Page 62 of Shadow Kissed
“I am worthy. Take that back brother!” He goes on the attack swinging for me and I smile inside, knowing he is letting his anger control him, which means I could get the upper hand here.
“If you truly believe you are the strongest, then you’d take the journey our grandfather and his grandfather before him have taken and bring home a slain Somak. Just think, you’d be able to mount its head alongside all the other beasts slain at the hands of our forefathers, but I get it. It’s okay to be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid of anything,” Haysen argues. “I’ll go there today and prove you all wrong! I’ll show you and everyone why I am the firstborn son. They will sing songs of my bravery!”
I gesture behind him at the rocky mountains in the distance. “Go on then. Prove it! Prove me and all the doubters wrong.” I throw my sword down on the ground and, using my magic, I shadow weave back to my rooms in the east tower. He’d always been stronger and quicker than me, and it infuriated me to no end. Why did he have to be born first? Father was always praising him, and I’d get the odd ‘not bad’ from him if I was lucky.
Idon’t remember falling asleep. I wake to find my mother shaking me, worry and fear written across her beautiful face.
“Wake up! It’s your brother he’s injured. Badly!”
I’m suddenly wide awake and I climb out of my bed as my mother ushers me to follow her. “What do you mean, he’s injured? What happened?”
She wrings her hands together as her shadows gather to weave us there. “He went to slay a Somak. Foolish boy! Why would he do something so reckless and dangerous? He’s no match for one of them!”
My stomach dips at her words, and a wave of nausea comes over me. He tried to slay one. I’d goaded him enough that he went up there and faced one of them.
“How badly injured is he, mother?”
My heart sinks when she looks at me. Her devastation was clear for me to see. “The healers are doing everything they can, but the venom is in his system now. He may not make it.” Her voice breaks at the end and she grips the wall in the corridor and covers her face with her hands. “I feel so useless. I’m his mother and I should be able to help him and there is nothing I can do.”
I wrap an arm over her shoulder. I hate seeing my mother cry. She exudes such vibrant energy that it’s nearly impossible not to feel joy around her. “He’ll be okay, mum. Arawn won’t let him leave us.”
My footsteps falter when we reach the infirmary, and I take in the state of my brother. My father sits by his bedside, holding tightly to his hands and whispering prayers to Arawn to save his son.
“Come sit with us and pray,” mother suggests, ushering me to the other side of his bed. There is a deep gash down the right side of his face. His arm is bandaged and blood seeps through. But it’s the deep wound in his abdomen that has me inhaling a sharp breath. Mother wraps an arm around me. “Try not to look. Let’s just surround him with love and pray for a miracle.”
I reach out to take his hand and my brother’s eyes flash open, startling me. “You did this! You are the reason I’m dying!”
“No, no! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this.”
“You killed me!” my brother yells angrily, pointing at me.
“Raegal! Raegal, wake up!”
I inhale sharply as my eyes burst open. Eretreya hovers over me, concern etched in her face. “It was just a nightmare. You’re safe.”
My heart races in my chest. It felt so real. Reliving every horrifying second, like I was back in that moment. My breathing evens out as I realise it was just in my head. Eretreya leans over me, her curls brushing against my chest as she searches my eyes, her brow wrinkled with worry.
“A nightmare? I’d heard some soldiers report they had experienced nightmares, but I assumed that was because they were so close to the void.”
She bites her bottom lip nervously, and I follow the move like a hungry vulture.Taste her,my shadows whisper,touch her.“What is it?” I ask, sitting up into her space, brushing her hair behind her ears so I can see her face better.
“I’ve been having nightmares, too.”
“You have?” I ask, knowing full well that I already suspected she’d had a nightmare on the night I watched her sleep like I was some crazed stalker when we were back in Terleigh.
She nods and clears her throat. “What does it all mean?”
I shake my head with a deep frown. “I don’t know, but I must return home today as planned and report to the king.”
“The girls? Have they been found?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“Jasiel has taken a search party.” I sigh. “What do you have planned for today?”
She rolls her eyes and fuck if it isn’t cute.
“Reading, then probably crocheting, and then a walk around the gardens for the hundredth time.” Boredom oozes from her words.