Page 8 of A Court So Dark
He huffed. “You could say that.”
“Varamede didn’t hurt him?”
“Oh, you’re talking about that. No, Varamede didn’t hurt them. You were really stupid, and he hurtyouinstead.”
I wanted to argue, but Ihadbeen stupid, or so my returning memories suggested. I’d thought Varamede’s lightning attack would strike Kalyll, and I’d intervened even as he turned to shadow to avoid the strike.
Dropping the blanket, I splayed my hands in front of me and stared at them. “All that light,” I said. “It came out of me.”
“It sure did.”
“I’d never…” I trailed off.
“We’ve speculated a lot about it. Kalyll thinks it has something to do with the bit of shadowdrifter energy that tangled itself with you that day in Mount Ruin.”
I pressed a hand to my forehead and rubbed it from side to side. I barely managed to keep myself together as all the memories came at once, the realization of what I’d become hitting me like another bolt of lightning.
The energy I’d used to fight Varamede had come from the life of that poor guard I’d killed. I had taken it from him. I had kept his life force trapped inside me, unaware of it. Then I’d used it to attack with the full intention of killing once more.
Many times I’d wondered what I would be capable of for a loved one, and now I knew. I hadn’t even stopped to consider my options. But even if I had, I knew my actions would have been the same.
More than once, I had tried to shame Wölfe for his selfish behavior, for always putting his happiness first. But now I knew, I would always do the same. I would defend Kalyll, my need to be with him, to love him and cherish him for as long as I could, over anything else.
“He’s right,” I said. “His shadowdrifter energy changed something in me.”
“He explained. You can still heal and give life, but you can also take it away.” As he frowned, he examined his hand, the one I had drawn energy from.
“I’m not useless in a fight anymore.” I gave him a sidelong glance.
He smirked.
“Where is Kalyll now?” I asked.
Kryn winced at the question. “A lot has happened.”
“How long was I out?”
“A week.”
A week. It both seemed like a long time and a short time. I had been lost in an endless limbo, and it had seemed like an eternity while I tried to claw my way out from the brink of death. Seven days was nothing in comparison.
“I should have died,” I said.
Kryn didn’t argue with that. He simply nodded. “Silver… he froze you. No one could heal you. How did you…?”
I nodded toward the flowers. “I drew their energy. It was so hard at first. It took a long time, but as I got stronger, I was able to do it faster and faster.”
“That’s why Larina had to keep replacing them.”
I turned my head and realized they’d moved the bed in front of the window, which was open, a tranquil moonlit night stretching far into the distance above Elyndell.
My feet dangled over the side of the bed. Kryn offered me his hand. I took it and slid down to the floor. He steadied me, although he didn’t look much better than I felt. I’d taken a lot from him—enough to make him look as if he’d just gotten over a bad flu.
“Seven days, then,” I said. “What did I miss?”
Kryn winced again.
“That bad?”
