Page 107 of Shardless

“No one really thinks twice if a mortal goes missing,” Taly supplied. “And since people already tend to vanish prior to the Aion Gate connection, it made the sheer number of disappearances easy to justify. Whoever is behind this chose their moment well.”

“Maybe…” Skye hesitated, then shook his head. “No—this is bigger than that. Just look at the number of shades that attacked us yesterday. There were so many. This goes beyond just a few disappearances. The man, woman,thingthat created those shades has been planning their attack for a very long time.” Pushing himself off the broken-down couch, Skye began pacinganxiously. “And that still doesn’t explain where that abomination fits into all of this. I don’t remember anything about shades being able toremakethemselves—change their forms.”

“I think that’s a side effect of not having time magic to stabilize them,” Taly explained. “From what I can piece together, the more they decay, the harder they are to control. If they got out from underneath their creator’s thrall… well, I couldn’t find anything about what would happen to an unleashed shade. House Myridan’s shadow mages theorized but—"

“Their time mages would just patch up the ones that started to get out-of-hand, reverse the decay, restore their anima. A complete reset. Which means that, without time magic, we’re dealing with something completely new. Something untested,” Skye finished quietly. He stood there, his hands clasped behind his back, staring at the gray sky overhead as he attempted to collect his thoughts. “I suppose,” he said after a long pause, “at the very least, we should be thankful that we can tell the living from the dead—that we know just who it is we’re supposed to fight. If they had time mages on their side, I don’t know what we’d do. The entirety of the Fey Imperium came together to try to fight House Myridan and their army of shades, and they just barely managed to win that fight before our entire civilization collapsed.”

“There’s one more thing, Em,” Taly whispered, her hand grasping at the pendant around her neck. “One more thing that might change the calculus.”

Her—the human time mage. Thefreak. She was a problem.

Skye sank back down beside her. “Shards, there’s more?”

“That passage about the time magic enchantment…” Taly paused, thinking better of what she was about to say. “No, not here.” There were too many shadow mages in the compound, too many listening ears. “It’s too public.”

“There’s no one else in the library.” Skye’s head tilted to the side, and his nostrils flared. “Or outside. No one that can hear us, at least.”

“I take it you got your magic back?”

“Yes,” he said, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. “I swung by to see the healer on my way back from talking to Eula. That’s why it took so long. So out with it. What’s the big secret?”

“Um…” Taly’s mouth suddenly felt dry. “Well, it has to do with why I left last year.”

She felt Skye’s body go rigid beside her.

“Go on,” he said carefully.

Taly took a deep breath, then downed the rest of her coffee in a few gulps, wishing it was whiskey. She could do this. Aiden had been telling her she needed to fess up ever since she came back to the manor. And now it had finally reached a point where it was more dangerous for Skyenotto know what she was. “That day in the training yard, when you discharged the dagger in my hand, that was when I figured out… well, not figured out. That’s not the right word. That’s when… that’s when it started.”

Skye’s face fell, and he held up a finger to her lips, shushing her. “I just can’t catch a break today,” he muttered. “Eula’s on the first floor looking for me.”

“Why?” Taly mumbled, her lips still pressed against his finger.

Skye cocked his head, listening. “She says ‘tell Taly hi’ and that she managed to track down the rest of the leadership and convinced them to meet early.

“Eula.” He paused, snorting in reply to something only he could hear. “Can you give me a minute? Keep the library clear? Thank you.” Looking back at Taly, he gave her an encouraging nod. “You were saying?”

Taly opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

“C’mon, Tink. Don’t freeze up on me now.” There was a hint of desperation in his voice as he tangled his hands in her hair, pulling her eyes back to his. “If you’re not ready to tell me that’s okay, but…please.”

Shaking her head, Taly said, “Not here. It’s just not a good idea. I’ll tell you tonight in the room. It’s warded against those pesky shadow senses.”

Skye gave her a reluctant smile as he pressed his forehead to hers. “That’s not what that spell is called, but fair enough. After this meeting, I’m probably not going to get a moment alone. If you can believe it, finding out we’re dealing with shades is only the second-worst news I’ve received this morning.” His hands moved down to cradle her neck. “I only have one request if you’re going to keep me in suspense all day long.”

“What’s that?” The movement of her lips drew his eyes down.

“Let me kiss you again?”

That voice, breathy and low, set Taly’s heart racing. His lips twitched at the corners—he could hear it. Now that he could use his magic, he knew exactly the kind of effect he was having on her. Buthe didn’t move. He waited.

Her choice. She set the pace.

Taking a shaky breath, she jerked her head.Yes.

Although she braced herself, he didn’t kiss her immediately. Not like she expected. First, he placed a gentle kiss on her brow, then both cheeks, even the tip of her nose before ghosting his lips across hers, teasing. All she needed to do was lean forward, but she didn’t. She let him play his game.

A low, muttered curse was the only warning he gave before he abruptly tipped her back and pressed his mouth against hers in a kiss that, though brief, would be forever burned into her memory. It was bruising, branding. It dared her to try to continue to see him as only a friend, to try to paint this as an accident or a fluke.

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