Page 72 of A Vow of Shadows

“What do you see?” he asked, his voice a low rumble.

It wasn’t possible. “It is as if someone has lit a thousand candles across the land. I can see you as plain as day. Both of you.”

Grasping his wrist, I moved his hand from one eye to the other.

Darkness.

“And now?” he asked.

I shook my head, unwilling to believe what my own eyes showed me. “Only the barest hint of shapes.”

“Remarkable.” Sam stepped up beside Evander, little more than a shadow against the night.

Evander’s hands fell away from my face and once again, I could see everything.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“It means you just got a lot more interesting, Kitty Kat,” said Sam, waving a hand in front of my face.

Batting his hand away, I huffed in annoyance. Evander continued to watch me with a mixture of surprise and suspicion.

“It’s obviously a side-effect of your mark,” Sam supplied. “Perhaps a gift from Fate.”

“I asked her to remove it,” I admitted.

Evander’s head tilted as his eyes squinted in question. “Your eye?”

“My mark! She refused, obviously. Something about how Death would come for me anyway. Pointless to give me false hope, I guess. She did mention something about there being advantages to keeping the mark. Do you think this is what she meant?”

Sam shrugged. “Could be.”

“Come, then.” Evander held out his hand. “We shall explore the full benefits of this power. From my perspective, it can only be an advantage.”

Though I felt none of the hope I’d had the first time I entered The Between, I took his outstretched hand and allowed him to lead me through the doorway.

Evander’s familiar black carriage and horses waited on the other side, silent and gleaming. I was glad they were the only ones that greeted us on the other side. I’d accrued far too many enemies for my liking. We made it one step past the barrier between worlds before Evander cried out in pain.

Chapter 45

Evander

Ierupted in pain.

Invisible blades stabbed through my gut. Fire seared through every limb. My skin ached. My clothes chafed. Even breathing became too much. I fell to the ground, hardly registering the damp earth as it soaked through my trousers. Wave after wave of pain crested and broke against me. I heaved and trembled, awaiting an end that was too long in coming.

Finally, the torture receded, and I sat back on my heels. My muscles spasmed in the aftermath, my body still trying to fend off the invisible attacker.

“What was that?” Katrin’s voice held more anger than concern, but when I looked up her eyes shone with unshed tears, with fear.

Fearforme, not of me.

The thought was enough to throw me off balance. I stumbled as I stood and Sam saved me the trouble of answering as I dusted off my rumpled pants. “He’s been resisting his duties.”

“Why would you do that?”

Katrin’s glare burned white hot, but I didn’t balk from it. I faced her head on, taking in her light and dark halves. Two sides of the same coin, one that pulled her toward death and the other life but nothing tethering her to this world. Like all, she would pass from The Between into whichever world would claim her, and here I would remain.

“Because you needed me,” I answered honestly.