Page 65 of Queen of Whispers and Mist

She loves me.

CHAPTER21

SHADOW

It was as if everyone waited for Ronan to fall unconscious before giving in to the worry they were feeling. Bast let out a heavy exhale, Caly shot pointed glances at her crew, and Shadow slumped over his still form.

Calling the fight sloppy would have been a kindness. She’d witnessed better battle strategies involving broken liquor bottles and slingshots. To be fair, there hadn’t been much of a strategy. Just fervent prayers and a reliance on instinct she hadn’t needed to employ in nearly a decade. It was a vast difference from the sort of careful choreography she usually employed. There’d been none of her usual finesse, just a desperate need to protect the people who’d only found themselves on the receiving end of Erebos’s wrath because of her.

True, it wasn’t her fault she was here, but the High Lord never would have gotten involved with any of them if not for her. It wasn’t fair that they should die due to sheer proximity.

Right, Shadow. Becauseproximityis the only reason he’s hunting you and Ronan. It wouldn’t have anything to do with jealousy. Or the fact that he wants you to be his Lady, and instead, you’ve all but thrown yourself at your captor. Or would-be captor. Does it still count as kidnapping if you don’t mind the fact that you were stolen in the night?

Shut. Up.

She did not have time to get into an argument with herself right now. Part of her recognized that panic was the reason for her mental tangent. It was easier to focus on nonsensical details rather than the very real threat looming over them all. Ronan could quite literally be dying in her arms, and she didn’t know how to save him.

When he’d started to topple over, she’d only just reached him by sliding across the forest floor on her knees. It wasn’t like he’d had far to fall, seated as he’d been, but she’d simply reacted without thinking. Now the bulk of his upper body was supported by her arms, and she was loath to release him. At least like this, she could feel the still steady beat of his heart against hers.

“What do we do? Is he going to make it?” Sebastian’s face was creased in a deep frown, his gray gaze stormy when it met hers over Ronan’s shoulder.

Shadow tried to keep her voice calm. “I don’t know. We don’t have access to a healer, let alone the kind of supplies to deal with a wound this serious.” If they were back in Glimmermere, she would know exactly how to proceed, but out here in the middle of No Man’s Land? She hadn’t a clue.

“This is all your fault.”

She jerked back, her arms curling protectively around Ronan’s torso. “My fault?”

He waved his hands around, reminding her of birds taking flight. “If you hadn’t taken my little speech quite so literally, this never would have happened.”

“Maybe you should be less convincing next time,” she snapped. Because fuck it all, it had been his words she’d heard when she’d stared up at the trees and a plan had taken shape. She didn’t know where the instinct to climb had come from, only that her body had known exactly what to do. She’d felt at home in the trees in a way she couldn’t recall ever feeling in the palace.

A shudder worked its way down her spine as another forest superimposed itself over the trees before her, the tropical fronds replaced with ancient conifers. She blinked, Sebastian and the others’ worried faces swimming back into view and rooting her firmly in the present.

“Bast, that’s not fair,” Calypso chided gently. “Shadow’s quick thinking is likely the only reason we survived. We were not remotely prepared to battle that creature.”

There was a flicker of something in the back of the captain’s gaze.

“What aren’t you saying?” Shadow asked.

“The whole thing just seemed odd to me. Why sneak up on us and then just watch and wait? It’s like the thing wanted us to come up with some sort of strategy first.”

“It was reporting back.”

“How? Why?”

Shadow didn’t know exactly how Erebos controlled his creations, only that he was linked to them in a similar fashion as Buttercup and Jagger. What they saw, he could see. What they heard, he could hear.

“He’s playing with us,” she realized, speaking the thought aloud at the same time it occurred to her. “Erebos wants me back. Alive. So these monsters he keeps sending, they’re a distraction—”

“Monsters? You think he was behind the Lusca attack?” Caly asked.

“It tracks,” Bronn said quietly. “Both creatures had the ability to shadowmeld. Have you ever known a Lusca to do so?”

Jagger and Calypso shook their heads.

“It’s his specialty,” Shadow admitted, thinking of all the other times she’d seen him craft fantastic beasts out of nothing more than twilight. “It’s how I realized he was behind it.”

“He likely won’t stop until he has you. If he can manifest a Lusca and drake...” the captain trailed off.

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