Shadowfall: Immortals Descending Book Two by Iris Foxglove

Author:Iris Foxglove [Foxglove, Iris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Belladonna Press
Published: 2023-01-23T18:30:00+00:00

PART II

The Magician

CHAPTER 9

Of course he was gone.

Arwyn really should have expected it. Declan’s mood had been dark, though not in the way it had been when he’d arrived on Arwyn’s ship. The cause was clearly something other than Arwyn himself, which was a pleasant change. But that didn’t make up for his having stolen Arwyn’s wyvern—never mind that she’d originally been Declan’s—and flown off into the night.

Despite his lack of surprise, Arwyn was far from pleased to find Declan gone. His crew knew immediately that something was wrong, and they made it a point to stay out of his way. He walked about the ship, restless and waspish, and only Iola had the nerve to approach him.

He was standing at the railing on the starboard side of the ship, scanning the horizon as if waiting for Declan to come back, and that was almost as infuriating as the fact that Declan left in the first place. Iola marched up to him and cleared her throat, chin tilted and hands on her hips.

Arwyn turned, and her near-imperceptible wince let him know his true form was pressing at the edges of his borrowed humanity. “What,” he snarled, and he heard the Well in his voice, the echo of stones and moss and deep, dark water.

Iola took a step back, then tilted her chin up even higher and fixed him with a look. “Do you want to go after him?”

“After who?”

“You’re not serious.” She stared at him.

He stared back. “The wyvern is a she.”

“You don’t care about the wyvern.”

He did, which was something of a surprise, given that he wouldn’t have thought he cared about much of anything. But he shrugged one shoulder, forcing his mood to even out as best he could, struggling to keep the creature from the Well buried down deep. He tried smiling, but she blanched, so he gave up and said, “The wyvern is fine with Declan. And no. I’m not chasing after him like some lovesick fool.”

“Mmm,” she said. “So do you want to go after the wyvern, then?” The way she said wyvern made it clear she still meant Declan.

“I said no,” Arwyn snapped. He couldn’t seem to get himself together, too many … emotions … making him feel as if he were a rope stretched thin, only seconds away from breaking. “But there is somewhere I need to go.”

The call of the Well was too strong. He knew he needed to return, but he didn’t want to, and he refused to entertain the idea he was doing it because maybe Declan was headed there on Stella, but a visit would at least help him keep the tide of his true nature gentled enough that he could—

Could what? Go and find him? You don’t have desires, Avarice.

The voice felt like a bell echoing in his head, and he said, before he could think it through, “Make for the Lighthouse.”

The Lighthouse was an old structure near the farmland islands where Declan’s family lived. It wasn’t functional; it had toppled into the sea and was mostly underwater.

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