Page 73 of A Touch of Shadows

The one thing he was born to do, Leander had said. To die for her. That was the only reason he was alive in the first place.

‘Finn,’ she whispered but her voice was everywhere. On the wind, in the earth, raging through the stone above, reverberating through the stones. Singing in his blood, beating with his heart…

The Nox reached out with Wren’s slender hand, her fingers no longer trembling, reaching for him, and at her command the darkness filled him as well. Her darkness, endless, limitless, lit from within with the complete opposite of light.

CHAPTER 43

WREN

No. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t die. Not Finn. The panic and the rage swept through her, stealing her breath. Her chest felt like bands of that horrible shadow-wrought metal were clamped around her and her head swam.

Wren threw herself across the open space within the stone circle, half falling, her hands digging into the soil until she reached Finn’s body.

He lay so still, just sprawled there on his face, and beyond the stones she saw Leander, watching intently, leaning on the sword like it hadn’t just killed his brother.

No. Not killed. Finn couldn’t be dead. She would not allow that.

As she dropped to her knees, he took a single, shuddering breath and she saw the gaping wound, torn armour front and back, the blood seeping into the dark and hungry earth… and she knew.

Wren gathered him in her arms, lifted him against her body.

He blinked, but he didn’t seem to see her.

‘Wren?’ he whispered all the same. He knew she was there. That was something. It had to be.

‘I’m here. I’m here, don’t move. Don’t… great light, don’t leave me. Please Finn don’t… don’t leave me.’

He tried to smile. The darkness flooded his eyes like clouds in a stormy sky. ‘I may not have a choice.’

‘I won’t let you!’ It came out in a snarl of sound, something savage and alien to her.

‘If anyone could stop this,’ he whispered, his voice growing faint. ‘It would be you.’

And his eyes closed.

His blood was on her hands, on her clothes. It burned on her skin.

He was wrong. She wasn’t strong enough. But she knew someone who was.

‘Elodie,’ Wren yelled, desperate now. ‘Elodie, please. I need you. Please!’

But Elodie couldn’t help her. She was in chains, her power smothered by their shadows. Wren didn’t even know if Elodie was still conscious. Or alive. Even if she was, there was only the two of them against all Leander’s men, and the shadow kin he had summoned.

And all around her she could hear the song again. Leander circled the outside of the stones, still singing out in othertongue, and the Nox joined him in so many harmonious voices in this world and beyond. She hated him, loathed him. How could he do this, and to his own brother? Oh there was no love lost between them, but to do this…

Wren couldn’t let Finn die, not like this. She had to try. Gathering what light she could in her mind, she poured it into Finn’s poor broken body, trying to heal and knit it back together, seeking out anything that might help her. She didn’t know what she was doing. She worked entirely on instinct, trusting her heart to lead her.

But the light was gone too quickly. All around her was darkness. Who knew what hour it was? Where had the moon gone? It was if shadows had closed in around them, cutting them off from any source of illumination she might use. The night seemed to have lasted forever.

And part of her feared it would now, that it would never end.

‘Wren,’ Elodie called out weakly, her voice shaking. ‘Wren, just hold on. Don’t do anything stupid. I’ll find a way. I’ll find?—’

Leander was on Elodie in an instant. He struck her hard, sending her down onto the ground with a terrible crack, his fist still clenched. He didn’t use the sword, and for that Wren thanked the light. But he wouldn’t, she realised. Not for Elodie. He wanted her to hurt. He wanted her to know she had failed.

Strange, how transparent the prince was to her now. For all his charm, all his machinations, all his treachery… she could see him for what he was.

Leander turned towards her, meeting her horrified gaze with his own unswerving one.

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