Page 54 of The King is Dead
“Melek, what—”
“It happened yesterday too,” he growled, his forehead pinched and eyes scanning the dark. “I assumed it was one of your… people.”
I shook my head, stepping out from behind him, but holding his hand because he was reaching for me. “No. I’d be able to tell if—”
The shadows in the corner, inside the bars,pulsed.The darkness turning almost opaque, fooling my eyes
“What the fuck wasthat?”he growled.
I shook my head, heart racing. “I don’t know.”
18. Darkness Claiming
~ YILAN ~
Melek turned to look at me, his gaze skeptical, which broke my heart.
“I’m telling you the truth,” I insisted. “I’ve never seen that before. That isn’t what we do.”
We both turned back to look. I couldn’t hear anything in the silence except my heartbeat that pulsed in my ears.
Melek was casting angry looks around the room, his free hand twitching as if for a weapon, but of course we’d been very careful not to leave anything in the room that he could use.
Letting go of his hand, I unbuckled the weapon belt at my waist, and slipped out the two daggers, passing one to him, and we both started turning a slow circle, keeping our backs to each other, trying to identify what was moving in this room.
“When did you see it yesterday?” I breathed.
“When I woke up. Something moved—the shadow. But then there was nothing.”
I swallowed hard, mentally flipping through every lesson on the dark arts and those who held its power—another Shade? But no, a Shade was visible, just sickeningly hard to watch. And my instincts hadn’t prickled this time. Whatever this was, it—
“Yilan… Yilan,take my hand.”
Melek had stopped circling and backed up to find me, reaching, grasping.
I slid my hand into his gladly, but my adrenaline spiked. “What is it—”
I looked up to find his expression fierce.
Following his gaze to the window, I froze at the sight of astunningman crouched in the deep sill, poised like a cat, his head tilted coyly, chin low and eyes fixed on me, his lips pulled up into a chilling smile on one side.
“Not you,” he purred quietly, eyes locked on me. “You’remine.”
Adrenaline rocked through me as I sucked in. “Who arey—?”
The man’s gaze cut to Melek and his eyes narrowed. “Green-eyedfuck,”he muttered.
Melek suddenly bellowed in pain and snapped at the waist, tearing his hand from mine as he clawed at his chest in a way that was sickeningly reminiscent of Gault and that spear. I whirled, expecting to see a soldier behind us… but there was nothing.
I grabbed for Melek’s shoulder, hunched and low because he’d bent almost in half. “Melek! What’s happening?”
“I… don’t…know,”he snarled through his teeth. “But… he’s…” He grunted and dropped to one knee, both arms clasped tightly to his chest. “He’s fucking…Fallen!”
I was confused—had the man fallen out of the window?
But then Melek staggered to his feet, clearly still in pain, but one of his arms shot out to pull me to his side, and he snarled towards that now-empty window.
“Not your choice… to make… youfucker.”
