Page 25 of Taken By Shadows

Chapter seven

Astorm was simmering in the winds and the clouds were pregnant with torrents overhead, glooming in the night’s inky sky.

My bones ached. My muscles had frayed. I hadn’t moved the entire time he’d held me as he flew. The feel of his hands on me tripped a cascade of confusing ripples through my mind. Some pocket of my thoughts was still stuck on the fact that he’d intervened when others were attacking me. But as my arms were still tied around him, bound by his magic, I was afraid to feel anything other than disdain for the fae who had abducted me.

But his body was hard and carved from pale onyx, and after hours of being pressed up against it, it was difficult to not lean into his warmth. The night air was cold, and he was entirely too easy to nestle into; his warmth scorched me until my core heated. I blamed exhaustion for allowing myself to be cradled in his arms and not fighting him with every breath.

We landed and as soon as I could stand by myself, his hands fell to his sides, and he didn’t touch me. But my wrists were still pinned around his neck. I suddenly felt far too close to him, and my eyes darted from his.

Without moving, the shadow bonds came free, and I took a step back.

I knew he was watching my movements. I was an insect in a spider’s web. Every shift I made plucked the strings of his senses.

My eyes whipped to everything around me. “Where are we?” My voice shook. I hated it. The tremor was like the shudder of an earthquake, a portent of far worse devastation to come.

“We will walk the rest of the way.” His jaw was set as he tracked my movements.

I released a ball of tension that had been sitting in my gut. At least he wasn’t going to carry me again.

But it wasn’t an answer. I followed his eyes as they fell to the great stone walls far off behind us, the barbican gates illuminated by flickering torches.

Hundreds and hundreds of lights of the walled city twinkled against the stygian night. It was like a thousand stars clustered together for warmth. The glow of the city was star-bright blue and pale yellows. The glimmering lights bobbed softly like they were breathing the aura of the night around them. That unmistakable pulse of magic that I could now feel from the stranger next to me was mirrored in some way in the glint of the city.

But the stark reality of how I’d gotten here shut down the flutter inside me.

“What are you going to do to me?” My voice trembled as I spoke.

Maybe this was it. Maybe there was no future for me outside Shadowfall.

I thought of Bray. Dead or alive. I didn’t know. Maybe I’d never know. I didn’t even know where I was. Where had he brought me? I scoured my mind for clues. Walled cities? There were so many in the Four Corners that it was impossible to tell anything about the prison before me. Maybe that’s all this was, a prison. The walls of my future.

“I will not hurt you. But I need you to do as I say. We are going to walk through the gates. And when we cross the guards on duty, you will be demure. You will be by my side. You will not scream. You will not call for help. You will behave.”

Each command was like a stone in my tomb.

I regarded the tall fae before me. Did I have a choice in that? He’d already carried me off somewhere unknown and then flown me halfway across the Four Corners.

Maybe he would kill me if he couldn’t get what he wanted. He’d killed those men, and he didn’t even flinch.

The sword he’d used was still sheathed at his back, and the jewel pommel flashed in the moonlight.

“And if I do none of those things?”

Maybe he needed me badly enough, needed the faebane badly enough, that I was worth more to him alive.

“I cannot fly us over the city walls. The ward against magic stops me, or at least would cost me if I flew us over. But in answer to your question …” He took a step closer to me, leaning in until his dark hair fell over my brow. “If you aren’t the picture of serenity and submission.” He placed his finger under my chin and tilted my head upwards. “Look at me.” He paused until I forced my eyes up to him. “I will bleed every single person you speak to.” His words tripped out of his mouth like silk. A caress. “I will cut them down before they can raise a hand to help you. And their blood will be on your hands. Not mine.” His voice was hushed as it fell on me, and I shivered at the power in it.

Terror mingled with an unwelcome heat that flooded through me, reddening my cheeks.

He looked at me for another moment, testing if I’d taken in his words at all. And then he released my chin from the unnatural angle he held it at.

My body was warring with staying still or fleeing.

I could take a chance. I could run. I might not get far. But it was better than being walked to my prison cell.

He pushed back his hair, smoothing it after the hours spent flying through tangled winds. It was hard not to look at him in the moonlight. His cheekbones stood out in stark relief against his dark hair. That long scar that ran through his eyebrow to his cheek looked wicked in the silvery light. His chest was carved out where the laces of his leathers had opened.

He was strikingly beautiful. And I hated that I thought that. It felt like a betrayal of myself. To not wholly hate the male who had taken me just because he was nice to look at. I’d never really used that word to describe anyone before. But he was beautiful. And just looking at him was dangerous.