Page 3 of Shadows and Flames
He scoffed, “Don’t blame her.” My head whirled around, incredulous. Tomás chuckled as we made our way out to the corridor. “Jones helped her brother try to kill her? I wouldn’t want anything to do with us either. But it’s been six months.” He shrugged and cracked his knuckles. “She might be more willing to hear you out, now.”
He didn’t think I’d thought of that? Every day, I drank or trained away the thought of finding her and getting on my knees, trying to convince her that we could have both things. But the way she’d looked at me, tears running down her cheeks because ofmywords—I hadn’t been heartbroken like that in over a century.
Tomás continued on under his breath. “If I were you, I’d stop your wallowing and track her down. What else do you have to do?”
We went down the steps and headed toward the courtyard while I turned over his words. She’d said that they were leaving everything behind. She could be anywhere. There had been no sign of her during open contract bids, no talk of her from other blades for hire. I did not even know where to start.
I pushed open the door that led to outside, and the gray sky was a blanket over the mid-afternoon sun. The forest surrounding the Shadow Well was dense, expansive, and my muscles hummed in anticipation of weaving through the trees and leaping over the brush.
“Ready?” Tomás jutted his head toward the darkened wood.
A soft breeze swept the small courtyard. It rustled my hair that had grown too long in these months. I tucked the frontmost strands away from my face and angled toward where he indicated. “Ready.”
Chapter Two
ELIÁN
Ten months after her
Ido not even know why I let them drag me in here.
I clutched my glass in my hand, and I was halfway toward needing to refill it for the fourth time. This common room was unofficially designated for the more seasoned Shadows staying at the Well, and though they didn’t live here as much as I did, it seemed that Tomás and Noruh were determined to embarrass me. They said I’d been punishing myself enough, which was completely incorrect—I just had no desire to be around my siblings when we weren’t training.
In my other hand, I held a set of old, peeling cards. “Your turn,Nogón,” Tomás drawled across the table. He’d roped me into playing a game, but I hadn’t been paying attention when he explained the rules. I plucked a card at random from my hand and threw it down at the middle of the table.
Noruh sat to my right, hunched over and staring at her hand intently. She threw her pale blonde hair over her shoulder before sighing and throwing down two cards atop mine. She crossed her arms and slumped back in her seat.
Tomás grinned evilly over his cards and placed one on the table. “I win.”
“Bullshit,” Noruh hissed and glared down at the pile of cards. I rolled my eyes and drained the rest of my drink.
“No bullshit, love. Believe you both will be working my acolyte training shifts this next moon. Split them amongst yourselves.” He fluttered his deep brown fingers at us, and I shrugged as I stood. There wasn’t much else for me to do anyway. I still had two months left of my punishment for killing Jones, and there were far worse things than training the potential Shadows. My brother, though, despised that part of our responsibilities.
The common room was particularly busy tonight, what with the swearing in of a new Shadow upon us tomorrow. We didn’t replenish our ranks very often, as The Killings had definitely taken a toll on our numbers. There were seven in this room, and it already felt like a quarter of us.
The Well was primarily a quiet place, one of solitude and purpose. I reached the long table, stocked with multiple kinds of drink, at the far wall of the dim room. A large hearth sat beside it, and the heat settled some of the tightness in my lungs. Once my glass was full again, I turned back to retake my seat.
A few of my Shadow siblings eyed me warily, but I paid them no mind. The Elder Shadows didn’t often have to reprimand us. We were trained assassins—our moral compass allowed for many deeds. But killing another member wasn’t something that occurred frequently. We were widespread and mostly respected one another, even if we didn’t always get along. Still, I had no regrets about hunting Jones down and killing him. I would do it again if I could.
Danner was sitting with Zafina on one of the low leather sofas, and he tried to make eye contact with me as I sat back down with Tomás and Noruh.
“Up for another game?” Tomás winked at us, and the glint in his light brown eyes was reflected by the shining silver hoop through his right nostril and his bright, white teeth.
Noruh snorted into her own glass of wine. “You must be joking.” She pointed a finger at him. “I know you and your trickster ways. We barely even know the rules of the game!”
He scoffed and clutched a hand to his chest. “You wound me! I am just trying to have a fun evening with my oldest and dearest friends.” But I knew that look in his eye just as well as Noruh did. His nimble fingers, also dressed in silver rings, shuffled the old card deck with an expert quickness. Tomás had been hustling and stealing long before he’d become a Shadow. If he wanted to, Noruh and I would be tricked into shouldering his duties until the end of time.
“You are a dirty cheat, that’s what you are.” Noruh looked at me expectantly when Tomás scoffed and feigned more offense. I just cocked a brow at her and threw back more of my drink.
“All right,fine. We don’t have to play another game. Wouldn’t want you to punish me, too.” His eyes cut toward her.
Noruh’s blue-green stare narrowed at Tomás, then at me. She’d been chosen by the last group of Elders to take over another’s seat when their term ended. She was the first of us to serve the position, as we had just reached the seniority threshold to be chosen. Though I’d told Tomás I supsected Noruh had argued for me to have a lesser punishment for my offense, he hadn’t relented in teasing her about it.
“And you think that’s my fault?” she shot at him.
He shrugged. “Well, it’s one-seventh your fault. Look at him!” Tomás shot his hand out at me, but I just scratched at my bearded cheek. “He’s been stuck at the Well for months gettingworse, and he’s even quieter than before.”
She rolled her eyes. “And you think saying that and making him do your chores are what’s going to get him to speak to youmore? Besides, not everyone dislikes living here or training the acolytes. Did you ever think that some of us like it?” I hadn’t asked her to defend me, and I knew it was likely guilt about being part of my punishment that motivated her. But she was right. I did enjoy teaching the acolytes. It wasn’t one of my few duties that I disliked, anyway. And though I had homes in a few of the busier cities throughout the realm—it made it easier to take contracts when I had a residence to stay in—I was one of the few that stayed at the Well for the majority of the year.
