Page 98 of Cursed Shadows 4

I hesitate. Then, after a beat, I step on the painting of my face. I really sink it into the blood of the fallen, the one I killed, the one paid a bounty to slaughter me.

It’s not enough that the litalves are out for my head just because I am Daxeel’s second heart. That to kill me is to kill him and win the Sacrament.

That, I can understand.

That, I can live with.

But the bounty is not for Licht.

That is a personal target on my head.

An extra incentive to take me down.

My mind flickers to Ridge—

My breath shivers at the reminder of him, of his betrayal, of his slack, lifeless eyes.

Is that why he turned on me?

When he was trying to kill me, he kept going on about Luna. A friend of his who didn’t make it past the first passage. What that has to do with me, I haven’t the faintest idea.

He wasn’t right. He was high off the tail-end of the white powder. And since he was trying to kill me, I didn’t waste time asking questions.

His strained, feral voice rumbles through my mind:‘I’m not doing this for the gold… I’m doing this for her.’

Gaze downcast, I watch the blood soak onto each individual thread of the cloth-portrait.

Dare’s fingers are firm around my wrist. A gesture to move.

So I do.

I walk alongside Dare.

“Ridge tried to kill me,” I say, soft, quiet, as though it’s a wretched confession that no one should hear, ever. “So I killed him.”

Dare’s face shutters. He turns his blank gaze to me—pots of golden alarm.

I find I can’t meet his gaze for longer than a moment.

I watch the ropes of tree roots weave over the earth before I step over them. “He said… Ridge said that we expected him to love the ones who took her from him.”

I look up from under my hooded lashes.

Dare’s frown tugs at his mouth.

So he knows. He knows what Ridge was talking about, he knows who they took from him.

I ask outright, “Did you kill Luna?”

“I did.”

Blankness slacks my face. I turn my stupid look on him. “Youdid?”

I wasn’t necessarily asking if he specifically killed her. I meant more as a group, any one of those soul brothers.

But it was Dare.

His nod is slow and regretful. But I know Dare, and I know that he doesn’t regret killing anyone, but rather he regrets the added danger that put me in.

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