The Dark Between Dreams | ✔️

Chapter 22 🔻 What the Blind Man Saw

The crows, now pacified, settled on the hollow's shoulders. Slowly, that evil red light faded from their master's eyes.

He could've killed me.

But...he'd held back.

"Why are you still here?" the shrouded hollow demanded.

There were groans from the other side of the galley as Webb and Vale pulled themselves up.

I grabbed onto a pipe and used it to haul myself to my shaking feet. "We want to see your memories, Crow." I told him. "I believe you, that you can't remember what happened-what you did. But we can help you remember. We need the truth." My wound healed shut. But my shivering didn't stop. "And I know that, deep down, you also want to know, too."

Crow flinched, ever so slightly, at that. He touched a hand to his chest, exposing his branded arm. "You want to see into my heart." His grip tightened on my spear.

Nannāru pecked his face. "I will pluck out all of your feathers, and when they regrow, I will pluck them again!" he snapped at her. He shooed her away, and she flew up to the network of pipes along the ceiling, cackling. "I do not understand why, but my stupid bird trusts you," he said without looking in my direction. Then he sneered beneath his hood. "Are you even certain that the dark prince has a heart at all?"

"We'll find out," was my answer.

The corner of his mouth curled up in a ghost of a smile. He looked amused-charmed, even.

"Aren't you curious, Crow?" I pressed. "Don't you want to know what happened in those ruins you and Blackburne found?"

Crow leaned against my spear for a long moment as he mulled over my words. Webb and Vale found their weapons again, but they maintained their distance from the prince. We kept him surrounded, though I knew now that would do us a fat lot of good.

Finally, the hollow man reached a hand out and felt around until he found the corner of a countertop, then the metal booth affixed to it. He sat down, one leg crossed over the other. He held out my spear to me, returning it. "Very well," he said. "But know that if you kill me doing this, my birds will spend all of eternity pecking out your eyes."

Every single crow pointed their sharp beaks at me and clacked them hungrily. I swallowed, definitely not intent on spending my afterlife being Prometheus'd by a bunch of crows. I accepted my spear. "Fair enough."

Then the prince removed his hooded cloak. Black, windblown hair fell free. It looked like it hadn't seen a brush in decades-like a very literal bird's nest. And there was his face in plain view. Behind his hair, dark purple shadows and crow's feet surrounded his stark white eyes. No rest for the wicked, evidently. But as I peeked closer at his eyes, I realized they weren't completely white. They were...swirling, like shimmering colorless galaxies.

At first, I was too captivated by the blind man's eyes to notice his clothing. He wore the drab, tattered apparel typical of hollows. But above that, draped over a shoulder and wrapped across his body, was some kind of exquisite flowing cloth. Crow took special care to pull back the sapphire blue shawl that was spangled with an intricate pattern of golden suns and lined with gold fringe that glittered like treasure down a bit, exposing his chest.

I squared my shoulders and raised my chin as I approached the prince. My spear never felt as heavy as it did then. This was my idea-my duty. I would need to make my cut as small as possible, and as fast as possible before the prince bled out. Easy enough.

Crow leaned back, resigned and perfectly unbothered by the blades pointing at him, with a smirk on his face...like he didn't think I had the guts to do what needed to be done.