Page 18 of Shadow Kissed

“I’m fine, thank you,” she assures me, straightening her shoulders and fixing her resolve. “I think it’s time I got the boy’s home. It’s getting late.”

“I’ll escort you.”

She shakes her head and holds up a hand in protest, but I’m not taking no for an answer. Someone here wanted to hurt herenough to leave her beyond the wall, and until the culprits are caught and locked up, she needs to be careful.

“How many people have you killed?” little Elian asks me as I accompany her and her brother’s home.

“Too many,” I reply. “I don’t take any joy in taking a life, but I do it to protect my people.”

“I want to be a soldier when I grow up,” the other boy, Corym, informs me and he pretends to sword fight an invisible enemy as we walk through the quiet streets of the town.

“You’ll do no such thing,” Eretreya interjects. “You get yourself a good job where the risk of dying for another’s war isn’t a daily threat.”

I study her as we walk. “You don’t approve of your young men supporting our cause?”

She frowns at me and looks away. “No. I don’t approve. This war isn’t ours. It’s yours.”

I scoff, and she glares at me. “If we weren’t here on Asen, the Flame Borne would have taken over by now and, let me tell you, things would be a lot different than they are now. They are a ruthless race, and they have little regard for the lives of others.”

“So, you say. We only know what you tell us,” she says with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. “Maybe it’s all just propaganda on your part and your people are the real enemy.”

She doesn’t have a good opinion of my kind, that much is clear. How could she? Eretreya has lived a very sheltered life and seen little of the war and the devastation caused by our enemies.

“This is us,” she says, coming to a stop at a small house at the end of the row. “I’m afraid I can’t invite you in. If you think I have an issue with your people, then trust me, you do not want to meet my mother!”

The words are no sooner out of her mouth when the door swings open and a petite woman sticks her head out of the door.

“Where have you been? Did I not tell you to stay home and stay away from the shadow folk?” She directs her words at her daughter, only noticing me when I clear my throat and take a step forward.

“My apologies, madam. Chief Veles insisted everyone attend, especially your daughter. I am Lord Commander Raegal. It is an honour to meet you.”

Her mother turns as white as a ghost and swallows. “Come on, inside. It is late. Thank you, Commander. You may be on your way now.” She ushers the boys in, and grasps hold of her daughter’s arm and pulls her into the house. “I take it you leave tomorrow?”

“The day after, I’m afraid.”

She grimaces. “Mores the pity.”

I blink when the door slams shut in my face. I hear Eretreya on the other side telling her mother she was extremely rude. But it’s her mother’s answer that intrigues me.

“You must stay away from them, Reya. They can never know you.”

As I walk away, I feel eyes upon me and just before I turn the corner, I look back over my shoulder. Reya stands at an upstairs window, watching me. For a second, our eyes meet, and my shadows leak from my hands and rush across the distance to reach for her.

“No!” I order them, using all my strength to pull them back to me. What is it about this girl that has my shadows behaving this way?

8

REYA

Iwatch the commander as he walks away from our house. I still when he stops and looks over his shoulder and as our eyes meet; I find I can’t look away. I watch his shadows leave his hands and weave across the ground towards my house but as quick as they advance, they retreat, returning to him. He shakes his head and disappears out of sight around the corner and out of sight.

My whole bedroom is covered in amethyst and obsidian. This is what my mother has been busy doing all night. She won’t explain what all of this is about. She just keeps telling me to trust her. To know that she is doing what is needed to protect me. To protect me from what? Mayla? Raegal? There’s something she isn’t telling me.

I strip out of my clothes and wash and braid my unruly, long blonde hair. Wearily, I climb into my bed. So much has happened in the last two moon rises and I am exhausted. Tomorrow my best friend and the first boy I ever loved will wed my archenemy. I hate her for taking the one thing that was mine.She has taken the only friend I ever had away from me. As I lie down, my thoughts racing, I picture the night mutts cornering Mayla over by the stables where she tricked and abducted me. I smile as I imagine the fear in her eyes as she screams for help. The mutts snarl and scratch at the ground with their sharp talons before they pounce. I shake my head, that was pretty dark, even for me. I hate the girl, but I’d never wish her dead.

Idon’t know where I am. Its dark. I can barely see the ground in front of me, but something calls for me up ahead. Around me I hear the night mutts howling, communicating with each other. They’re in a frenzy of excitement. In front of me is what I can only describe as a chasm in the atmosphere, a jagged crack running down the centre with a dark light emanating from it. I know this place. I don’t know how or why but it feels familiar.

“It’s time to return home.”