Cloak of Night (Circle of Shadows #2) - Evelyn Skye Page 0,67
enough to push her over the brink to unconsciousness.
She held her side and curled into Wolf, tucking herself into the space against his chest, away from his healing belly. “Wolf,” she whispered, answering him. “We’re okay. We’re going to be okay. Just . . . rest.” Her eyes fluttered, tempted to close.
Something shimmery darted through the trees. Fairy sat up, as excruciating as the movement was. At first, she thought it was a beetle, but then it landed right in front of them.
“One of Spirit’s messenger rays,” she said.
Wolf stirred beside her, but he didn’t say anything. She didn’t know if he was still awake.
Fairy’s hands shook. Would the message explain why her gemina bond had gone dark? What if it was a distress call? She fumbled with the tiny paper and only managed to get it open after four tries.
Fairy read aloud, in case Wolf was listening. “‘We have Prince Gin’s soul. But Broomstick fell in the Lake of Nightmares, and he’s not quite himself.’”
It was suddenly hard to breathe, and she didn’t know if it was this news about Broomstick or the knife wound in her side. Or both.
She forced herself to keep reading Sora’s message. “‘We’re going to Paro Village to recover. If you can fly, please meet us there, and bring Liga. Maybe he’ll know how to help.’”
Fairy collapsed against Wolf’s chest. The swell of relief and distress, combined with the pain of her wounds, was too much. Broomstick was alive, thank the gods. But what had happened to him in the Lake of Nightmares? No wonder Fairy’s gemina bond had gone blank.
Wolf shifted and stretched his leg to wrap around her. “We’ll go . . . soon,” he said.
She wanted to believe it. But she also knew things could end badly if they tried to travel while hurt like this. “We’re no good to them, no good to Kichona, if we’re dead.”
“Sleep, then,” he said. “When we wake up, we’ll . . .”
Wolf didn’t finish what he was going to say. And it didn’t matter anyway because Fairy could barely hold on to consciousness either. The pain of her wound and her anxiety over Broomstick conspired against her, and like weighted curtains, her eyelids fell closed.
At first Fairy thought it was a dream, because the space around her was a vacuum. No colors or sounds. Neither hot nor cold. Just a black abyss, sucking Fairy deeper and deeper into its depths.
Until suddenly, her bare feet touched sand. Or what seemed like sand, soft and cool between her toes. Everything remained black, but Fairy reached her arms around her. Her fingertips landed on smooth walls.
A moment later, beautiful emerald light appeared a short distance away, sparkling to reveal the tunnel she stood in.
“Where am I?”
A whisper beckoned from the end of the tunnel. Come, young apprentice. You did not get to be a warrior in life, but as a reward for your service to Luna, you can play with more powerful magic in death.
“Oh gods.” Panic fluttered in Fairy’s throat. This wasn’t a dream. “I’m dead.”
Except . . . wait.
The Dragon Prince had said he stole Sight from the afterlife without actually dying. So Fairy wasn’t dead yet, not until she stepped across to the light.
The green glitter was mesmerizing, sparkling like millions of shards of emeralds. Warmth blossomed from the end of the tunnel, and the magic smelled of all of Fairy’s favorite things—crushed lavender and rose water and rock sugar—like the most perfect bubble bath ever to be drawn.
Fairy walked slowly toward it, stopping on the threshold.
The promise of otherworldly joy sang to her, and she leaned hungrily toward it. Maybe this was why Prince Gin was so obsessed with bringing the Evermore to Kichona. He knew there were things much greater than ordinary life, and he wanted them. Just like Fairy wanted to luxuriate in that green light now.
Do not be afraid, the afterlife whispered. Those you loved in life will follow you in death when their time comes.
But another voice in the back of her head called to her. “Fairy, it’s not your time yet. . . .”
The sensation of a pair of arms latched on to her as if in an embrace. Was it Wolf from the other side, his demigodness somehow allowing his voice to follow her here? Fairy’s heart pounded so fiercely it echoed into the afterlife.
She remembered that she was still needed in the world of the living.
An idea flickered in Fairy’s head. She could steal the knowledge