What Hunts Inside the Shadows (Of Flesh & Bone, #2)

by Harper L. Woods

“I love you. In this life or the afterlife, my star. I will always wait for you.”

“The life you’ve lived would demand that. Those who have been taught to expect the worst tend to do just that.

My emotions were too intense, leaving me with the unsettling feeling that I wasn’t in command of them anymore. They would break me and consume me, tearing me apart from the inside and leaving me only a piece of who I’d been before.

“Magic always has a cost,” Caldris said, dropping one of his hands from mine and reaching up to cup my cheek. “Which is why you take it slow. Build up the resistance to what it takes from you and strengthen it like a muscle. You must be stronger than the magic you call to you, otherwise the cost could be your life. Do you understand?” he asked, and I swallowed back my trepidation.

“I am going to love you until the stars disappear from the night sky and the sun ceases to shine. Until the world returns to the void from whence it was born and chaos reigns once again.”

“Until chaos reigns and eternity begins anew, and for every moment after,” I said, turning my attention to our laced fingers. Golden threads twined around the backs, squeezing them together until I gasped in pain. The threads cut into my skin, the red stain of blood trailing down Caldris’s skin in the same way. “My soul, my heart, my flesh, and my sword are yours, and if ever there should come a day when your heart ceases to beat, I will follow you into the Void.” He twisted our bound hands, letting my blood glide across my flesh to touch the edges of his. The moment the first drop touched his blood, the golden threads tightened suddenly and then burst out in a sudden wave of light.