The Beckoning Shadow by Katharyn Blair

Author:Katharyn Blair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

The night is cool on my face as I walk, and I run my hands through my hair.

Elisa’s dead.

That changes things, and it changes nothing.

Perhaps that’s why I feel like shit. Or, more than I did already.

It felt like no contest to choose my family over Sam’s ruined relationship. It was still a messed-up choice, and so distinctly terrible of me to sit and decide whose heart hurts worst—whose pain deserved relief, as though fissures in the soul could possibly be quantifiable like that.

Not just dead, but dead and, by the looks of it, killed by the Wardens.

I mean, there’s a chance she maybe just likes aconite buds. They’re pretty flowers. Or she was super into killer botany or something.

I stop at a stoplight.

Or she was killed by the Wardens, and investigating her death could mean poking at something that shouldn’t be poked.

I step over a green grate in the sidewalk that’s engraved with a smiling mermaid and past a bakery that still has seating outside despite the frigid temperature. I pull my jacket closer as I realize I’m no longer headed back to Duncan’s. I can’t sit still right now. Not with all this bouncing around in my mind.

My dad told me that my ability to stay alive rested on how well I feared the Wardens.

Yet I find I’ve just stepped into a mystery that has them written all over it.

I stop walking, looking up at the puffs of my breath as they swirl in front of the light from the streetlamp.

I could just go back to Duncan’s, keep my head down, and not mention Elisa again. After all, she’s not my problem. Sam isn’t my problem. I want to win the tournament, take the unraveling for myself, save my family from what I’ve done, and then disappear.

So why can’t I just do that?

I close my eyes as the answer washes over me.

Because I care about him.

I want to help him figure out how he got this thorn in his heart. I don’t want to walk away and leave him with nothing.

I don’t know how long I wander the streets.

When I open my eyes, I’m surprised to find I’m closer to the Grotto than I thought. Across the darkness, nestled into the black leaves of trees, a small light peeks out from the lighthouse.

Sapphira.

A small light beats up against the darkness at the railing of the lighthouse, and my feet move before I can change my mind.

“How are your hands?” Sapphira asks as I open the rusty door. She doesn’t even bother to look back and confirm it’s me.

“Fine,” I answer, stepping up to the railing and taking a seat next to her. I barely notice the shiny red skin on my palms anymore. It’s nothing compared to the shredded feeling in my chest right now.

“Long walk from the MMA gym,” she says, handing the spiced wine over to me.

“I wasn’t at the MMA gym,” I reply, taking a pull of the warm liquid before handing it back. I turn to look at her.

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