“Damn her,” I spat, my hand tightening on the hilt of my dagger. “Damn them all.”
I turned away from the clearing, my cloak of shadows swirling behind me. I moved deeper into the forest, trying to shake the weight of the priestess’s presence from my mind.
The forest seemed to darken around me, reflecting my mood—an oppressive stillness settling over the trees, thick and suffocating.
This was my sanctuary, yet there was no peace here. Not anymore.
I reached out to touch the bark of a nearby tree, my fingers tracing the rough surface. I pressed my palm against the tree, letting the cool, rough bark bite into my skin as I tried to ground myself. The feel of the forest, the familiar weight of the darkness, usually brought me some semblance of calm.
But not now. Not when her presence still lingered at the edge of my senses, pulling me toward her in a way I couldn’t explain.
I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the cool, damp earth beneath me, the familiar pulse of magic that thrummed through the roots, through the stones, through me.
But her image—her face—burned brighter in my mind.
Meryn ruffled her feathers, a soft flutter against the heavy silence of the forest, pulling me back to the present. I opened my eyes and glanced at her, perched on my shoulder, her golden eyes fixed on me with that knowing look. It was almost as if she could sense what I was thinking. I reached up, running my fingers through her soft, white feathers, feeling the cool smoothness of them beneath my hand.
“I know, I know,” I muttered, though I wasn’t sure if I was talking to her or to myself. “I should focus. The Paladins will be here soon.”
But even as I said it, I could still feel the priestess’s presence. I cursed under my breath and started moving again, my boots sinking into the damp earth as I walked deeper into the forest, away from the clearing where I’d set my traps.
The Paladins were coming, but I didn’t want to be waiting there like some cornered beast. I needed to move, to keep them guessing.
The forest shifted around me, the shadows bending and warping to my will as I walked. I had once reveled in that power, in the way the shadows bent to my will, in the way darkness itself obeyed me.
But now, it was a constant reminder of the curse that bound me to this existence.
Nyx’s curse.
I snarled at the thought of her, the Night Goddess who had once been the object of my ambition, the key to my power. I had been young, arrogant, so sure of my ability to trap her, to control her. I had thought I could bend her power to my will, use her shadow magic to transcend mortality. But she had shown me what true power was.
I’d been a fool.
A mortal can’t hold a god.
“If you want power, mortal, you shall have it. Forever.”
And the Night Goddess had engulfed me in her darkness.
When I’d opened my eyes again, I had become…this. The Shadow King. An immortal creature of the darkness, cursed into a half-life of shadows.
I’d fallen to my knees, begged for forgiveness, babbled that I had been out of my mind, mercy, mercy—
And incredibly, she had agreed.
“Only the light can set you free,”she had whispered to me as she’d faded away from sight, her voice as smooth and cold as silk.
And now, I was trapped in this form, bound to the shadows, unable to step into the light without losing myself completely. Even the faintest touch of sunlight would unravel me, turn me to smoke and nothingness.
I came to a halt beneath the massive trunk of an ancient oak, the branches high above me twisted together like a cage, keeping the night locked in. The silence was absolute here, broken only by the occasional rustle of leaves far above, a sound so faint it might have been imagined.
Meryn shifted on my shoulder again, her sharp eyes scanning the darkness around us. I could feel the tension in her, the way her feathers fluffed slightly as she sensed the approach of the Paladins. She had an uncanny sense for their presence, as if she could feel the heat of their light even before I could.
“They’re close,” I murmured, stroking her feathers to calm her. “But not close enough.”
I closed my eyes and let my senses expand, feeling the web of darkness I had laid throughout the forest, the traps I had set waiting for my prey.
The magic pulsed beneath the earth, ready to spring at my command. All I had to do was wait.
