Elena shook her head and took a step back. I turned to look at her, and she wordlessly nodded her head at the mage, as if to say to me:“Go on.”
I felt a surge of respect for her, a fierce admiration that left me momentarily breathless. She was stronger than I’d given her credit for, willing to stand beside me in this darkness, to face the shadows without fear.
My shadows tightened around the mage, making him gasp in pain.
“You…you think this will break me?” the mage choked out, glaring at me even though his voice trembled with barely contained fear. “I’ll never tell you anything.”
I felt a cold smile spread across my lips, my shadowstightening in response to his defiance. “We’ll see about that,” I murmured, my voice soft, laced with deadly promise.
He lasted longer than I expected, his resolve holding even as my shadows pressed against him, as the darkness closed in around him and the shadows slipped down his throat, choking him from the inside out.
It took longer than I had expected, but soon, he was close to breaking, his defiance slipping away with every second.
And then, finally, he cracked, his voice a broken, desperate whisper.
“The tunnels,” he gasped, when I let him speak. His gaze flickered between me and Elena, his face pale with fear. “The underground tunnels… beneath the Sun Temple.”
Elena’s face hardened, and I could see the faint flicker of betrayal in her eyes, a quiet, unspoken pain that left me feeling strangely hollow.
I released my hold on the mage, letting him slump to the ground, his body trembling with the remnants of his terror. He stared up at me, his gaze filled with hatred before he slumped to the ground, unconscious. I ignored him, my focus shifting to Elena, to the quiet devastation in her eyes.
“We have our answer,” I murmured quietly, my heart filled with a strange, uncharacteristic sympathy. “The Temple. Your Elders… they’ve betrayed you.”
She nodded, her jaw clenched, her gaze distant as she processed the weight of his words. “Yes,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “They have.”
I felt a faint pang of something I couldn’t name, a quiet, unspoken sorrow that echoed in my chest. She didn’t deserve this, didn’t deserve the pain that lingered in her gaze.
And yet, there was nothing I could do, nothing I could offer that would ease her hurt.
I looked down at the mage, feeling rage bubble inside me. “Hewon’t bother anyone again,” I said, my voice laced with quiet menace. “I’ll leave him to the paladins in the village. Let them deal with him.”
Elena nodded, her expression distant, resigned, and I felt a surge of frustration, a helpless anger that I couldn’t quite contain.
With a final glance at her, I turned, my shadows gathering around me as I lifted the unconscious mage, his body limp in my hold.
Meryn fluttered down from her perch, her gaze sharp, watchful, as she settled onto my shoulder, a silent reassurance in the face of my frustration.
“Elena,” I murmured, my voice rough, strained. “We’ll find a way to set this right.”
She looked up at me, and I felt a faint flicker of hope. She was stronger than they had ever given her credit for, and I knew, with a certainty that I couldn’t deny, that she would survive this, that she would rise from this darkness stronger than ever.
And as I turned to leave, as I slipped into the shadows with Meryn beside me, I felt a quiet, unspoken promise settle in my chest: I would see this through to the end, no matter the cost.
“Come. Let’s reconvene in my forest.”
Chapter 17: Elena
I drifted behind Dario like I was another one of his shades, my heart in turmoil.
I watched with unseeing eyes as he left the unconscious mage at the paladin outpost in the village, trailing him as he led the way to his forest again. As I walked behind him, my feet stopped in an empty field, the weight of my emotions proving too muchto bear.
The drought-stricken fields stretched empty before me, vast and brittle under the waning moon, the barren earth a reminder of the life that had been drained from these lands, and how the Elders had forsaken them.
My hands clenched and unclenched as I paced across the dry, cracked ground, the weight of what I’d just learned crashing over me in waves.
The Temple—the Elders—the very people I had pledged my life to, the men and women I had served for years—were at the heart of this. They had betrayed Solaris, betrayed the people they claimed to protect. Betrayed… me.
I stopped in the center of the field, swallowing against the tightness in my throat, the raw, jagged ache in my chest.
