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The Culling Assessment. Oh, how I love this day. The weak get tossed out, some interesting gems come to light, and then the fun really begins.
Basgiath vibes 🐉
I step off the side of the bridge and let my body feel the air around me, whistling and filling my lungs with shards of cold pain. The fall is greater than the Shadowless can survive—four stories. I land on my feet and the ground reverberates beneath me.
A surge of malicious magic thickens in the air, and Elias’s Shadow spills from behind his body like a shroud of black mist. A few gasps shrill from students. They feel it too. He is an unholy god in the flesh.
I recognize the hurt flickering across his eyes, the same pain that I felt the night he abandoned me. Strange, I’ve been so eager to see him again—yet my heart is callous. Only icy rage burns from the deepest chambers of my heart.
“Terra. Terra, you’re okay… You—” He examines me with weary eyes. “You’re alive.” An easy grin spreads across my lips. “No thanks to you.” He visibly flinches and his brows pull together with fierce torment. I don’t let him have a moment of reprieve. “You know, I was hunted down in the forest after we went our separate ways. I was stabbed by an assassin, only saved by the Shadow in my veins and a fickle thing called fate. I died that night, Finn. The Terra you knew is dead.”
His scent is crisp and earthy, like crushed autumn leaves or old tomes on a rainy day.
Nekane looks at me with a borderline concerned expression. “Let me guess, she wouldn’t let you kill him either.” I level him an annoyed look because he can already see the way she’s ruining my reputation as the heartless one. “No—I most certainly did kill him. She reversed time and undid it.” My old friend laughs as he grabs my shoulder roughly. “I like her already.”
Terra’s Shadow comes out first, easily, in a slow, elegant strut. It’s a feline of some sort, big enough to ride. It resembles Arthur’s wolf in that its face is a skull and the spine and ribs are the only real shape that hold the mass of black smoke together. Its eyes are two bright dots in the center of the eye sockets, chilling my bones as it looks at me.
The rows are long and tall, filled to the brim with books, candles, skulls, and bottles filled with an assortment of things. The ceilings are tall and drafty, and the distinct scent of old pages gives me an odd sort of comfort. Candles flicker with a warm glow and give off enough light to read without straining the eyes. It’s a magical little dark corner he’s found, and I wonder how he knew exactly where to look to find this section.
It’s odd, isn’t it? Smiling when you’re hurting so deeply. I wonder if it is a coping mechanism.
Black dust spills onto the snow and takes the form of the small cat. I frown. I was hoping for the larger feline form Amser took earlier. It looks up at me, seeming to read my mind, and shifts, growing in size to the same height that Velis was in his riding form. Amser’s presence is calmer than Velis’s. Not as greedy and starved. The sun has long since set, and yet it remains in control and not feral, as Velis becomes at night. Its skull is gray and the ribs and spine jut out prominently. The legs are black, only bright, sharp claws are visible, digging into the ground as Amser stretches. Cold
...more
the acclimation to the horror.
The fire within me desires her as if she’s oxygen itself.
I’ve never felt so worn down in my entire life. It’s as if I’ve been awake for weeks, not resting even though my eyes are closed.
My hands rope around her throat, but there’s no fear or disdain in her eyes. A dark and lustful grin pulls up at her lips.
The wind often whispers to me when I’m alone in this forest. I know not if it has a name or lore, I only know that the pines reach for me. They beckon to my soul and bring dreary reminders of a life I’ve long since left behind.
“I told you, time and memory are old friends. Never together, never apart. Always lonely,”
His scent of old pages and comforting tea spills into me.
“You want in? The dark isn’t for pretty little things like you, babe.” His lips coast mine softly, sending goosebumps up my arms. “I’m adept in the dark—you aren’t the first man to take me for a walk through it.” My lips curl into a soft grin.
He smells like the forest. If I shut my eyes, it’s just us, far away from everything else in this life. In a different time.
Elias’s face is skeptical as black smoke pools at his feet and Velis emerges in its small feline form. Amser wisps from my veins and joins its mate. They stand side by side and let their tails tangle. My cheeks warm at the affection they so easily show for one another.
My eyes widen as I take in his mystical room. It’s unlike the others I’ve been in at Alkrose. His room is two stories tall, a full library against the walls above with wooden catwalks, rickety railing lining the edges. No wonder he always smells like pages of old tomes.
I thread my fingers through his black hair. It’s so soft and smells entirely of him, torn pages and midnight candle wicks.
It looks like a dragon. The ribs shape its center and the knobby spine is similar to Amser’s. Raine sits at the crook of the Shadow’s neck, looking like a mere speck from down here. The Shadow has four long, crooked horns that shine with ivory points. He’s a sight to behold.
“I want you to remember me this way. As a nice guy, the one who wanted you to be safe and warm. Not the cold, cruel man you met in Barkovah. When you think of me I can only hope you’ll imagine the sky, the rush that I sent through your soul. That will be enough for me.”
“You’re more than the sky, Raine. You are the wind, the earth, the blood in my veins. I will never forget you.” I choke out the words. He responds with tears that wet my skin.
But the scent that follows… I know this scent. It’s distinctive, old books and pages, long-burned candle wicks and pencil shavings. I’m certain I’ve been here before, even though I’m also sure I haven’t.
Our Shadows greet one another like lost lovers meeting after centuries spent apart. Their dance is soft and forlorn, so much so that I feel like weeping. Arthur raises his other hand and brushes it softly across my neck, sending a shudder through me.
“That’s one thing that will never change. I’ll always be by your side, Terra. I’ll catch you a thousand times if I have to.”
“I think I know now what went wrong, but either way, you’ll have to place the blight on another soul. You have to take another’s life.” A horrible smile crests my lips. I realize now how evil a heart can truly be, how greedy it can become if the circumstances permit. Because I don’t care as long as Raine gets to live and breathe and be by my side. I will become that which I despise the most if it means he gets to live. “I’ll do it,” I say without a shadow of a doubt.
Revenge is a dark and resentful thing. Everyone says it’s never worth it, but I disagree.
“This is goodbye, baby. I should have told you I loved you at least once—”
Elias mutters behind me ominously, “You’ve just set the devil himself free.” My stomach sinks and Arthur looks at me, letting those tears fall onto his heart as he whispers, “I hate this part.”
