I sighed.
“Do you feel better now?” Leoni asked.
“No, not really. In fact, I could keep going.”
“Please don’t,”I signed.
“You’re the one who wanted to help her,” Leoni said. “You volunteered us to come with her.”
“So we could make sure she didn’t use the bolt!”
I winced, and Leoni shushed him.
“Oh do not shush me,” Driscoll said.
I’d never seen him so worked up. He talked a lot, yes, but he usually kept his calm, punctuating every situation with his sarcasm and opinions. Right now, he genuinely seemed angry.
A door creaked somewhere in the distance, and rustling echoed outside our prison cell.
He was here. He’d come for us.
We all quieted and backed toward the wall until we couldn’t go any further. I tipped my head up to see the stars twinkling above in the black sky. I could try to put him to sleep again, but what would be the point? No one had ever been able to fight back against my magic. But he wasn’t just anybody. Driscoll was right. It had been foolish. I’d been desperate, and now I’d pay the price for my actions. All of us would.
I glanced over at Driscoll and Leoni as the rustling grew louder, closer. I wondered if it was his shadows scraping against the walls.
“What did he look like?” Driscoll asked.
My head snapped over to him.“What?”I signed.
“Yeah, what?” Leoni echoed.
Driscoll whimpered as the rustling got louder. He was almost to our cell. “I just want to be prepared. If he’s terrifying, I want to know now.”
I thought about when I’d seen him in the garden. The beast. He hadn’t terrified me. Not at all. And in his dream... I hadn’t thought about it until now. But I’d seen him. Sort of. Shadows had covered him, almost like a shield. As they moved around his torso, head, arms, I’d caught peeks of the god. Glimpses of his golden skin. Of his amber eyes. Of his thick black hair that fell in waves. Of scars riddling his face. He’d been... powerful. Deadly. Beautiful.
“He’s covered in shadows,”I signed, and Leoni translated with a shaky voice.“They’re in constant movement around him, slithering over his skin, almost like they’re a part of him. When his shadows are with him, his eyes glow red, and that’s all you can see through their wispy forms.”
Driscoll gulped. “Really reassuring, thank you.”
The door blasted open, dust swirling up from the force. The beast flew in, swiping its long claws through the air. It corneredDriscoll and Leoni, its jaws snapping at them as they both screamed.
I ran at the beast, but it jutted out its back leg, kicking me against the wall. My back cracked as I hit the stone and fell to the floor.
The sound of ripping parchment filled the air, and the beast tearing Driscoll’s and Leoni’s shadows from them.
No.
Their shadows flew up and melted in between the bars of the prison cell, floating out into the night sky.
And with that, the beast disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Leoni and Driscoll whimpered, both looking dazed after that horrific scene.
When the smoke dissipated, a pixie floated in the doorway, shooting us a bored glance. “Now that that’s done,” she said. “Are you ready to see your rooms?”
The pixie was shorter,maybe a little taller than Leoni, only coming up to my shoulders. Her translucent wings fluttered behind her, and she wore a short brown skirt with a single green band covering her breasts, her toned midriff on display. Her blonde hair was piled in a bun on top of her head, pink lips pursed as she surveyed us.
Driscoll patted his body, looking around as if expecting to see his shadow. “Blood and earth, that hurt.”
Leoni looked out the window at her shadow flying away. “So now we’re trapped here. And we can’t use our magic.” She sighed as Driscoll glared at me.
