Page 55 of Cursed Shadows 4

Hours of sunlight spent tucked into the dug-out den beneath a tree means that every reach of Daxeel’s arms to the branches above has his muscles straining, his bones creaking.

And there was no rest to be found in those slow hours just ticking by. What consumed his mind, prevented him from sleep, is the same thought that rings in his head now, over and over.

Nari.

Nari.

Nari.

He can’t feel her.

That aching echo doesn’t plague his chest anymore.

And he can’t see her, not that he expected to spot Nari amongst the vast landscape of the mountain. Even at thisaltitude, this far up the tree, balanced on the boughs and the branches, he didn’t expect to look out—and find her.

Yet there’s a tinge of disappointment in him. It tugs down the corner of his mouth as he scans the area.

Mist clouds most of his surroundings.

A constant wisp of cloud warps the mountain peak.

But he can make out a river downhill, far from where he is now, and it wraps around the edge of the mountain before it disappears from view.

Nari might be down there.

It would make sense that she turns her back on the summit, on the climb of the mountain, and heads downstream. She’s probably out there now, near the waters, chasing down the currents, maybe finding a place to hide out for the rest of the second passage.

However long they have…

It’s unknown.

He hopes in that time, Caius isn’t the one who finds her. He’d probably break her leg and drag her to the summit.

That might be a mercy in the face of the litalves.

Daxeel’s breath shudders, a mist at his parted lips, almost as though the strike in his chest is an echo from her, her fear, her panic.

It isn’t.

It is…

Guilt.

He swallows it back, a thick lump rising in his throat.

Even the thought of Samick finding Nari first is enough to prickle his flesh with unease. Samick is… unreadable, unpredictable.

He might be her best bet of surviving, since he came from a place not so unlike this, on the farthest reaches of Dorcha, a place no one ventures but those who are from there. A mountain of frost and daylight and mists, of an old, ancient magick, of the line between natural and unnatural.

But Samick can’t fully be trusted to handle her with care.

Dare is her best hope.

Daxeel sometimes questions his loyalty between them. Dare and Nari have developed a friendship—a sincere one, on Dare’s part at least.

That creates a problem for Daxeel.

Dare is a moving piece on a gameboard.

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