Page 36 of Daughter of the Dark

Chest heaving, Solana pushed the muki to the side and rolled out from underneath it, onto her hands and knees. She crawled over to Reyes, who was sprawled on the base of the stairs, and tugged at the hem of his cloak. The muki he had been fighting was pressed against the wall, its back to her, hands tangled in the rope around its neck. Its eyes were darting around the room, opened so wide that she thought they might pop right out of its head.

“Reyes,” she whispered. “Are you alive?”

He pushed up onto his elbows. “I am,” he said between breaths. “Disappointed?”

But Solana couldn’t tear her eyes off the small muki that was twitching sporadically, as if fighting to stay awake. Like a child might fight sleep. “The elixir, it’s not—”

The door above creaked open at the same time a glacial grip wrapped around her ankle and yanked. Reyes caught her before her chin could slam into the stone floor and pulled her between his legs. He kicked out and Solana heard a horrific squelch. The muki that she had fought was wriggling closer, its movements jerky and horrifying.

“Isabella, no!” she heard from the top of the stairs.

“Command them, Solana! Now!” Reyes’s voice rang out over her head. His arms were wrapped around her, shielding her body from the muki, giving her the chance to sink into herself and dig past the terror and panic to the core of her that recognized these creatures, that shared in their suffering. Time slowed, and she felt for that tether. Sighed when she found it coiled tightly beneath her fear.

She let everything go, let it unfurl and unspool and grounded herself in the knowledge of what she had to do. What she could do. Though it should feel unnatural, nothing had ever felt so easy.

“Stop,” she said, the word a whisper of breath. A stroke of thought. “Stay where you are.”

Immediately, the clawed hands digging into stone ceased. The room fell into an unnerving silence. Reyes’s heat radiated at her back, leashing her to him as she felt the cool, slippery pull of the dark. She had commanded it, but it recognized her power and whispered back.

Ñakapana.

A tingle across her scalp. A hand on her neck. A caress at her ear.

“Solana!” Reyes’s voice punctured the haze, dragging her back to the terrifying present. “Breathe,” he commanded, and Solana gasped, again and again, greedily sucking in lungfuls of humid air.

From above, she heard the sound of muffled sobs and gentle shushing. A kind of grief Solana had seen many times over. A square of dim light illuminated her and Reyes, but beyond them, on the edge of darkness, sat two frozen muki melding into the shadows, the rapid rise and fall of their chests the only sign they were still living.

They were small and unbearably thin, jagged bones protruding through stretched skin. The one that had attacked Solana had tufts of hair sprouting from its head. They were smaller than Alina. Smaller than Solana had been when she lost her mother.

Children died all the time in the callejon. Rationally, Solana knew that, but not once had she seen them come back as muki. Whether the curse spared them or they were content to remain in Uku Pacha, it wasn’t clear, but facing them now, seeing their distorted bodies and grotesque features, Solana had never felt so angry.

Bile rose in her throat, but she swallowed it down. Later, she would be angry with Reyes for keeping her in the dark about this. And then she would consider what she had done, the way she had felt while doing it, how she could do it at all. What kind of gift could give her control of the dead?

For now, she untangled herself from Reyes and pushed to her feet. His hand stayed pressed against her thigh, steadying her as she turned and met the eyes of the man and woman whose children she had come to collect.

The woman met and held her gaze, fear and disgust and curiosity swirling. “What are you?” she whispered.

Solana was shaking her head, an apology on the tip of her tongue that she swallowed down. “I don’t know,” she said instead.

Reyes got to his feet and blocked her view of them. He murmured something she only half picked up, and then he was facing her again. Solana was lost in the chasm of her thoughts, in the questions and the possibilities and the terror of the unknown.

I am Solana Grey, she reminded herself. I am not a monster.

But the words rang hollow, and the anger inside of her was a rising tide she couldn’t stem.

Reyes grabbed her hand and pulled her up the stairs and through the house, out into the cool night that did little to soothe the fission of her soul. Nikolas and Oskar stood outside. Waiting for them, she realized. They nodded at Reyes but studiously avoided her eyes.

“Dose them again,” Reyes said, voice quiet but firm. “And bind them well.”

Then Reyes pulled her past them and back to their horse. Solana allowed herself to be dragged, her thoughts scattered to the winds, except for one.

“We can’t do this.” Solana yanked her hand out of Reyes’s and stopped in the middle of the street. He turned and glanced at the house and placed a hand in the middle of her back, guiding her with gentle but firm pressure farther away from listening ears.

“This is the right thing,” he finally responded. “They’ll be safer in the castle, and these people can heal and live again.”

It felt like she was losing her mind, like she was the only one with doubts and questions and concerns. All those muki under the castle, all of their unresolved lives. “Those were children, Reyes. Small, innocent lives that are trapped and suffering, and you want to leave them just like that. How long will they rot below the castle before something is done?”

“Lower your voice,” Reyes demanded. He pressed forward, forcing her to step back, and lifted an arm to brace against the horse, effectively caging her in. “This gives them hope, Solana. Something that they likely lost a long time ago. Let them have it, even if you do not.”