Page 14 of Shadows and Flames
That life… one of friends and fighting in rings for a laugh. It belonged to a person who died a while ago. All that connected me to the old Meline was standing in front of me, slowly removing her weapons and leathers.
The smirk I released was genuine as I watched her upend the coin purse and begin to count our haul. It’d been quite a surprise to bid for the contract, only to meet an employer that was little older than a babe. But as we’d argued in a back alley, going back and forth over the words they furiously scribbled, my cousin and I elected to take it. In the room we now stood in, Tana and I had decided to reject payment.
But, the pile of gold coin was a pretty sight. One that kept this life going. And going.
“What do you think they’ll do with them?” Tana began to pull clean sleeping clothes from her pack. I headed to the small fire that was reduced to smoldering embers when we returned. After prodding until it roared around fresh logs, I tossed our employer’s blood soaked clothes and their mother’s splattered nightgown into the flames.
Whipping around until the heat sighed at my back, I focused on her question. “Keep them in a jar? Make a necklace?”
Tana clucked, turning toward the door. We’d taken the risk and paid extra for the adjoining bathing room, since we knew we’d probably return in an incriminating state. Before she turned the knob, she mused, “Just hope they don’t get caught.”
“They won’t.”
She nodded, and with her face revealed, I saw the concern she wore every day. The heavy heart as the witness to my destruction, fatigued muscles as she shouldered her own ghosts.
I swallowed. “You did great. I…I’m glad to be adventuring with you.”
Her nose wrinkled as she smiled, true and cheerful even with flakes of blood caught in her golden brow. “I’m glad, too.”
She left the door cracked as she began drawing a bath. It would be a while before my turn, but I couldn’t bring myself to relax into this time alone.
My feet stayed planted in the middle of the room, refusing to look at the fire but letting it provide false warmth all the while. Faint splashes came from the bathing room while Tana washed away the evening, our first contract of this magnitude as a duo. I reflected on the wisps of pride I felt as I caught a glimpse of her cutting down guard after guard, using her staff and dagger with a poise and grace I couldn’t even take credit for. Everything she did had a finesse, a delicate nature.
For me, it was just cold instinct. A dark tunnel I retreated into until bodies lined the path like cobblestones. Killing was easy. As simple as breathing to strike here, twist there. To sense a pulse and drain it dry until the beating is a sighing echo.
When that was gone? When Tana wasn’t filling my ears with pleasant chatter or questions or reassurance?
I started humming the notes, the melody that drowned out the silence that was wrong, wrong?—
A sob caught me off guard, choking my soothing until I hunched over, arms crossed over my middle, as I tried to keep it all in. The words I wanted so desperately to take back, the one I cursed Rhaea for snatching away from me.
I didn’t hear Tana jump out of her bath. Didn’t remember falling to the floor in a heap of tears. But I’d ended up there, somehow, whimpering and shaking, thinking about all that’dslipped through my fingers. Her naked, wet limbs held me tight. She whispered assurances into my cropped curls. Spouting fierce reminders that she knew. She was there, and I didn’t have to shoulder all of this on my own. That we needed to share it.
That all was not lost.
Chapter Seven
Tomás
“You can’t be serious.” Nor looked between the three of us. Me, Nogón, and the boy who was practically wiggling with excitement. He was obedient enough, not running around ortouchinganything, but he might as well have been. His energy was like an irritating buzzing, Elián’s depressed calm making it even worse.
I tried to look at the Well with fresh eyes. Remembering how it felt to be standing here for the first time. It certainly looked bigger back then, but it wasn’tsmall. An imposing estate constructed of dark stone and iron. Ancient ivy covered much of it, breathing life within the aether swimming over the estate.
Of course, with the magic that cloaked it, any non-Shadow would just see more of the expansive forest in the northeast of Eryva. But with us, the boy had been able to pass through the protective measures. Where now the few members training or lounging outside were visible, as well as the stifling freedom of the Shadow Well. The grounds were militantly maintained, the paths leading to and around the place always swept and cleared. I hoped the boy was ready for that bloody boring task. I’d made it a point to never again touch a pair of hedging shears once I took the oath.
Noruh had been stretching in the manicured garden when we walked up with the babe after the weeks-long journey. Our faces should’ve conveyed that we were as serious as an arrow to the throat, but she was still looking at us like we’d lost our minds.
Sure felt like we had. Neither of us had brought a prospective acolyte to the Well before.
“Hello!” The lad put his fist to his chest and bowed quickly. I shot Nogón a tired glare. Wonder where the hell the boy had learned that. “I’m Marco.”
Noruh put her pale hands on her hips, but her pursed lips were trembling, already becoming charmed by the boy. She looked to us. “Thought you went out to find a queen. Not bring home a tiny Shadow.”
“The lad hasn’t been accepted yet, so don’t get ahead of yourself,” I grumbled. “And you can blame the other one for this.”
Elián ran a hand through his hair, frowning but not apologizing. After leading the conversation with the boy’s caregivers, he’d been his usual laconic self since. But the boy seemed content with his own thoughts, taking in the sights, or talking to both and neither of us at the same time. After seeing how many children they had to divert their attention for, I would wager that he had to entertain himself more often than not.
The boy had been watching our Shadow siblings who were either minding their business or giving curious glances toward us, but Nor’s words had him straightening and looking toward her once again. “You do know that being an acolyte is a years-long commitment. And it’s no easy feat.”
