Page 13 of Duskbound

“Time’s up for the day,” he stated, reaching the edge of the bench and turning away from me.

I didn’t budge. Irritation churned in my gut. I could tell it had been only half the time I was allowed out on the lawn the day before. I dreaded the thought of going back to that room.

“Let’s go,” he repeated, staleness drenching his words as his posture shifted into something more controlled, something that seemed lethal.

I knew it better to follow his orders, to allow him to escort me back up into that tower, but I couldn’t force myself to move. Finally, he turned in my direction, but I didn’t dare look at him, keeping my eyes focused on the landscape beyond, noting the few Vördr gliding on the wind in the distance. But the irritation radiating off of him was palpable.

“I’ll drag you up there if I have to,” he said flatly, and I saw him cross his arms in my periphery.

“Just a few more moments,” I whispered, sucking in a breath, expecting the sudden jolt of being thrown over his shoulder again, as he had done before all those weeks ago.

To my complete shock, he merely let out a sigh and lowered himself onto the bench beside me, its wooden beams croaking under his weight.

We sat in silence, and I closed my eyes, trying to soak in the last few moments of faux freedom before being whisked back to my tower. I breathed in the air, tinged with the scent of wet mud and a fire burning somewhere in the distance.

After what seemed like an eternity, I let my lashes flutter open, still surprised by the silence that had slipped by undisturbed. I dared a peek in his direction, feeling myself cower as I took in his intimidating frame, noticing as wisps of his hair flew in the gentle breeze. His eyes were closed, breathing in the stillness as we sat together.

I thought back to that moment in the tower, my first inklingsof consciousness after my capture. How the intensity of our encounter had left me in shambles, how something had sparked between us in the darkest and most confusing of ways. I wondered if he remembered. If he ever thought about that. Whatthatwas.

And suddenly, I was brave.

“How do you do it?” I asked, fixing my gaze on him. Every nerve inside me was begging for me to look away, to recoil, but I resisted. I stared. “How are you immune to my… tether?” I asked. That use of the word had his golden eyes shooting towards me, flying open. They rested on me for a moment, his leathered chest inclining as he breathed in deeply. I don’t know why I even asked. Why I expected him to answer.

“I don’t know,” he muttered in a low tone, and I waited for him to say something else, anything else, but he never did.

Slowly, he stood. “It’s time.”

And then something inside me snapped.

“I know you all captured me for a reason. It’s not because you cared about my safety and it’s not because you don’t leave Umbra behind.” I shot to my feet, backing away from him. “You want something from me. And I demand to know what it is!” My voice boomed through the lawn, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. He was going to drag me back to that Esprithe-forsaken tower either way.

“You want all of the answers, but you know as well as I that you won’t believe a word out of my mouth. I can’t convince you of anything. You’ll see for yourself soon enough,” he said, taking a measured step in my direction.

“Why would I believe you? What possible reason would I have to trust any of you in the slightest? You claim I’m a shadow wielder, you call me names like Duskbound, but none of you show me what that actually means,” I hissed, curling my arms out as if to show him I wouldn’t be taken against my will. Not again. Not back up to that obsidian prison cell.

Inky tendrils began to pulse from his eyes as he took in my defensive position, jaw clenched, his chin low.

“You want me to show you?” he growled.

I stood breathless, eyes locking onto his once more as I stood my ground. I couldn’t take it anymore. The temptation in his expression riled something in me, something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Something dangerous, something dark.

“Yes.” My voice was barely a breath, unsure of what I was asking for, but I couldn’t back down now.

He moved so fast, too fast. Before I could react, he was on me, grabbing my face with crushing force, his eyes now darker than the abyss. A scream tried to tear itself from my throat, but I held it back, frozen by the weight of him. Darkness erupted from his every pore, obscuring my vision from all directions.

“You wanted to see. Now let me show you,” he muttered, his fingers sliding down to brush my chin, his grip unyielding. I thrashed, but he pulled me closer, his other arm encircling my waist, trapping me against him.

The shadows surged around me, crawling across my skin, burning, chilling, like some dark, familiar touch. My body tensed with the pressure of it, hairs standing on end as something in me began to break.

“Stop resisting,” his voice was rough, low. “You have to invite them in.” The words stirred something in me. I could feel it, the pull of it. It was too much, too overwhelming. But he was right. I stopped struggling, my breath shallow, as I inhaled the bitter smoke rising from his touch. It filled me, tore through me, and in an instant, my mind shattered.

I felt the shadows descend my inner walls, the barrier completely breached. And then they flooded me. There was no fighting back as they sent pulses of power through my blood, deep enough until they sank into my bones. I felt my body go limp in hisarms, felt as the darkness took me over, how it spread through me like a drug.

I hated how it felt. Hated that it felt like some long lost piece of me had been nudged into place. Hated how it felt good.

And just when I thought the oblivion would suck me into its depths, leave me in a place of utter delicious night, they began to fray and snap like strings of ink thrashing in water.

Feeling only came back to my physical form once I felt the heaving chest of the man before me, my body pressed against him tightly. As realization hit me, and I remembered where I was, who the chest belonged to, I slammed my fists against it.

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