Page 11

“Fuck!” I yelled, shadows lashing out at the room around me, cracking the marble floor beneath my feet.

Silence answered me.

Endless fucking silence.

My breath came out in jagged bursts, sounding dangerously close to a sob as I crossed to her side of the bed.

Tears blurred my vision before I could stop them. I wiped them away with the palm of my hand.

Monsters do not cry, though I had no doubt I deserved every fucking piece of this heartbreak.

My journal lay discarded on her pillow.

I realised with a sharp twist beneath my ribs that it was the only piece of my heart I could leave behind for her.

I would finish our story, and if I did not find her before the curse took me…

She could read about how fucking hard I tried to reach her.

I shoved the journal into my carry pack along with some provisions before tearing the blood-soaked clothes from my body.

Fresh cargo pants replaced them, and I tied my shoulder cuffs into place before I slung my sword across my back in its sheath.

My chest remained bare, as was the way of Fae warriors preparing for battle.

Before I could stop myself, I reached for her pillow.

I pressed it to my face and inhaled deeply—her scent wrapped around me.

Florals mixed with sea salt and something darker. It hit like a blade to the chest.

My fingers tightened and, without thinking, I tore a strip from the slip and shoved it into my pocket.

Closing my eyes, the familiar heartbeats of Solas and Caelum whispered through the stone walls, and my shadows followed the sound at my command. They slithered through the cracks until they found them in the library.

I dissolved into shadow, and the void swallowed me whole.

Darkness clung to every part of me as I reached for the other side, commanding it to release me.

Nothing happened.

I pushed harder, trying to tear myself free, yet the void refused to spit me out.

A growl ripped from my throat, swallowed instantly by the endless dark. I shoved against it again, forcing every shred of power I had into the command.

Let me out.

The darkness finally ruptured, spitting me back into the world with a cold pain that pulsed through my chest.

Daylight poured through the high, arched windows, trickling in like melted honey over towering shelves and polished wood.

It was an assault to my fucking eyes, and I brought a hand up to shield them from the onslaught.

Dust motes drifted lazily through golden beams, utterly indifferent to the blood still drying on my hands.

How was it daylight, already?

I had been in the dungeons far longer than I realised.