Page 95 of Shadow Kissed
“Holy Mother Goddess!” I exclaim, and Saveya’s eyes dart up from her own book to see what caused my outburst. I stare at the drawing. It’s a flag and on that flag is a large black star surrounded by smaller gold stars. I scan the text below the image that advises that the image is the insignia of the NightBorne. A representation of the starry skies that adorn the skies of the Night Realm. Below the image on the flag are the words ‘Omnes Tenebrae’. The author advises the words are the motto of the realm, and they mean ‘Darkness prevails all.’ Why does my mother have a hanky with the Night Realm symbol on it?
“What is it?” Saveya asks, stretching her neck to glimpse at what has me so shocked.
I look over at her as she waits for my response. I want to tell her, to share my fears and thoughts, but can I trust her? Whenever I’ve trusted girls my age before, it has brought me nothing but hurt. My eyes dart around the library. As it is early, there’s only one other girl from central dorm here, sitting over reading by the large fireplace.
“If I tell you something, can you keep it a secret?”
Saveya looks intrigued, then she nods firmly. “Of course. Your secrets are safe with me, Reya. You’re my best friend.”
My heart squeezes in my chest at her words. “Okay, I know this is going to sound crazy. Trust me, it still sounds crazy to me.” I glance around once again before looking back at her. “I think my mother may have been Night Borne.”
Saveya blinks, tucking her chin into her neck. “Night borne?”
I nod my head, waiting for her to laugh and tell me I’m loopy and she doesn’t want to be associated with a nut job like me anymore. “Explain?” she says, leaning in closer. I don’t want to risk saying it across the table, so picking up the book, I dart around to where she sits and take the seat beside her.
“When I left Terleigh, I went through some of my mother’s things, and found a hanky hidden at the back of a drawer in a little wooden container.” Saveya looks unperturbed. “The hanky had this symbol embroidered into it alongside some initials.” I place the open book in front of her and point at the image. “Under that symbol were the initials A B D. Why would she havesomeone else’s initials on a hanky with the insignia of the Night Realm?”
Saveya scrunches her nose. “Perhaps someone gave it to her, but that doesn’t explain the stars. Unless whoever gave it to her had read up on the Night Realm and just liked the star design and embroidered it onto their hankies.”
I consider her theory and bob my head. “Maybe, but there’s more. I’ve never told you this, but just before the mutt attack on my town, I ended up beyond the wall after sunset and a pack of mutts cornered me.”
She pales. “You were outside the walls. Why?”
“Some girls I used to go to school with played a prank on me,” I say, squaring my shoulders. I’m embarrassed to admit it to her. “They kidnapped me and left me tied to a tree out in the woods.”
Saveya inhales a sharp breath and her mouth gapes open. “Reya, that isn’t a prank. That’s attempted murder. How? How are you here and not a dried-up corpse?”
“Raegal and his men found me, but ever since the mutts picked up on my scent out in the woods, they have been tracking me and they followed me all the way here to the valley and they won’t leave.”
Saveya scoffs. “It’s probably just a coincidence.”
Since she isn’t convinced, I decide to reveal more. “Remember a couple of weeks back when the soldiers launched a fire attack at the mutts?”
She nods her head, clearly confused about where I am going with this. “That was the same night that I was in agony and feeling like I was being burned from the inside outwards. As soon as the attack stopped, my pain faded.”
“A coincidence?” she suggests with a shrug of her shoulders.
I sigh and lean in closer. “Last week in combat class, remember when Shalia was fine one minute and the next, she was screaming about rats?” Saveya nods. “I’d been watching herflirt with the Lord Commander, and well, it got my back up and, well, I think I put that image of the rats into her mind. Don’t ask me how because I’m none the wiser.”
Saveya takes in a sharp breath and grabs the book she has just been reading. “It talks in here about the Night Borne powers. They could enter a person’s mind and find their deepest fears and project them to the person as if they were real.”
I gulp. The more I learn, the less my crazy my theory is starting to sound.
Saveya stands up and starts picking up books from the pile in front of us. She scours through them until she finds one and sits back down.
“Here, I knew I’d seen it somewhere. A history of the royal family of Vespera. Vespera is the Night Borne name of their realm,” she explains to me as she flicks through the pages. “There!” she says, pausing on a page and turning it around to show me. I look at the page and it’s a family tree and at the very bottom of that tree is a name that she points me towards.
Asterin Briar Darkhand.
The hairs on my arm stand to attention.
“ABD,” I say, and Saveya nods her head.
“The daughter of Kymil Darkhand, the last reigning king of Vespera.”
We both sit there in stunned silence for a minute. “Saveya, tell me I’m crazy and that I’m putting two and two together and making five.”
Saveya chews on her bottom lip and shakes her head at me. “I wish I could, but I think as crazy as it sounds, you could be onto something.”