One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)

by Rachel Gillig

The Shepherd King had made seventy-eight Providence Cards in descending order. There were twelve Black Horses, held exclusively by the King’s elite guard—the Destriers. Eleven Golden Eggs. Ten Prophets. Nine White Eagles. Eight Maidens. Seven Chalices. Six Wells. Five Iron Gates. Four Scythes. Three Mirrors. Two Nightmares. And one Twin Alders.

The Black Horse made its beholder a master of combat. The Golden Egg granted great wealth.

The Twin Alders had the power to commune with Blunder’s ancient entity, the Spirit of the Wood.

“It’s the nice ones you should look out for,”

Find out. How am I supposed to do that? Best stick to the old ways. Which are? Pressing a bloody ear to the door, I should think.

Just because they talk too much doesn’t make them idiots. That’s precisely what it makes them.

“Hauth broke your wrist, Ravyn mangled his hand. Balance.”

But it felt incomplete, my collection yet whole. And so, for the Nightmare, I bartered my soul.

“But that would mean I absorbed your soul when I touched the Nightmare Card. Which makes you… the Shepherd King.”

Had I known they’d be the last words I’d say to him aloud, I might have chosen them differently.