The Shadows of Starlight

Chapter Two

Kye Merran

It's just past midnight when I reach Callan's farmhouse and begin pounding on the door. The sound of my fists on wood echoes in my ears; the ground sways beneath my feet, threatening to give way.

The door opens. Callan appears before me, brandishing an ax. He raises it instinctively upon seeing the two bloody swords in my hands, but then he pauses, somehow recognizing me despite my terrible appearance. My shirt is soaked with crimson. Half of my face is covered in blood; one of my eyes is wholly obscured, while the other must still burn golden.

I move to enter the house, but I stumble, bracing a numb hand on the doorframe before Callan moves to help me. "We thought they killed you," he says brusquely, though I hear something like relief in his voice.

"They tried." My voice is hoarse, raspy from disuse. I don't know how long it took me to get back here, don't even remember, nothing but the present. At least a day. Probably more.

"Not hard enough, clearly." Callan grabs my shoulder, staining his own hands red, and pulls me forward, half-holding me up. "Come in before you collapse and stain my porch with all your blood."

He pushes me gently into a chair, his too-familiar eyes still flickering all over, assessing my wounds. "You need to let go of the swords."

I shake my head, still struggling to speak and get my bearings. My head pounds; I feel oppressively heavy.

Deft hands curl around my shoulder. "What the hell happened to you?" Lucine appears in my fragmented vision, brows creased at all the blood.

"What do you think?"

"I told you not to go," she snaps.

"I had to."

Her face softens for a moment, then hardens once again. "Though she's feeling better, Quinn is not expending her energy on healing you. So you can kiss your pretty face goodbye."

Lucine's expression changes when I merely nod. She sneaks a glance at Callan, who is rifling through a cabinet, searching for medical supplies. "How...did you see her?"

I nod again. I can hardly get the words out. "I watched the wedding. She—"

Looked like a ghost. Looked lifeless. Looked like a Queen. Looked lovely, as always.

Lucine glances at the floor. "We'll get her back."

No matter what.

Reluctantly, I lean Val's swords against the table next to me, my breath still coming heavy. Lucine's eyes catch on the blades, then widen as she recognizes them. "How—"

I cut her off as Callan approaches us. "Later."

She nods, taking the swords in her hands. "I'll clean them for you."

All I told Callan before leaving was that I had to go to the city to scout things out, see it for myself. If I told him about Val marrying the Dark King, our shared but tenuous trust would be shattered.

When we ran into him by the Alba River, he proposed a mutually beneficial, albeit vague, deal. You help us and we'll help you.

Maybe I was a fool, agreeing to work with him after everything that happened with Queen Aithne in Trivette. But Callan shares Val's family name—Tenebris. He's related to her, somehow. So I can't help but find myself inclined to trust him. And truthfully, there wasn't much else we could have done—stranded in the cold, unfamiliar with the terrain, Quinn unconscious...what other options were there?

Callan places a basket on the table and hands me a wet cloth to press to my face. "See if that wipes the dried blood away."

I press the cloth to my face and wince, dread winding tight inside me. Everything hurts too much to tell exactly how bad I've been injured. It takes me a few agonizing minutes, but I manage to scrub the clotted blood away so that the cut bleeds freely once again.