Page 159 of The Reaping Rose

“The orb tells you that?”

“It tells me many things.” Malachi smiles. “It aches for her magic. It aches for her. Wilder can bring his entire army, and it will not matter, not with what the orb will unleash. I will have what I need before the next moon, and we will finish what we’ve promised.”

“And then you will set me free?”

Malachi meets my gaze, not denying or confirming. He slips back into the shadows, perching on the stone wall. Casting illusions of himself around the realm so no one knows exactly where he is or what state he’s in.

His eyes close as he settles into his breath. The dull, matted blond strands that stick to his face are nothing like those of my brother.

He calls.

He hears.

He answers.

My shadows throw warnings in my ear of the male seated in front of me. But I cannot turn my back on him now, not when he is my brother. Not after what I’ve done.

There was a time when Malachi was not this magic-hungry creature. He had kindness in his heart. He saw the light in our realm beyond shadows, and he would remind me there was good worth fighting for.

As children, we would play in the valley below the Mantle, joking about what the gods might be whispering to Nym and Nyxia as we ran past. He swore they were telling each other all our secrets to entertain themselves. That we were but a story in a book to them.

But one day, the sky turned, and we were not paying attention. Malachi did not sense the ravagers before they descended upon us. One of them closed in fast. Its teeth tried to rip him away, even as he fought and protected me from the herd.

I knew what would happen if I reached out to save my brother. He was so full of light, and my shadows were desperate to drink his magic. They told me as much. It’s one of the many reasons Father changed the floors in the palace to obsidian, so I could not accidentally harm those around me.

But I could not let the ravagers take Malachi away. The boy made of light who saw the girl beyond the darkness. The boy who smiled at me across the room while all others looked at me with fear in their eyes.

The brother who protected me when the rest of the court would have sooner seen me strung up on the gallows for the nightmares that stretched out of my fingers, killing their loved ones while I was sleeping.

I wished they had killed me before I stole Malachi’s light. Before my fingers gripped his hand to save him from those ravagers and the shadows refused to release him.

I screamed and begged, and only then did they let him go.

Malachi did not die that day, but I felt it—the piece of his soul that Cleaved with the bite of my magic. The part of him I drank.

His good.

His spirit.

And now he is this angry, hungry creature.

A creature I helped make.

Chapter 53

Elorie

Gold runs in rivers over Letia’s skin, starting from the spot the aeraliss ring once sat on her finger, all the way up her hand and arm. It threads across her shoulder to her heart. One vein creeps up her neck, climbing her hairline and then cutting across the apple of her cheek.

Greer and I sit beside her on her bed, examining the gold veins that are unlike those of my mate’s eyes or magic. It’s liquid sunlight, streaming. Glowing. It courses through her with a pulsing current.

She flips her hand over, and I take in the fine lines on her palm. One in particular splits into many threads.

“How is this possible?” I shake my head, running my finger over the gold on her skin, finding it warm to the touch. “You’re the only one who had this reaction to the aeraliss?”

Letia nods. “Everyone else is fine. Not so much as a rash.”

My gaze cuts to Greer’s. She shrugs, not knowing what’s happening any more than I do.