had ever met. And he was leading the woman he loved right to him. They stopped in front of the tower and he dismounted. He stuffed his helm in his saddlebag then crossed to Zephyr’s side. Adelaide looked at the bone-white trees as he removed the rope from her hands.

  “What happened to them?”

  “I don’t know. It’s like his sorcery infects them, and they just die.”

  He helped her down. The door to the tower creaked open as her feet hit the ground. They both looked toward the door as the sorcerer emerged, cloaked in black and red and gold, his face half-hidden under his hood as usual.

  The sorcerer smiled and stroked his beard. “I knew you’d find a way, boy.”

  “I brought her, as you commanded.” Regulus ground his teeth. “You said you would release me.”

  The sorcerer laughed, dark and menacing. “I said I would release you after she helped me.” He walked toward them, and Regulus covered Adelaide with his own body. “Oh, move out of the way.” The sorcerer flicked his hand, a hint of green light shooting from his fingers and forming a blast that knocked Regulus aside.

  “Don’t hurt—” Regulus gasped and fell to one knee as pain erupted on his arm.

  “Stop!” Adelaide moved toward him, but the sorcerer raised a shimmering transparent wall that gleamed faintly with green light between them, from the base of the tower far into the trees. She looked back at the sorcerer and squared her shoulders, her chin lifted. Regulus smiled despite the pain. The sorcerer looked her up and down.

  “Hm.” The sorcerer turned and walked back toward the tower, leaving the wall separating Regulus and Adelaide standing. “Let’s see what, if anything, you can do.” He whirled around and thrust out his hand, sending several large, pointed shards that glowed green toward Adelaide.

  “No!” Regulus leapt to his feet, but a shock of pain sent him back down.

  Adelaide gasped and held out her hands. A shield of cobalt-tinged light flashed into existence in front of her, just before the shards slammed into it with a crackling sound. The shards disintegrated, but Adelaide staggered back, and the shield blinked out of existence. At least she knew how to defend herself. But why was the sorcerer doing this?

  “You said you wouldn’t hurt her!”

  “And I won’t, if she stops me.” The sorcerer held out his hands and ropes glowing a sickly green snaked out of his wide sleeves.

  Panic crushed Regulus’ chest. Not again. Etiros, please, not again. He fought through the pain and tried to get to Adelaide through the sorcerer’s barrier, but it knocked him back as the ropes swayed toward her.

  Adelaide held out her hands and jets of fire enveloped the ropes. Regulus could feel the heat even through the transparent wall. The sorcerer hissed and clenched his fists, then pulled his hands back. She stumbled forward, and the flames withered. The ropes lengthened and shot toward her.

  “ADELAIDE!” Regulus punched the wall, which rippled but remained intact.

  She summoned another shield of blue light. The ropes bounced around the shield and wrapped around her arms, pinning them to her sides. Regulus franticly shoved his shoulder against the barrier, but it wouldn’t give. Adelaide curled her hands into fists and screamed. Not a high-pitched scream of fear. A low scream that started in her chest and built. A scream of anger. A scream of strength. Not a scream at all.

  A war cry.

  Regulus had been in enough fights to recognize that desperate anger. Pale blue light flashed, and she pulled her arms away from her sides in a quick motion. The ropes snapped and disintegrated. Her chest heaved. A nearly imperceptible blue aura shone off her skin.

  Regulus gaped at Adelaide. At the power she had kept hidden. She raised her hand and a spear of blue light materialized in her fist. She threw it at the sorcerer with fury. The sorcerer erected his own shield, which absorbed her spear.

  The sorcerer applauded slowly. “Well—”

  Adelaide made a sound like a growl and three sharp, shining magic throwing knives appeared between her fingers.

  The sorcerer scowled. “That’s quite enough.” He clenched his right hand into a fist. Regulus collapsed and screamed as his blood boiled within him, burning from the inside out.

  “No, stop!” Adelaide cried over his screams.

  The pain subsided. Regulus looked up, his vision swimming. The magical barrier vanished, and Adelaide knelt next to him. She put her arms around him.

  “Please,” she said. “Stop. I’ll help you. Just don’t hurt him. I’ll do whatever you want; don’t hurt him.”

  Regulus wanted to tell her not to make promises like that on his behalf, but he was having difficulty getting his mouth to work, still recovering from the sorcerer’s torture.

  “Isn’t that touching.” The sorcerer smirked. “I’m impressed he’s won such loyalty, even after delivering you to me. Even after you know what he is.” Regulus winced.

  “I’ll help you, and you’ll free him and let us go.” She spoke with confidence, but Regulus caught the slight tremor in her voice.

  “Yes, yes.” The sorcerer turned toward the tower. “Follow me.”

  Chapter 43

  ADELAIDE TOOK REGULUS’ gloved hand as she followed the sorcerer up the winding staircase to the top of the tower. Once there, the sorcerer indicated a table in the center of the room. Three gold rods laid end-to-end but not quite touching, topped with a half-foot-long oval formed of spiraling gold. A small mount was attached to the inside of the bottom of the oval, as if something was missing.

