I flick my wrist hard. The shadows snap tighter with enough force to shatter bone and sever spines. There’s no snap or break.
Instead, I stumble back, confused that Kalix stands in front of me completely unharmed and calm. My magic is gone from his throat.
And for the first time, I feel doubt.
He sighs, crossing his arms and looking down at me. “There it is,” he says softly. “Your bad side.” He shrugs—a tired, sad little gesture. “We all have dark sides,” he adds, voice blurring at the edges. “You will be okay.”
His words slur slightly, and that’s when the first thread of unease tugs at me.
“Wh–what? What did you do?” My heart slows—heavy, dragging—and I realize…
I can’t hear my hounds anymore.
A sideways glance shows only empty grass. The waves of magic that had blanketed the forest have dissolved.
Kalix takes a slow step forward, still reaching out to me.
“Somnex,” he says gently. “Absorbs through the skin. It’s coated my whole shirt. And incidentally…” He smiles faintly, exhaling slowly before lowering his voice. “Your fist.”
I stagger, panting through my fight with the sedative. Then his hands reach out for me. “Don’t touch me,” I slur, swatting at him weakly.
He ignores the flailing. He scoops me up, one arm under my knees and behind my shoulder. He cradles me to his chest like I’m something fragile. I try to resist and snarl, but my body betrays me, and I can do nothing more than mumble my protests.
I sag against him, head lolling back. My eyelids become too heavy to lift. Somewhere in the haze, I manage a glare, I think.
“Where’s Oliver?” he says gently; he’s being kind.
“Oliver?” I echo weakly.
“Yes. Where is he?”
“He…can’t come…when she’s here.” I mumble, blinking slowly up at the spinning stars as I fight through the incessant pull on my lids.
“She?” Kalix says, his voice roughening. “Is she what takes the blue from your eyes?” His words drift through me like smoke—like a memory speaking inside my mind. I don’t know if I answer aloud or only in my mind. Just before the darkness closes in around me, I breathe one final, broken truth.
“My price.”
I DRIFT IN AND OUT, caught between darkness and faint awareness over the next few hours. When I surface, I feel the soft cushion of a mattress beneath me.
I force my eyelids apart, trying to study my surroundings; they’re far too heavy, sluggish. The world blurs in shades of gray and black. I can’t make out where I am. I can’t hold on. My eyes slide shut again, helpless.
Voices break though, bleeding into the haze.“She’s dangerous!”a woman snaps, her voice sharp with fear. “She shouldn’t be here. That guard—and gods only know who else—would have been slaughtered if she wasn’t stopped. Her eyes were black, and her beasts…those things were hell itself! I’m not questioning your judgement, I—”
“Then don’t,” a man’s voice cuts in, slicing through her like a blade. “Do not question me again.” His tone is cold, final. “She stays. Your task is to simply be a healer, not give your opinion.”
Then, more subdued, “Yes, Lord Black.”
The voices fade again, swallowed by the darkness pulling at me.
Time passes, I think. I don’t know how much later it is when I feel the mattress shift beside me—a weight, shifting the tide.
I’m too drugged to lift my head, too weak to even flinch. I am a stone on the bottom of a warm ocean. Some small, buried part of me trembles as the familiar scent of smoke and oak fills my lungs.
“Even when you tried to tear me apart,” Cage murmurs, “You were…magnificent.” He exhales, long and tired. “I might be sickfor thinking so.” His voice lowers: “We truly bring out the worst in each other, don’t we?” He pauses. “Is it wrong to say Iwantthat? To push you further. To peel back every layer of you until it’s all laid bare.” He shifts, and I feel him closer.
“I want to feel your magic bite. Feel your eyes burn when you look at me like you’d kill me if you could.” Another pause, this time deeper, darker.
“I might even let you. If it meant I could get close enough.” His breath brushes my temple. “I won’t apologize. You tried to force bond me. You clever, devilish girl.” He laughs low and humorless. “I have a dark side too.”
