A Tempest of Shadows by Washington Jane

Author:Washington, Jane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

12

Wings

I fell into a fretful sleep, jolting upright at the sound of the cellar door unlocking. A pair of golden armoured boots stepped into view, a large form momentarily darkening the lantern-lit walkway beyond. The door closed again, the lock falling back into place.

“I have to teach you how to stitch a wound,” Calder muttered. “You did a terrible job.”

I heard the swoosh of fabric as he removed his cloak, laying it on the ground beside me. He sat, his back against the wall, his forearms stretched over his knees. As my eyes adjusted, I could see the line of his neck as he stretched his head back, his eyes closing.

“You should have rested more,” I said.

He went still, his eyes flashing open. “You can speak.” He turned slowly, his golden eye searching for my face in the dark. “You used an unspoken incantation.”

“How did you know to come here?” I asked, instead of answering.

“You have enough sense in you to return to the Inquisitor instead of defecting on your duty. This is where he lives. It was an easy guess to make.”

He shifted, lowering down the wall until his shoulder was planted against the ground, his hand rising to my face. I felt a brush against my lips, the roughened pad of his thumb, before he drew his hand away. I couldn’t tell in the dark, but it seemed from his inhalation that he might be about to say something, but instead he bent his arm behind his head, returning his stare to the ceiling. I had been so desperate to actually talk to him, but the words were now slow to reach my lips. It was easier when I looked away from him, resting my head back down again on the blanket. I sucked in a deep breath and began with the most important thing.

“You said that Alina died on the day of her kongelig ceremony?”

He made a sound in answer, which sounded like a grunted yes.

“We shared a birthday,” I told him. “I turned ten the day my power exploded in the schoolyard. The day she died. Do you think that means something?”

“The Fjorn and the Blodsjel are always born on the same day. Your Blodsjel should have been born on the same day as you. It might mean something, but it doesn’t seem significant. What does seem important is that your power chose that day to surface. Had there been any bursts of energy before that?”

“No.”

“Anything at all?”

“Nothing but the curse.”

He hummed, a gravelly undertone to the sound. “The stewards were gossiping about a curse the day I discovered you.”

“My father was a sectorian, so an Eloi was called to my mother’s birthing bed to look inside me for any sign of magic, to see if I had an affinity for any of the sectors. He looked inside me and said ‘I do not sense her heart. Where it should be, there is only a storm. This child is doomed to death, and to share death with those closest to her.

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