  “I only need one piece to complete this staff,” the sorcerer said, moving to the opposite side of the table. “An opal. I’ve searched for decades and finally have found its location.” He glanced to Regulus. “Thanks to Hargreaves for bringing me three of the other four pieces. I spent years figuring out how to retrieve this one.” He tapped the top rod. “I didn’t even bother trying to find the rest until I secured it. Went through dozens of men before he walked into my trap.”

  “Why couldn’t you get it?” she asked. Regulus squeezed her hand, quick and hard, as if warning her not to ask questions.

  “Because the dolt mages who hid it hundreds of years ago put a spell on the cave it was hidden in.” Irritation rang in the sorcerer’s voice. “Only a good man with a selfless heart could find and retrieve the piece. When your man here traded his life to save others, I hoped I had finally found someone good enough to get it. I was right. Lucky for him.”

  Regulus stiffened next to her. Sh
e looked up at the hard lines on his strained face. His eyes widened. This must be the first he had heard of the sorcerer’s reasons for doing what he did.

  “They’ve done a similar rotten trick with the opal.” The sorcerer tapped the mount inside the top piece of the staff. “There’s a rock wall that acts like a door to where they hid the opal. But it can only be opened by,” he sneered, “uncorrupted magic. By a mage.” He practically spat the word. “I’ve read everything I can get my hands on and gone myself. There’s no other way in, and no way to trick the door. It won’t open for me.” He looked at her. “But it will open for you.”

  “And if I can’t open it?”

  “Do you actually need me to answer that?” He gestured toward Regulus. The muscles in Adelaide’s back tightened. She wouldn’t listen to Regulus scream like that again. The sorcerer pulled a map out of his robes and spread it over the table. “You have to go here.” He tapped the map, pointing at a spot high in the Pelandian Mountains, on the other side of the Tumen Forest where they currently were. Almost within Craigailte’s borders. “You’ll find a path up the mountain marked by cairns. At the top, the path will appear to dead-end at a wall of rock. That’s the door.”

  “So, she opens the door,” Regulus said, “and we just...go inside?”

  “There may or may not be a guardian of some kind. The sources are in conflict.”

  “Great.” Regulus’ deadpan echoed the dread that made the hair on her neck stand on end.

  “Why do you need it?” she asked.

  “My business with the Staff of Nightfall is my own.” The sorcerer’s mouth turned down. “All that should matter to you is what will happen to you and your friends and family if you fail me.”

  The sorcerer folded the map and held it out. His movements cautious, Regulus stepped forward and took the map. He tucked it into his belt and turned to leave. She did the same, but the sorcerer’s voice stopped them.

  “Mage.”

  Adelaide turned back as the sorcerer slunk toward her. Regulus held his arm in front of her. Shielding her. As if that would make a difference. The intensity with which the sorcerer watched her made her feel exposed.

  “I don’t like needing you. And I don’t trust you.” His eyes glowed green in the shadow of his hood.

  Regulus went rigid. He spun toward her and clamped his hand around her throat.

  “Reg...” She choked as Regulus squeezed hard enough to hurt, but not enough to strangle her. She grabbed his hand as he looked down at her, his gray eyes cold as stone, his mouth set in a hard line.

  “I’m not taking any chances, mage.” The sorcerer grabbed her right wrist with surprising strength and wrenched her arm down. He shoved her sleeve up and put his hand on the underside of her forearm above her wrist.

  White-hot pain seared into her arm. A scream rasped up her strangled throat, scraping and burning. Her vision blacked out and her stomach twisted. Right when she thought she would pass out, the sorcerer drew his hand away. The burning cooled and disappeared. Regulus released her throat, and she fell to her knees.

  Harsh black lines stood out against the brown of her arm. Two touching hollow diamonds and a half diamond open toward her wrist. The same as the mark on Regulus’ arm.

  Chapter 44

  REGULUS BLINKED AS the sorcerer relinquished control. Fury and shock slid like ice through his veins. “What did you do?”

  He knelt next to Adelaide. She held her right arm, underside up, in her lap. Staring at the mark on her skin. The mark that matched his own. He glared at the sorcerer. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her!” His throat constricted, making his voice hoarse and scratchy. His hands hovered above Adelaide’s shoulders, unsure what to do. Unsure if he dared touch her.

  Her fingers trembled as she brushed them over the black lines.

  “She didn’t agree to this! You had no right!” Tears stung at Regulus’ eyes. Her scream still rang in his ears.

  “Oh, please. She agreed outside, remember? She said she’d help me, do whatever I want. Not my fault she didn’t understand the weight of her words.” The sorcerer turned away with a shrug, but his posture sagged and he moved slowly. “This is temporary. When the opal is mine, I’ll remove both marks.”

  “You say that, but you said you wouldn’t harm her! You said she wouldn’t be in danger!”

  “I said I didn’t want to harm her. An unavoidable side effect, I’m afraid. And now she can’t die, just like you. So she’s not in mortal danger.”

