Twisted Shadows: Twisted Magic Book 5 by Kaye Rainy

Author:Kaye, Rainy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

11

On the other side of the passageway, inside the consortium chamber, the statue spun to life. The second woman, all warm flesh and alive, shifted her eyes slowly side to side, as if listening to a sound I did not hear. Then her attention slid to me.

“Kadar is dead,” she said.

It wasn’t a question. I wasn’t sure if she had somehow seen the fight with the mage play out, sensed the lack of his life force, or simply picked up the deep abyss of hopelessness in my chest.

I had no doubt horror and dread had painted my features a sickly color.

Muscles taut, I nodded, but barely. I wanted to speak—I wanted to be brave—but when I even thought the words, my eyes watered.

“I need to go home,” I said at last, my voice small. “Please.”

I didn’t really have a plan from there, but I needed to be with my friends, with the people who had become my family. Here, in the pocket world for the consortium, I was alone.

I didn’t want to be alone.

“The mage still runs free.” For a statue, her features had taken on a sour expression. “You are the quorum now. You must hunt.”

The urgency in her voice was unmistakable, but I pushed it aside. She didn’t need to tell me how dangerous it was letting the dark mages continue to play unchecked. I’d made my understanding of the situation clear in my time here.

Right now, I needed to go home. I needed a moment to be more human than a hunter was allowed to be.

“There are three left,” she said.

I paused the words on my tongue, reshaping them into a firm but polite sentence: “I know.”

If she had not been fused into a statue, she would have tipped her head. Her curiosity rolled over me in a thick wave.

Had she ever been human?

What was the consortium?

By the far wall, near the exit door, stood the painter and the keys. They did not speak, but watched the exchange with guarded expressions.

“When will you hunt?” the woman asked from her post. “You are our hunter.”

“I need…sleep,” I said, lamely.

How could I explain to a statue that my soul had shattered in more ways than even I could understand just yet?

Besides, it wasn’t a lie. I swayed in my spot, my vision going in and out, as I struggled to remain straight, to remain conscious.

Without a word, she let out a long puff of air, streaming a white cloud that billowed out and separated into a floating fog. It bobbed in an unseen breeze as it drifted toward me.

I stepped to the side, tense, ready to run.

The cloud eased toward the floor and dissipated. In its place a stone dais rested on the ground.

A passageway.

“It will take you home,” she said. “Rest. Then hunt.”

Of course. What else could I do?

My shoulders sagged as I started for the passageway.

“Wait.”

I looked up as Amari stepped forward. “We’ll go with her.”

The statue spun as the woman turned to stone and the first man came to life.

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