Page 86 of Sanctuary of the Shadow
“I’ll be back,” Ouro said to her. “You’d best explain to them what’s going on.”
“Already done. We met yesterday, remember?”
“If you say so.” He gave them a nod and then swept from the room.
“Why is Ouro helping you?” Mal asked Nashira.
“Ask him.” She smiled brightly. “But he won’t tell you.”
“Why don’t you tell me, then?”
“It’s not my story to tell. But I suppose you should know. Long ago, an infant child was abandoned on—” She shook her head suddenly. “No, I changed my mind. I won’t tell you.”
Harrow wasn’t interested in Ouro’s life story or anything else except understanding what was going on. “What do you want with Raith?”
Nashira’s vivid blue eyes snapped to her. “The question is, dear, what doyouwant with Raith? You’ve only half a soul, after all. Don’t you feel incomplete? Haven’t you always felt incomplete?”
Yes.Goddess, yes, she had. Except for five short days in a room at a tavern that she’d been telling herself over and over were a lie.
“Who wouldn’t feel incomplete without half their soul?”
“What do you mean, half my soul?”
“You’re only one half. The light half. It’s all very nice, but it isn’t much without the dark to balance it out.”
“You’re talking about Raith.”
“Yes.” Nashira clapped her hands. “Now you’re getting it. You got it much faster yesterday. A shame it’s too late. Now you have to wait for him to come to you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Harrow insisted. “If the other half of my soul is a killer, I don’t want anything to do with him.”
“We’ve been over this, Seer.” Her voice was chastising yet patient, like she was speaking to a child. “Dark Half is precious and new. I do hope you’ve been protecting him. Such a vulnerable heart.”
Harrow swallowed hard. More guilt surfaced, but she stuffed it down. “If he’s ‘new,’ as you say, then what was he before, when he was killing innocent Seers?”
Suddenly, Nashira’s entire demeanor changed. Her eyes became hard, her full mouth pressed into a flat line.
“Enslaved.”
“W-what do you mean?”
Nashira’s blue eyes grew distant once more. “He was held in forced servitude under the threat of unrelenting agony. Do you understand what that means?”
“Of course,” Harrow said, but her voice wavered slightly.
“Really? Because it doesn’t seem to me that you do.”
“I know the wraiths are bound to Furie’s will. Is that what you’re saying?”
But Nashira was looking far away again, waving her hands. The crystal ball wobbled precariously in her lap. “Did anyone ask how you felt about this, my poor doves? No. They were too quick to judge, weren’t they? Precious creatures, unloved and in the dark. I wish to see you freed from bondage.”
“This is wild,” Malaikah murmured, shaking her head as Nashira rambled on to her unseen audience.
“I think…” Harrow listened closely, comprehension dawning. “I think she’s speaking to the wraiths.”
Nashira’s gaze snapped back. She pointed a finger at Harrow. “Ding-ding!”
“You’re saying the wraiths are controlled by Furie. We know this.”
