The Court of Less by Lanne Garrett

Author:Lanne Garrett [Garrett, Lanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YA Fantasy Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group
Published: 2023-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The morning came wrapped in shadows. The night had given me peace for once. I hadn’t dreamed of death at my hands. There were no screams of terror or pleas for mercy to rattle my dreams and leave my throat raw. I had slept deeply, with Solas at my side and shadows dancing in the corner. He had stayed through the night and into the morning, waking me before he left to deal with court business. Once he left, the shadows covered me.

“You’re never that far away.” I rolled onto my back and stared up into the nothingness that surrounded me. At times, I’d see the night. Other times, it was a void of various shades of black, always moving against themselves.

“No, we’re not.”

“Are you Zephyr, or are you shadows?” I asked.

“Shadows. You’ll learn to tell us apart. He comes as a force, with a wind that burns or freezes, depending on why he’s coming. We come as night. You never really notice us until you’re already in the dark.”

“I don’t feel that when Zephyr is around,” I answered. “He feels familiar, like home.”

“You are bound to him. He’ll always feel that way to you. But trust us when we say, to others, he feels like death pushing against the front door… Frozen terror.”

“If he’s at their front door, they deserve why he’s not bothering to knock.” I sighed at who I knew he was, deep inside. He was hell and fire and dread, but he was my friend for better or worse. I breathed in the smell of rain and forest. “Why do you cry?”

“We do not cry.”

“You smell like tears,” I answered. “And you feel like sadness.”

“We smell of you,” they answered.

“I’m not sad.”

“You will be.” They moved tighter around me.

“Why?”

“The court business Solas left for. It is about you. It will hurt you.”

“Doesn’t it always?” I sighed.

“Do not let him hide you away or shelter you. You deserve the truth. Anything less is just another prison in Elphame,” they said, and I grinned just a little to know they had been spying and bringing me back information.

“Does Zephyr know you spy on everyone?” I asked.

“Not always,” they answered. “But for you, we share willingly.”

“Has Solas been lying to me?” I asked. My heart palpitated.

“So far, not that we know of. Today, however, there was an omission of truth. Keeping you from the truth, that is a lie wrapped up to look pretty. But those are the lies that hurt the most,” they answered. “Do not allow him to keep your truths away from you. We live and die over less in Elphame.”

Before I could ask more questions, the shadows pulled from me. Zephyr always called them back. He never let them stay away for too long. I wondered how often they spied for him as they did for me. And did Zephyr hear what they said to me? He didn’t mention it, but I also didn’t hear anything I shouldn’t have known. I dressed and made

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