Page 8 of Staff of Nightfall

Adelaide looked up with watery eyes. “This is why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to see the look in your eyes that you have now.”

Regulus unclenched his fist and tried to relax. He knew what she must be seeing. The fury and violent intent. The stony determination he wore into battle like a second set of armor. All the darkest parts of himself. The parts that didn’t deserve her.

“Nolan Carrick will pay for his crimes,” Lord Belanger said, drawing their attention. A vein in Belanger’s temple throbbed and his white-knuckled hands gripped the back of the armchair. “But that doesn’t clarify what has happened since Adelaide disappeared. So...what?” He massaged his forehead with the palm of his hand. “You two ran away? Were you captured by a Black Knight and Hargreaves saved you, or was Carrick correct in his assessment that Hargreavesisthe Black Knight and he kidnapped you?”

“No!” Adelaide exclaimed. “I mean, that is—well...sort of. It wasn’t...uh...”

All right, Regulus. The truth. However painful.He breathed in, his shoulders rising and falling as he gathered his resolve. “Carrick wasn’t lying about everything. I did take Adelaide. And his guess wasn’t wrong. I am—was—the Black Knight.”

Behind them, Lady Belanger gasped. Lord Belanger stepped around the chair toward him, rage in his eyes. Adelaide stepped in front of him, blocking her father from attacking.

“Wait! He didn’t exactlytakeme.” Adelaide cast a chastising glare at Regulus that made his cheeks burn. All right, perhaps he might have been more tactful. She looked back at her father. “I agreed to help him.” She turned around and placed a hand on his chest. Looked into his eyes. “Tell him. Tell him exactly what you told me.” His gut clenched, but he took courage from the love in her gaze.

“It all started two years ago.”

He told the entire story. The forest. The sorcerer’s demand that Regulus serve him or watch his men die. They moved to the seats. Lord and Lady Belanger took a couple of the armchairs. Regulus and Adelaide sat with their thighs touching and held each other’s hands on the couch. He didn’t have the mark anymore, but he showed them the scars from his attempts to remove it.

He told them about the sorcerer admitting he was the Shadow that had hunted down all the mages in Monparth twenty-two years ago. About the sorcerer demanding he deliver Adelaide. Together they told the rest. Nolan showing up at Arrano. Adelaide visiting him the next day and agreeing to go to the sorcerer. The mark the sorcerer put on her arm. Their trek up the mountains, the crying statue predicting death and destruction, everything. Whenever his throat tightened with shame over what he had done, Adelaide filled in the details, somehow making him seem less at fault than he felt. Sometimes they had to go back and clarify something out of chronological order. A few times Lord Belanger looked on the verge of leaping across the room and strangling him.

“I could scarcely believe my eyes when the mark was gone,” Regulus said. “And then he removed Adelaide’s. I was finally free.Wewere free. But then...” He bit his cheek. “It happened too fast. I didn’t know what was happening, but he was hurting her. He said if I intervened, he’d kill her.”

“It’s not your fault,” Adelaide murmured.

“What’s not his fault?” Lord Belanger demanded.

Lady Belanger said something in Khast, her eyes wide and tone breathless.

“Yes. The sorcerer took my magic.” Adelaide shuddered, and Regulus squeezed her hand. “But look. This is why I was looking for you.” She beamed at Regulus, then held her free hand in front of her. After a moment, her palm glowed faintly blue, then brighter.

Regulus gasped. “It’s...back?”

The light died out and she sighed, her shoulders sagging. “A little. I can feel a tiny spark of energy for the first time since he took it, but...it’s weak, and more exhausting to summon.”

Relief and hope surged through Regulus. “Maybe you just need time.”

“Maybe.” She shrugged, but he saw the fear in her eyes.

“What happened next?” Belanger coaxed. “Your injuries?”

“We left while the sorcerer repaired the staff,” Regulus said. “The injuries were from kanadosi.”

“Then we came here.” Adelaide looked to her parents. “To ask for help with Nolan.”

There was one other reason why Regulus had both supported and dreaded going to the Belanger’s. He wanted her father’s blessing. But perhaps they should allow her parents to process everything else, first, before he added marriage to the list.

“We thought we would be safe here,” Regulus added. “Thought we could avoid Carrick until we had a plan.”

Lord Belanger steepled his fingers, his elbows resting on the arms of his chair. But when he spoke, it wasn’t what Regulus was expecting. “This...sorcerer. What did you say he called himself again?”

“The Prince of Shadow and Ash.” Regulus hated saying the ridiculous title after two years of only saying it under compulsion. “He fancies himself royalty.”

“And heisthe Shadow? He killed the mages?” Regulus nodded, and Belanger rested his chin on his fingers. “And ash...” Belanger shook his head, deep wrinkles lining his forehead. “What does he look like?”

Regulus and Adelaide exchanged a confused glance. “Short,” he said. “Built like a baker, or a scholar, I suppose. A bit tubby.”

“Graying brown beard,” Adelaide added. “Maybe in his early fifties. Very pale. Narrow nose. Deep-set eyes.”

“Usually his face is partly hidden under a hood. But he has long graying brown hair and wiry eyebrows. Black eyes.” He looked at Lord Belanger, suspicious. “Is this a test? Do you think we’re lying?”

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