The Shadow Reader

I frown, wondering if his time in captivity has screwed with his mind. Then, out of the corner of my eye, something moves.

The pole of a spear slams into the fae’s head. He drops like a rock, Lord Raen standing behind him.

“Where’s Micid?” Raen demands.

I wave a hand toward the floor behind me. “Somewhere over there.”

His jaw tightens. “He was your escort.”

“Looks like we’re going to need a Plan B.” I won’t apologize for Micid. I don’t think the ther’rothi is dead, just unconscious, either from my dagger’s poison or Naito and Evan’s attack.

“Plan B?” Raen asks. He doesn’t get it, and I’m not going to explain.

Naito walks past Raen without so much as a glance and kneels beside the unconscious fae guard. He searches his clothing, finds a set of keys on a metal ring, and pockets them.

Evan belts a sword around his waist, grabs a crossbow off the wall, then surveys the rest of the storage room. “Nice of Taltrayn to lock us in an arsenal.”

Naito takes the guard’s dropped sword. When he rises, Lord Raen steps forward.

“Kelia. I must speak with her.”

When Naito turns his back on the noble, a throb of sympathy courses through me. I don’t know what Raen did to make Naito hate him so much or to make his daughter sever all ties. It has to be something worse than just disapproving of their relationship.

Lord Raen makes a noise, then steps in front of Naito. “My daughter. I will speak with her.”

Naito’s eyes are cold. “She doesn’t want to speak to you.”

“You will make her.”

“No.” He steps around Raen.

Raen puts his arm up, not letting him pass. “You will make her.”

Naito’s lip curls. “I won’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to do.”

“There was another fae guarding this storage room,” Raen says, his tone even more threatening than Naito’s. “He’ll return, and when he does, I can delay him or tell him where you are.”

I step between the two men. “I’ll tell her to talk to you.”

Naito turns his glare on me.

“We’re wasting time,” I say. “We need to go.”

Evan surveys the storage room. “We need to blend in if we’re going to walk out of here. Cover up our skin.”

While they search the room for some kind of disguise, I turn to Raen. “Watch for the other fae. Please. I promise I’ll talk to Kelia.”

At first, I don’t think he’s going to budge. Cold, silver eyes watch Naito. The animosity in the air is almost tangible. This is hard for him, helping the human who took his daughter away.

Finally, he sighs. He takes off his gloves one at a time, shrugs out of his robe, hands it all to me, then silently walks to the door to stand guard.

“That’ll work,” Evan says, nodding at the robe in my hands. Then he holds out the dagger Raen gave me. “We haven’t exactly met. I’m Evan. I read the shadows for Aren before the Court caught me.”

“McKenzie,” I say, taking the dagger.

He nods. “The nalkin-shom. I’ve heard of you.”

I manage not to roll my eyes. “Seems like everyone has.”

He laughs and then helps me slip on Raen’s robe.

We rummage through the room for another minute. Evan and Naito find armor that covers everything but their hands and faces. I end up giving Raen’s gloves to Naito. They fit him better, and we decide he’s the best swordsman out of the three of us—I wasn’t really a contender. We find only one other glove. Evan pulls it on and settles for pulling his sleeve down over his other hand. I plan to keep both my hands beneath my robe unless I absolutely have to take them out.

Evan scratches at his beard. “That just leaves our faces.”

“There’s nothing we can do about them,” Naito says.

“Masks and hoods will draw too much attention.”

“So what do we do when someone sees us?” I ask.

“We kill them.”

I must make some type of disgruntled noise because Naito looks at me. “If we can escape without killing anyone, we will. But if we don’t have a choice—” He shrugs.

I might be turning my back on the Court, but that doesn’t mean I want anyone to die.

Anyone else to die. My gaze slides to the bloodstain on the floor, then to the glowing blue torch in the wall above it. I walk over and take it out of its holder.

“We’ll carry these. If we keep the orbs in front of our faces, the fae might not see our chaos lusters.”

“The light will draw attention,” Naito says.

“So will the edarratae,” I say, unwilling to back down on this. No more fae are going to die because of my decisions.

“We can’t see in the dark,” Evan puts in. “McKenzie, you carry it since you know the way. Naito and I will stay behind you. We’ll take care of anyone who looks at us too closely.”

Naito doesn’t argue this time. Good. We’ve already lingered longer than we should.

Lord Raen waits for us by the exit.

“Kyol will know what you’ve done,” I tell him.

He nods, his expression unchanging. “But he won’t be able to do anything about it, will he? Not without admitting who he was hiding here.”

And if the king or his lord general finds out Kyol didn’t execute either shadow-reader, he’ll be screwed. I don’t want him to get in trouble for this. Radath will be pissed enough when he learns I’m gone.

I adjust my grip on the torch. “Will you tell him I’m sorry?”

Lord Raen gives me a grim smile. “If you’ll tell Kelia the same.”

“Let’s go,” Naito mutters behind me.

Raen steps aside. “Quickly. To the left.”

Naito slides past us and exits without so much as a glance at the fae. Evan whispers a quick thank-you. I follow on their heels.

“Naito,” Lord Raen calls.

Surprisingly, Naito stops.

“If Kelia’s in Lynn Valley,” Raen says, “take her away from there. Please. The lord general intends to attack at tomorrow’s dusk.”

Lynn Valley. Oh, God, that’s where I’d been. That’s where the rebels are, or were just a day and a half ago.

“But that’s in my world,” I say.

Raen’s lips tighten. “The king is that desperate.”

Desperate enough to launch an attack in a residential area? I don’t want to believe it, but one look at Naito tells me I should.

TWENTY-TWO

THE CORRIDORS OF the basement are blessedly deserted. I lead Naito and Evan through the narrow tunnels, hoping I can get us out of here quickly. Both times I traveled to the storage room I came from the other direction. I would have turned right outside the door if Raen hadn’t told us to go left. I can only assume this way is safer, that the fae guard took the other way out.

My torch lights the way, its glow bathing the stone walls in its blue-white light. I listen for footsteps, for the rustle of cloth, the creak of jaedric armor, or a soft inhalation of air. Anything to indicate someone’s approaching. I hear nothing, nothing but the sound of my heart thudding in my chest and the occasional shuffles of Naito and Evan.