  If Regulus could have gotten in more than a step before the sorcerer crippled him with pain or took over, he would have lunged at him. Cut his head clean off; thrown him out the window. His tongue stuck as he looked back down at Adelaide. She sat motionless, her back curved and shoulders hunched. He swallowed back his rage and guilt, but his hands still trembled as he grabbed her shoulders and helped her to her feet.

  “Let’s go,” he whispered.

  She didn’t respond. Didn’t look up from the ground as she blinked against tears. I shouldn’t have brought her. I shouldn’t have obeyed the last two years. This is my fault.

  Regulus guided Adelaide out of the tower, across the dead ground to where their horses waited, pawing the ground and glancing around.

  “I’m sorry.” The words came out strained. He closed his eyes, the fright on her face too much to bear. Shame blazed across his skin.

  “Regulus.” The gentleness in her voice cut deeper than any wound he had ever received. “Look at me.”

  He forced his eyes open. Trapped breath pushed against his ribs. She looked into his eyes.

  “This isn’t your doing.”

  The breath wrenched out of him in a pathetic sob. He drew her to his chest, and she wrapped her arms around his bulky armor. “I’m sorry. I should have protected you. I’m sorry. Adelaide, I’m sorry.” She quivered while his tears soaked into her dress. Her tears splashed onto his neck. “I’m so sorry.” His throat was raw from trying to swallow back his sobs.

  “Stop,” she said. “Please.”

  He held her and hoped that somehow, she was finding comfort in his iron embrace. He took several deep breaths, his lungs burning. Slowly, he straightened.

  “I’m—”

  “If you apologize one more time, I will punch you.” She smiled, although it didn’t reach her eyes. “You didn’t do this.”

  “I brought you here.”

  “I came here. I chose to come. Because I believed you were a good man. Because I loved you.” Adelaide brushed her fingers over his wet cheek. “I still believe that. And I still love you.”

  Joy warred with overwhelming guilt. He pulled her hand down and turned over her arm to see the mark. How could she forgive him? How could he forgive himself?

  “Regulus?” Doubt crept into her voice.

  He leaned down, lifted her arm, and kissed the mark with the salt of his tears still on his lips. “I love you.” He pulled her sleeve down. “I. Love. You.”

  “Great!” The sorcerer’s shout drifted down from the opened window above them. “Now go before I lose my temper!”

  They rode for a few hours before he stopped Sieger in the dark forest. “We’ll camp here.”

  Adelaide’s eyelids drooped. “But the sorcerer—”

  “Can wait.” He dismounted and tied Sieger to a low-hanging branch of a tree. “We’re still on our way. We’re still planning on getting what he wants. But we have to rest.” She yawned. “You have to rest.”

  “Mm, fine.” She dismounted and tied Zephyr next to Sieger. Regulus pulled his cloak from his saddlebag and held it out to her. Even in midsummer, the nights were chilly this close to the mountains. And winter was already on the peaks. He should have asked Harold to pack extra gear. Idiot. She took it, and he sat down with his back against a nearby tree. She still stood, watching him with the cloak in her hands. “You’re not sleeping like that?”

  “Like what?”

  “In that armor.”

  He shrugged, the armor rasping
and clinking. “I always do. Can’t get it off.”

  “Hmph.” She created an orb of light. “Stand up.”

  “Ad—”

  “Now.” The authority in her voice brought him to his feet like a scolded schoolboy. In the bluish light, she looked for the straps securing his pauldrons.

  “We should sl—”

  “Hush.” She sounded exhausted. “I’m concentrating.” The pauldron on his left shoulder loosened. She slipped it off and placed it on the ground next to him. It didn’t take her long to remove it all and place it in a neat pile.

  “I’m impressed.” He turned to face her. “Harold does that all the time and isn’t much faster.”

  “There was an old set of my father’s armor in the cottage my mother and I stayed in.” She rubbed her arm, her face downcast. “I tried to see how fast I could take it all off the display mannequin and put it back on. To pass time.”

  He didn’t know how to respond to the loneliness in her admission, so he did the only thing he could. He pulled her into an embrace. She tucked her arms under his and hooked them over his shoulders. Her breathing deepened as she rested her head on his shoulder. Regulus wasn’t sure if he was holding Adelaide together or if she was keeping him from falling apart. Maybe they both needed the other to hold them, to keep them standing. A surreal, detached calm settled over him. But as much as he didn’t want to let go, they couldn’t stay like that.

  “We need to sleep,” he whispered into her hair.

  “Mm.” She stepped back. Sleep pulled at her eyes as she laid down on a grassy area under a maple tree, pulling his cloak over her. He laid down a short distance away, his sword close at hand. She propped herself up on her elbow. “Where’s your cloak?”

  “I forgot to grab an extra. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Regulus closed his eyes, then opened them as he heard grass rustle. Adelaide laid down next to him and threw the cloak over them both. She rolled onto her side, her back pressed against him. He didn’t move; his breath caught. The gentle beat of her heart pulsed against his side. He relaxed as the steady rhythm of her breathing lulled him to sleep.