Page 1 of Shadows and Flames
Part One
Death
Chapter One
ELIÁN
Three months after her
“Why amIbeing punished?” I gritted through my teeth. It was taking all of my strength to not let the depth of my anger show. But I managed. Barely.
“You’re being punished, Master Elián, because you’ve taken it upon yourself to settle a score with your Shadow brother after your Elders have already decided his sentence,” Master Varus drawled from his end of the table.
My chin raised, and I didn’t remove my eyes from his. Friend of my father’s or not, Varus hadn’t been much of a fan of me. “I did not agree with the sentence.”
“Be that as it may. You are prohibited from securing contracts in the name of The Shadows for the next six months.” Both of my brows rose, but when my gaze landed on Noruh at her place at the table of seven, I wiped all expression from my face.
I pressed my fist to my chest and bowed my head.
“You are dismissed.” Varus waved his hand toward the door, and I wasted no time. I spun on my heel and pivoted out of the Elder Chambers on silent steps.
I kept my hands behind my back and eyes forward while I prowled through the Shadow Well halls. Hunting and killing Jones had been irritatingly easy. Once I returned to the Well and discovered that he had never came back after… I left immediately to track him down. He’d been hiding out at hismother’shome for goddess’s sake.
When I’d dragged him back for sentencing, for justice, I pled my case to be the one to punish him. Death, and a painful one, was my request. Smoke nearly blew out of my ears when the Elders were even more lenient on him than they had just been on me.
I turned around the corners of the dimly lit corridors, boots slipping across black stone, and then up a set of stairs. It had been even easier to follow behind him as he left on his first contract. My need to work off that rage kept me focused, careful. And Jones feeling safe and cleared left him unguarded. He routinely stuck to his training while he sought out his mark, creeping into their home in one of the southern Trylas villages.
I watched from the trees as he slit the target’s throat and collected the silver locket he was to take back to his contract’s employer. My fingers had reached up to grasp my medallion until I remembered it was gone. I’d given it toher.
Jones and I had been raised in the Well together, along with Leandro, Tomás, and Noruh. And he’d always been greedy. His mark had an extensive wine collection, it turned out, and I found Jones in the dead male’s cellar, sampling at his leisure.
Now, the Master’s wing of the Well was quiet, and it was another surprising blessing. My steps slowed to a stop as I unlocked the door and slipped into my room at the end of the last corridor. I had never thought much about decorating myspace here, but the darkness now seemed empty where before I’d seen it as simple. Sparse now when it had been organized before.
I stripped off my leathers and weapons and collapsed in my undershorts onto the bed, large and dressed in a simple deep blue blanket. My arms dug into my thighs while I sat, thinking.
That ruined king offered him a hefty payment to do his bidding—that was why Jones had followed the order to attack his brother Shadow. And his own prejudiced views made him sympathetic toherbrother’s plans. We had been raised at the Well, yes, but the traditions and views of our homelands still had a hold. Jones was from Krisla and saw the Vyrkos as the reason for all our race’s problems.
Even after traveling the realm, when I finally tracked down Jones, the cold of Trylas offended my body on a base level while I sliced into him, torturing out every piece of information he had.
I scoffed aloud, and ran my hand through my hair. My fingernails were blunt and could never scratch my scalp like she could. The thought of it sent a phantom ripple down my neck.
After he’d given me all he had, burning Jones had done little to satisfy my bloodlust. Though usually stoic, Jones had screamed as I let all my rage out onto him.
The Elder Shadows found out what I did soon after, as I had not tried to hide it. If they were content to let Jones off with barely a slap on his greedy wrist, I would do what they wouldn’t. Damn the consequences. I had a sneaking suspicion that Noruh had convinced them to make said consequences less severe than they should have been. I killed another Shadow for revenge, and six months without working waslessthan a slap on the wrist.
A lick of flame bloomed in my palm, and I skated it along the edges of my hand, rolled it over my knuckles. But this release of the Fire, even in this small way, was hollow. I’d come back todeal with Jones and see that The Shadows were all right. To see that Noruh had left her contract safely.
I punished the one who betrayed me, ensured my siblings were safe—so why did I feel as though I made a mistake returning to the Well?And I could not help but wonder—where wasshe?
Another flame lit on my other hand, and I concentrated on juggling the fire to clear my mind. There was no reason to feel guilty. I was a Shadow, and she had been right—I would always return to the Well at one point or another.
But without her here, without the cool darkness she provided… the fire in my hands felt dull. When I closed my eyes, I saw her above me, unclothed and head thrown back in ecstasy. But it wasn’t just the feeling of being inside her that left my mouth dry, my heart swelling and cracking at the same time. It was the flames I conjured, dancing around her face like the rays of the sun that she was.
I had never felt anything like it. Like her. When our gifts from the sister Goddesses met, it was like a homecoming. In her Death, I felt settled and at home while still bright—alive.
But she would notlistento me. She would not hear me. And now it was done. There was no—I snuffed out the fire on my hands and was descended into the darkness of my room once more. There was no point in thinking about her anymore. It was done.
“Open up, mate, or I’m breaking down the door!” My jaw ground, and I scrubbed my hand over my face. The beard I’d grown in these months itched my skin, but I could not be bothered to shave it off.
