One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)

by Rachel Gillig

He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and smiled at me, a touch of absence in his gray eyes.

THE MAIDEN Be wary the pink, Be wary the rose. Be wary of beauty divine, unopposed. Her thorns will grow sharp, She’ll eat her own heart. Be wary of beauty divine, unopposed.

“I’d call an admission of treason exceptionally forthright for one day, Miss Spindle,” he whispered.

“The Old Book says magic sways, like salt water on a tide. I believe the Spirit is the moon, commanding the tide. She pulls us in, but also sets us free. She is neither good nor evil. She is magic—balance. Eternal.”

Here, in the wood, he was just a man in a black cloak seeking repentance.

“The truth is,” Ravyn said, patting his horse, “there is darkness in all of us. We don’t need The Old Book of Alders to tell us that.

It felt… raw. Honest. Something I was deeply unfamiliar with. It had taken Ravyn Yew, Captain of the Destriers, my supposed natural enemy, to make me realize what I truly, deeply wanted. To stop pretending.

I wrapped my arms across my chest, retreating into my mind, searching for courage. But I felt only darkness.